IE's 071 Class.

Oscar Bravo

Probably mentioned here before but heres the current status of the Class.
087-Withdrawn,Parts used for remainder of class,ready for scrap.
078-Major Overhaul.
085-Confined to Inch.(Recently got the doors off 162)
074- at Inch awaiting new Bogies.
Of the rest,all are in daily service,however rusting is a problem.072 and 088 have also replacement doors off 141's,cleary seen as there still in orange.081 has aswel,but have been painted black.077 and 084 faiding by the day....

(Note 216 is also at Inch stripped of parts and will more than likely not be out again).

corktina

sad to think of any of these fine locos being scrapped. The one Portillo rode sounded good.

Judgement Day

It's essential that the surplus locos be cannibalized and scrapped ASAP to prevent them from falling into the hands of any private freight operator daft enough to dip their toe in the Irish railway scene.

corktina

SOme up to date photos wouldn't go amiss...

Oscar Bravo

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

(Note 216 is also at Inch stripped of parts and will more than likely not be out again).

I think it's criminal that ANY 201s are stopped, potentially withdrawn. The 071s have at least had 35-odd years of good use. The 201s haven't even had half that.

Maybe the ITG will need to look at 071s for preservation soon. It's a shame the candidate will probably just rot in Moyasta though.

Oscar Bravo

225 is being rebuilt after its crash last year,but slow work.201-205,210-214 are started twice weekly and are in perfect condition.If you noticed Enterprise 201s on liners recently its because theres nothing else available(loco wise).

CIE

Judgement Day wrote: »

It's essential that the surplus locos be cannibalized and scrapped ASAP to prevent them from falling into the hands of any private freight operator daft enough to dip their toe in the Irish railway scene

Yes, heaven forbid that the state be shown to be in any way inefficient when it comes to running the railways.

Oscar Bravo

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

225 is being rebuilt after its crash last year,but slow work.201-205,210-214 are started twice weekly and are in perfect condition.If you noticed Enterprise 201s on liners recently its because theres nothing else available(loco wise).

I've a friend in IE who works in the train radios section. He says the radio systems are being updated on the 201s at the moment, but only on the in-service locos. I suppose it's hardly a terminal issue for the others.

gsxr1

One passed me today while I was in Malihide station. Tara. It had a red light about 500m before the station on the up road. So when it got the green it came into the station accelerating hard.

Dear god .. the noise was unreal. It shuck the whole station...
I thought to myself . He must have used my weeks allowance of van diesel in just 500m.

Rud

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

225 is being rebuilt after its crash last year,but slow work.201-205,210-214 are started twice weekly and are in perfect condition.If you noticed Enterprise 201s on liners recently its because theres nothing else available(loco wise).

Great to hear about 225 but a great shame to hear about 216 and 087.If the orange 201s that you mentioned are in perfect condition,why aren't they been brought out of hibernation and put on the liners rather than The Enterprise locos?Is it just down to the paintjob?

Captain Chaos

I thought 204 was a gonner. It was in the middle of the 141 scrap line for a very long time while all the other stored 201s were inside the depot. Before the 141/181s were withdrawn IE had already planned to reduce the 071 fleet to 12. So the 6 listed above look like the first to go.

corktina

why are they rebuilding 225 when they have stored locos in perfect condition that would be cheaper to prepare for service than mending a broken one?

Losty Dublin

225 is fitted for push pull services so it can run on Dublin-Cork services, the stopped ones can't.

corktina

i know that but the gear could be transferred to an operational engine from a crashed one presumably

Losty Dublin

It could be done but you'd need to strip out fit the push pull equipment, commission both back into traffic and still needing to overhaul the other loco before putting it into storage or just overhaul the one and be done with. The stopped loco's are all ones which can't run push pull so it's probably easier as options go.

corktina

No you would only need to commision the converted loco. You strip the other for parts and scrap it.

Jehuty42

I suppose selling the surplus locomotives is out of the question? The non-standard gauge probably rules them out, but they are just BR Class 66's underneath(I think) and those are found all over Europe these days.

An idea I had in my head was that a small fleet of 201s should be equipped with Scharfenberg couplers and kept in strategic locations so that a failed DMU (or EMU) could be quickly removed from the mainline. Not sure this would work all that well though, since the costs of moving them back to Inchicore periodically for maintenance checks would add up to a lot of "dead" miles, and crewing the trains would inevitably be a problem . The more practical problem of course is the lack of capacity on the network- there are practically no headshunts or sidings left, nowhere a loco could be left, nowhere a failed train could be easily dumped

As far as the 071s go, I guess they can settle into permanent-way duties and slowly rust away. Permanent way operations are a lot less loco-intensive than they once were now, with the use of dedicated self-propelled units and multi-purpose vehicles and so on. The 071s must be close to full withdrawal now?

corktina

I saw a TV ptrog recently (about Stripping Giants I think) which was about a scrapyard in the US breaking GM locos and they were getting phenominal amounts for the parts (six figure sums for an engine iirc)

selling them in bits would certainly be an option if the value as parts for our running fleet is not important.

roundymac

Was the push pull an add-on or were they ordered that way. If they were order why was'nt all of them ordered like so?

Losty Dublin

They were specifed upon order, so far as I know but they can be retrofitted handy enough. There are cables and electrical equipment that operates the various systems on board from a cab elsewhere on the train. When they were ordered, there was need for them to work the mark 3 PP units to replace 121's and the Enterprise units so some loco's were fitted and some weren't.

201-205 and 210-214 were from the first batch which could not operate push-pull services, well not officially anyway. The push-pull gear is the same as that for multiple working so it would technically work, the non-retractable buffers and couplers are meant to be the main problem.

206-209 were from a later batch - I believe the reason for the numbering discrepancy is so their names and numbering would mirror those of the GNR steam locos Liffey, Boyne, Lagan and Foyle.

corktina

Judgement Day wrote: »

It's essential that the surplus locos be cannibalized and scrapped ASAP to prevent them from falling into the hands of any private freight operator daft enough to dip their toe in the Irish railway scene.

what future for the stored 201s then?:mad:

Captain Chaos

corktina wrote: »

what future for the stored 201s then?:mad:

Perway trains and thunderbird duties when all the 071s are gone. Possible tara trains if the Navin branch gets upgraded to take them all the way to the mine.

Jehuty42

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Perway trains and thunderbird duties when all the 071s are gone. Possible tara trains if the Navin branch gets upgraded to take them all the way to the mine.

I think the problem is actually with the traverser in Dublin at the end of the spur being too short for a 201.

Captain Chaos

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Perway trains and thunderbird duties when all the 071s are gone. Possible tara trains if the Navin branch gets upgraded to take them all the way to the mine.

The main problem with running 201s on the Taras isn't to do with weight; it's that the the traverser in the Alexandra Road depot cannot take them. It had to be modified to take 071s when the A class was withdrawn, I believe the 201s are too long for it.

Edit: Beaten to it, haha

Jehuty42

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I remember hearing that the Tara mine is almost exhausted these days, so that traffic may not always be around?

101sean

It's OK until 2015 IIRC from something I was reading the other day.

Jehuty42

101sean wrote: »

It's OK until 2015 IIRC from something I was reading the other day.

Sounds right, that is very close at hand though.

dowlingm

Even the 071s would have loads of time left if run on a North American railroad I'd say - the willingness of IE to let these vehicles literally rust away is unreal. Even if the traverser issue was fixed, there would still be the matter of axle weight limits - even if IE was stupid enough to risk the implications of shutting down bits of the network left decay out of limits without an 071 to haul perway trains, surely NIR would not be similarly stupid keep their 111s around and thus be available to borrow as sometimes happens on the Tara? On the other hand, NIR are the clowns who bought the Gatwicks...

Losty Dublin

They were bought with the intention of a usable lifespan of 30 years. They are now well over that and that includes their running at close to 100% availability for the majority of their working life, knackered bogies aside. Considering that the majority of their number are still in active service and the lessening duties for them, it's been some performance from them. It will certainly be a pity to see them all retired when it comes to it but the figures sadly are beginning to add up against them.

As for their NIR cousins, I'm mildly shocked they can even move at times

dowlingm

Losty Dublin wrote: »

They were bought with the intention of a usable lifespan of 30 years. They are now well over that and that includes their running at close to 100% availability for the majority of their working life, knackered bogies aside. Considering that the majority of their number are still in active service and the lessening duties for them, it's been some performance from them. It will certainly be a pity to see them all retired when it comes to it but the figures sadly are beginning to add up against them.

As for their NIR cousins, I'm mildly shocked they can even move at times

I hear what you say Losty but presumably there's not going to be replacement dosh for a while and the 201s aren't go-anywhere locos...

Jehuty42

Fairly Interesting scene in Connolly, what looks a failed 201 hauled by an NIR 111 down to Connolly and then getting ready to be shunted away by an 071.

gsxr1

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Fairly Interesting scene in Connolly, what looks a failed 201 hauled by an NIR 111 down to Connolly and then getting ready to be shunted away by an 071.

Was that today? I seen that also , again in the way through Malahide station.

Lad in the driving seat on the IR train was loving the lift. Spurred a few jokes

Oscar Bravo

It was today,112 hauled 227 to Connolly,and 076 took it to Inchicore,where it was started after a short time.

Judgement Day

Where are they storing all these locos in Inch - it was a straight track through the station the last time I was on the Rosslare train?

foggy_lad

Judgement Day wrote: »

Where are they storing all these locos in Inch - it was a straight track through the station the last time I was on the Rosslare train?

The rosslare train goes through Inch?

Niles

foggy_lad wrote: »

The rosslare train goes through Inch?

Yep. Inch station closed in 1964. Happen to live about a mile or two away from it myself. As the old joke goes, there's only an inch between Arklow and Gorey!

Mayo checker

hopefully 112 might be sent down here to do a few liners and timbers but it mite not happen anytime soon as they mite need 2 locos when they start work on the derry line later this year. after that .i would love a 111 class to venture down here .....

topnotch

dowlingm wrote: »

Even the 071s would have loads of time left if run on a North American railroad I'd say ...

Definately,
Found this video earlier shows what can be done.

http://www.nationalrailway.com/national_geo.asp

Judgement Day

I seem to remember back in the days of Paul Conlon's tenureship at CIE that all sorts of engineering work was going to be carried out at Inch Inchicore - including outside contracts. Apart from repairing some church gates were any other contracts won? Losty?

Rud

Mayo checker wrote: »

hopefully 112 might be sent down here to do a few liners and timbers but it mite not happen anytime soon as they mite need 2 locos when they start work on the derry line later this year. after that .i would love a 111 class to venture down here .....

Did a 111 class loco not work some of the Taras last year?

Losty Dublin

Judgement Day wrote: »

I seem to remember back in the days of Paul Conlon's tenureship at CIE that all sorts of engineering work was going to be carried out at Inch Inchicore - including outside contracts. Apart from repairing some church gates were any other contracts won? Losty?

I've no idea and what church gates are you on about?

Judgement Day

Losty Dublin wrote: »

I've no idea and what church gates are you on about?

It was in Rail Brief years back - I didn't keep it. Do you know if they ever got any other outside work?

Losty Dublin

Judgement Day wrote: »

It was in Rail Brief years back - I didn't keep it. Do you know if they ever got any other outside work?

Nope, sorry. I know the company undertook some consultancy work and they almost landed a big contract for the Chunnel, that's all I know of.

Hungerford

Mayo checker wrote: »

i would love a 111 class to venture down here .....

They seem to be quite regular visitors already given how often the Enterprise 201s go pop.

dowlingm

At one stage the 111s were supposed to be made pushpull compatible so they could operate the Gatwicks and the DBSO they bought for it. Did any work actually get done on them?

Niles

dowlingm wrote: »

At one stage the 111s were supposed to be made pushpull compatible so they could operate the Gatwicks and the DBSO they bought for it. Did any work actually get done on them?

I'm open to correction here, but in the case of the mkIII p/ps the push-pull system was based on the multiple working system in the IÉ GMs. It would have made sense to NIR to convert the DBSO from whatever system BR used to the GM one, rather than go to the trouble of converting three 111s to the BR system. I'm guessing it would have allowed for 201 operation as well.

Then again I shouldn't really be using the word 'sense' in a discussion about NIR's DBSO... :rolleyes:

Mayo checker

Hungerford wrote: »

They seem to be quite regular visitors already given how often the Enterprise 201s go pop.

YES they might be regular enough up that part of the country but im hopin to see them work a liner or timber down here in mayo
hence my name mayo checker:)

connolly and inchicore are a good bit away from mayo

any news on the whereabouts of 084 ?

Mayo checker

Rud wrote: »

Did a 111 class loco not work some of the Taras last year?

ya i believe there was a workin on the taras but 112 did a few timbers from waterford to ballina/westport a few years ago so i guess never say never for a return down here some day

Niles

Niles wrote: »

I'm open to correction here, but in the case of the mkIII p/ps the push-pull system was based on the multiple working system in the IÉ GMs. It would have made sense to NIR to convert the DBSO from whatever system BR used to the GM one, rather than go to the trouble of converting three 111s to the BR system. I'm guessing it would have allowed for 201 operation as well.

Then again I shouldn't really be using the word 'sense' in a discussion about NIR's DBSO... :rolleyes:

Yes, the IÉ GMs use a modified AAR system for push-pull, it's the same system as used for multiple working but also contains door control commands. I've no idea whether the Mk2 DBSO was wired for AAR or TDM.

Mayo checker wrote: »

ya i believe there was a workin on the taras but 112 did a few timbers from waterford to ballina/westport a few years ago so i guess never say never for a return down here some day

Yes, it did work a Tara last year after spending some time in Inchicore for maintenance.

Jehuty42

Mayo checker wrote: »

YES they might be regular enough up that part of the country but im hopin to see them work a liner or timber down here in mayo
hence my name mayo checker:)

Let me guess, you support the WRC, right?