Antonov 225 landed at Shannon today

n97 mini

The world's largest aircraft. For those of us old enough to remember, Irish Rail flew a loco across the Atlantic in an An-124, the second largest, in June 1994. Tax payers' money put to fairly poor use, but no doubt someone will justify it.

Sterling Archer

That's an An-124. .. It was the An-225 in Shannon today

n97 mini

Shane_ef wrote: »

That's an An-124. .. It was the An-225 in Shannon today

You're spot on.

BonkeyDonker

n97 mini wrote: »

ThTax payers' money put to fairly poor use, but no doubt someone will justify it.

Paid for by GE I believe to meet contract deadlines. Plus the Antonov was free and heading back to Europe empty so a deal was struck that worked for both parties.

L1011

As above, taxpayers money wasn't spent at all on it - it only happened as Irish Rail were enforcing contract penalties on General Electric. Had it not happened Irish Rail would have likely got some cash in penalties from GE but that's not quite the same as spending tax revenue!

BeardySi

Surely this is akin to a thread about a 181 when a 071 has made the news? Created just for a moan at IE?

n97 mini

L1011 wrote: »

Had it not happened Irish Rail would have likely got some cash in penalties from GE but that's not quite the same as spending tax revenue!

It can be viewed as get some of the tax payers' money back as a penalty, or settle for a locomotive in an Antonov!

BeardySi

n97 mini wrote: »

It can be viewed as get some of the tax payers' money back as a penalty, or settle for a locomotive in an Antonov!

An all the free publicity it brought.... People are still talking about it many years later...

goingnowhere

n97 mini wrote: »

It can be viewed as get some of the tax payers' money back as a penalty, or settle for a locomotive in an Antonov!

It was General Motors not General Electric

GM were behind on the delivery dates and the only way to get the locomotive to Dublin on time was to fly it, they looked at a USAF Galaxy but wasn't up to the job. 201 was out on its own a matter of days after arriving and was in revenue earning service shortly afterwards on the morning Dublin Cork train.

IE was desperately short of locomotives at the time so any cash penalty paid would have been of no help and would have been pocketed by Kildare Street which had a habit of intercepting money on its way to CIE. GM also had eyes on the European market so could not been seen to fail.

end of the road

n97 mini wrote: »

Tax payers' money put to fairly poor use, but no doubt someone will justify it.

more stuff from your head again i see. what do you think they should have done instead of flying a loco that was needed to dublin that was otherwise delayed, using a deal that suited all parties.

metrovick001

Loco was required for driver training. When the rest of the class arrived they hit the high iron immediatly after shakedown due to drivers being passed to drive the class thanks to 201!

h.gricer

n97 mini wrote: »

The world's largest aircraft. For those of us old enough to remember, Irish Rail flew a loco across the Atlantic in an An-124, the second largest, in June 1994. Tax payers' money put to fairly poor use, but no doubt someone will justify it.

It wasn't paid for by the tax payers, a myth that has been spin for years, it was paid for by General Motors at the time. The contract which was signed, promised delivery of the first locomotive by a certain date in June 1994, if this didn't happen, then it was a breach of the contract. When GM realized that this wasn't possible to get the locomotive to Ireland by the contract date, the only way was to fly it over, they did so at GM's expense, all the other stuff about publicity stunts and ''tax payer money'' is all nonsense.
Regards
h.gricer

h.gricer

Wednesday 15th June 1994, 201 did it's first run in service, working a trial Heuston / Cork, less than a week after it arrived.
Sunday 26th June 1994 it worked it's first freight train, when it worked the 14.05 Marino point to Shelton Abbey laden ammonia 6 tanks 2 water barriers, Derby Sunday at The Curragh, it turned a lot of heads at the races when the new General Motors locomotive crossed The Curragh.
Regards
hg

L1011

n97 mini wrote: »

It can be viewed as get some of the tax payers' money back as a penalty, or settle for a locomotive in an Antonov!

Only in an unrealistic alternative universe.