The Emerald Isle Express

The_Wanderer

Railtours Ireland Emerald Isle Express. Pictures from Day One which went from Connolly to Rosslare Strand now online at http://smu.gs/10eIIUc

The train then used the mothballed South Wexford Line to stable in Waterford overnight.

The Wanderer.

lord lucan

Really liking that new livery on the cravens,much better than the all blue livery they originally went with. A whole set in that livery would look the Business!

man98

Someone's managed to make Enniscorthy look nice? What sort of wizardry is this? It also ran empty over Rosslare - Waterford. Could this become a regular occurrence if this tour is a success?

Judgement Day

man98 wrote: »

Someone's managed to make Enniscorthy look nice? What sort of wizardry is this? It also ran empty over Rosslare - Waterford. Could this become a regular occurrence if this tour is a success?

An annual event perhaps or at least until the South Wexford is no longer passed for empty stock movements.

corktina

It surely needs to be more frequent than that to be worth doing.

ClovenHoof

The CIE heating van...shocking. The rest of the train beautiful.

roundymac

Were there "proper meals" like in the old CIE days served on the train or was it just snacks and the usual garbage like pannini's and wraps that are uniqely Irish fare nowadays?

Judgement Day

Judging from these pics from the Irish Railway Modeller site, I think that more than snacks were on offer: http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/3589-Emerald-isle-express?p=56231&viewfull=1#post56231

The_Wanderer

Evening all,

Photos from day two of the Railtours Ireland "Emerald Isle Express" (Waterford to Cork) are now online at http://smu.gs/10eIIUc
Pictures are from:
- Fiddown
- Ballinderry
- Clonmel
- Nicholastown
- Kilmallock

Enjoy,
The Wanderer.

The_Wanderer

Evening all,

Day Three of Railtours Ireland "Emerald Isle Express" travelled from Cobh to Killarney.
Click http://smu.gs/1thDheq to view.

For the other odds and sods from Killarney, Cork, Mallow, Glounthaune & Cobh click http://smu.gs/1E0wcqU

Enjoy!
The Wanderer.

Grandeeod

There were 50 spaces available. Whats the actual loading like?

Losty Dublin

Grandeeod wrote: »

There were 50 spaces available. Whats the actual loading like?

Why don't you contact Railtours and ask them how they fared?

The_Wanderer

Evening all,

Day four of Railtours Ireland "Emerald Isle Express" operated from Killarney to Ennis. Pictures of the train from Killarney and Stagmount.
Click http://smu.gs/Zwmr4a to view.

The Wanderer.

corktina

Grandeeod wrote: »

There were 50 spaces available. Whats the actual loading like?

26 it has been said

Grandeeod

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Why don't you contact Railtours and ask them how they fared?

There's no need to be a smart arse about it. I addressed the question to a person on thread, who was on site photographing it. I want to know because I'm interested in how successful it was. So perhaps you should keep your paranoia to yourself, because its obvious your remark is purely based on anticipating something negative.

demanufactured

Just passed through athlone heading for West Port

The_Wanderer

Afternoon folks,

I ventured to Connolly yesterday evening to see the finale of the six day Railtours Ireland "Emerald Isle Express".
Click http://smu.gs/1xdqM7s to view and click http://smu.gs/1EgI6wX to view the 112 photos from the past week. I look forward to the September 2015 tour.

The Wanderer.

Judgement Day

Thanks for the pics relating to the tour - much appreciated. However, it only brings home to me that this is the sort of operation that CIE/IE should have been doing for years. Stock (MkII and/or MkIII) should have been retained for this very purpose but the dinosaur that is the company is incapable of anything innovative except spin.

metrovick001

084 on Galway-Westport empty railtour between Kilconnell and Ballinasloe 03-Oct-14 by metrovick, on Flickr





084 on Galway-Westport empty railtour near Lecarrow 03-Oct-14 by metrovick, on Flickr

Losty Dublin

Judgement Day wrote: »

However, it only brings home to me that this is the sort of operation that CIE/IE should have been doing for years. Stock (MkII and/or MkIII) should have been retained for this very purpose but the dinosaur that is the company is incapable of anything innovative except spin.

Railtours do tours which are fairly similar this all of the time, only without hiring out a chartered train and in this case, on a more expensive level. No reason why Irish Rail should go to the expense of entering into what is a limited yet cut throat market.

Grandeeod

Judgement Day wrote: »

Thanks for the pics relating to the tour - much appreciated. However, it only brings home to me that this is the sort of operation that CIE/IE should have been doing for years. Stock (MkII and/or MkIII) should have been retained for this very purpose but the dinosaur that is the company is incapable of anything innovative except spin.

You are dead right JD. With the amount of resources at their disposal, there is no reason why they couldn't have explored this kind of tour and made money from it.

Losty Dublin

Grandeeod wrote: »

You are dead right JD. With the amount of resources at their disposal, there is no reason why they couldn't have explored this kind of tour and made money from it.

It wasn't that long ago when a few souls cried foul when Irish Rail spring cleaned some Mark 3's for an IRRS rail tour. Now a few souls suggest Irish Rail should do the same thing only on a grand scale and with no benefit for bread and butter passengers.

man98

Losty Dublin wrote: »

It wasn't that long ago when a few souls cried foul when Irish Rail spring cleaned some Mark 3's for an IRRS rail tour. Now a few souls suggest Irish Rail should do the same thing only on a grand scale and with no benefit for bread and butter passengers.

It does indirectly benefit. More money for IR is a good thing, even if it is €100,000 or whatever profit could be made.

end of the road

Losty Dublin wrote: »

It wasn't that long ago when a few souls cried foul when Irish Rail spring cleaned some Mark 3's for an IRRS rail tour. Now a few souls suggest Irish Rail should do the same thing only on a grand scale and with no benefit for bread and butter passengers.

well, to me at least, much of what they do isn't to the benefit of the bread and butter passengers, but to operational convenience, all though i know i'm cynical at the best of times. for what its worth i had no problem with the carriges being spring cleaned for that IRRS tour, god knows when that happened last.

goingnowhere

So 26 people showed up for this trip and folks want a full Mk3 executive set brought back to life?

Looks like IE made a good call to get out of the business

Losty Dublin

man98 wrote: »

It does indirectly benefit. More money for IR is a good thing, even if it is €100,000 or whatever profit could be made.

Assuming it makes a profit and covers it's set up costs, that is

Judgement Day

goingnowhere wrote: »

So 26 people showed up for this trip and folks want a full Mk3 executive set brought back to life?

Looks like IE made a good call to get out of the business

So you're comparing the marketing reach of a tiny organisation like Railtours Ireland with that of CIE/IE?

CIE/IE get out of every business in case you haven't noticed.

It hardly takes a quantum leap of imagination to see that a dedicated set (or sets) of carriages could be used for a variety of purposes apart from Tourist specials but I really can't be arsed to spell it out for you.

ClovenHoof

CIE have used billions of Irish tapayers money to make an art form of out Planned Obsolescence and Industrialised Entropy.

If they were baby sitters the kids would die of neglect. Then they would tell the parents they didn't want their own kids.

Jamie2k9

Back in 2015

http://www.railtoursireland.com/train-tour/The-Ireland-8-Day-Rail-Land-Cruise-and-Castle-Tour/st2014/

Rashers72

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Back in 2015
http://www.railtoursireland.com/train-tour/The-Ireland-8-Day-Rail-Land-Cruise-and-Castle-Tour/st2014/

Did you see the price ? :eek:

ClovenHoof

Price is worth it.

The_Wanderer

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Back in 2015

http://www.railtoursireland.com/train-tour/The-Ireland-8-Day-Rail-Land-Cruise-and-Castle-Tour/st2014/

Has been advertised since the start of the 2014 one

trellheim

ouch to that price

LXFlyer

trellheim wrote: »

ouch to that price

The tour participants are having full board in 5 star hotels around the country, along with their own private train for a week.

Do you seriously think that's going to be particularly cheap?

The_Wanderer

lxflyer wrote: »

Do you seriously think that's going to be particularly cheap?

Some people obviously do!

But I do know, from chasing the train and talking to the passengers on the train at Mallow and during a night out in Killarney that they had a whale of a time.

Grandeeod

Losty Dublin wrote: »

It wasn't that long ago when a few souls cried foul when Irish Rail spring cleaned some Mark 3's for an IRRS rail tour. Now a few souls suggest Irish Rail should do the same thing only on a grand scale and with no benefit for bread and butter passengers.

Only spotted this as the thread was revistited.

There is FA comparison between a cleaned up MK3 IRRS tour for rabid spotters/enthusiasts and a dedicated luxury tour aimed at tourists. Nor should you even bring the "bread and butter" passenger issue into it. CIE Tours International have done this **** for years on coaches and it is not beyond any reasonable comprehension to expect IE itself to investigate the possibilities of doing it by train. However, a private company has decided to take the initiative and I have no doubt that they will make a success out of it, despite the fact that IE could have explored the possibility themselves.

Despite the negative feedback of CIE on these forums, they had the marketing power to do this themselves.

Cookie_Monster

lxflyer wrote: »

The tour participants are having full board in 5 star hotels around the country, along with their own private train for a week.

Do you seriously think that's going to be particularly cheap?

It seems reasonable enough to me tbh. It's not cheap but any stretch of the imagination but you do get a lot for your money.