201 Class Locomotives

Solair wrote: »

the 22000 DMUs, which to be honest, make a hell of a lot more sense

their not far off idling on some routes to be honest, their capible of 100 mph? but can't get no where near that speed, yes they offer quicker stopping and starting times + quick turn arounds but they can't reach their full potential, their nice trains but sometimes i think buying the amount they did was a waste now as their operating short haul routes in some cases, they can't be configured for demand like loco hauled carriges, and no more services will probably be introduced, really the 2800s and 2700s should be operating short haul routes instead of 22000s but i have a feeling the 29s can cover most short haul routes out of dublin, the 2600s are operating out of cork, the 2800s are operating services out of limerick + other non-dublin commuter routes. the 2700s will suffer the same fate as the mark 3s. the mark 3s short service life and scrapping is a scandle but unfortunately it can't be undone. i believe irish rail should have been forced to focus on improving speeds before been given funding for new trains but we are where we are now.

comradestalin wrote: »

Surely a 22000 can be configured just as easily as a set of carriages can - send another set from Inchicore and hook it up, problem solved ?

they can only be in 3 and 6 car formations + 2 sets of 3 cars, their are some stations which can't take 6 cars but could take 5 or 4 but to do so will take either 3 car sets being split and reformed into the 4 or 5 car sets or selective door opening which would be better but isn't going to happen anytime soon.

comradestalin wrote: »

WRT the background, I suspect Irish Rail did not have any say in how the money was spent. The government said "we want the railways to have better carriages, go off and get quotes and tell us what the price is".

you could be right, anythings possible.

comradestalin wrote: »

While the gricers and so on yearn for the solid-built stock of yesteryear such as the Mk3s (and indeed the 80 class up here) the fact is that shiny new carriages with nice interiors are far better at attracting the public to use the railways. I travelled to Cork by train on a couple of occasions in 1999/2000 and each time it felt like a step down compared with the Enterprise. Note how patronage on the Enterprise jumped and stayed high in the years after its introduction despite hardened enthusiasts dismissing the DD stock as "rubbish". Likewise the new C3K trains in NI.

while true i suspect the average person wouldn't notice if the mark 3s for example were refurbished with new interior and painted a new colour. in fairness the carriges of yester year were more comfortable and in some ways built better and built to last. the 80 class were life expired? and the 450s apart from the main body shell?

comradestalin wrote: »

Richard Branson recognized this and as soon as he could he went out and specced shiny new Voyagers and Pendolinos to run his franchises with.

thats all well and good but Richard Branson is charged with running the services not with looking after the infrastructure, also the infrastructure or most of it which he runs his services on is capible of high speeds. in IE'S case they have to do both yet they fail to realise that people want the trains to be fast at a reasonable price, shiny new trains alone won't attract people to the railways

I think the early GNR services were 2 hours and were non stop.

I seem to recall one or two services on the Enterprise timetable in 2000, shortly after Central-Central Junction was relaid and reopened, dropping from 2hr5 to 1hr55. I distinctly recall Ted Hesketh (slightly incredibly) attributing the 10 minute reduction to that refurbishment work.

(I have it in my head that the Enterprise almost always stopped at Lisburn, this does not seem to be the case now.)

The single biggest problem seems to be fast pathing on the Malahide-Connolly section, which must add a good 10-15 minutes to the journey. It is hard to foresee a future third road through here, sadly. Even adding a few passing loops around some of the DART stations does not look at all feasible, residential properties are snug up against the stations and the track pretty much all the way along the route.

Losty - would it be fair to say a 22K would cover ground on a current Enterprise run faster overall? My thought is that between the bits up North and being stuck behind DART distributed traction might make up minutes here and minutes there where a 201 would have a shallower acceleration curve.

Karsini wrote: »

I suspect it's the HEP that limits the 201s to 90mph on the Enterprise. Could be wrong though.

No it's the track condition and the DD stock is 90mph limited anyway but has been tested up to 100mph.

steamengine wrote: »

Fair enough, however 201's are capable of 100mph and they're limited to an overall track speed limit of 90mph up to the border. What is the reason for this ??? If 100 mph running exists on parts of the Cork route then why not on the Belfast route.

The infrastrure of the line is the main reason for a 90PMH overall limit. Dublin Belfast has a lot of steep climbs and sharper curves whereas Dublin-Cork is mainly flat save for the gradual climbs in and out of the two terminal stations. That said, there are not that many 100MPH sections on the Dublin Cork line, it just has a better constuction overall.

steamengine wrote: »

I see 100 mph running and a 90 minute journey time is already on Translink's wish list. What generally would be required track-wise to raise the present overall limit from 90 to 100 mph. Link

In short, a better route planning of local Dublin services would allow trains out and in quicker and would give up to 10 minutes. Ditto at the Belfast end, priority is needed for all services. To do much more will be prohibitively expensive as a lot of slow climbs, hills, bends, bridges/viaducts are what slows the services down, especially from Belfast to Portadown.