Ireland - August 2005

Having heard about new units coming to Irish Rail or Iarnrod Eireann (IE), we decided to go over the water to ride the loco-hauled trains. For anyone visiting Ireland, here is some useful information:

The Intercity network is single track except Dublin to Cork and Dublin to Belfast. Services are infrequent with some lines only having only 3 trains per day so check the timetable and don't be stranded! Most Intercity trains are loco-hauled. All locos are built by General Motors, most trains are worked by mid-90's built '201's but there are some older classes around including '071's from the 70s and '141's from the 60s. There is very little freight around compared to Britain.

  1. 1st Aug - Dublin Heuston
  2. 1st Aug - Cork
  3. 2nd Aug - Cobh loco-hauled and Cork
  4. 2nd Aug - Cork to Mallow
  5. 2nd Aug - Tralee and Killarney
  6. 3rd Aug - Killarney to Mallow
  7. 3rd Aug - Portarlington - Athlone - Westport
  8. 4th Aug - Athlone to Ballina and Bus to Sligo
  9. 5th Aug - Sligo to Dublin Connolly behind 071

The plan is:

Date Time From To

Arrival

 Loco / Other details
1 August 07:50 Bangor Holyhead 08:21 Virgin Trains
09:20 Holyhead Dublin Port 11:09 Irish Ferries
13:00 Heuston Cork 15:50 232
16:55 Cork Cobh 17:19 My only Irish unit
2 August 07:40 Cobh Cork 08:07 167
13:00 Cork Tralee 15:21 167
18:00 Tralee Killarney 18:44 085
3 August 09:57 Killarney Mallow 11:10 084
11:22 Mallow Portarlington 13:05 212
13:23 Portarlington Westport 16:11 211
18:05 Westport Athlone 20:05 211
4 August 09:43 Athlone Manulla Junction 11:13 210
11:17 Manulla Junction Ballina 11:45 088
12:45 Ballina Sligo 14:15 Bus Eireann
5 August 07:40 Sligo Connolly 10:38 071
12:15 Dublin Port Holyhead 14:04 Irish Ferries
14:31 Holyhead Bangor 15:09 Arriva Trains Wales