IE 201 Class

History

By the early 1990s, the locomotives operating passenger services in Ireland were becoming increasingly obsolete, with the newest type in service being the 071 Class introduced in 1976. The economic boom in Ireland in the mid-1990s allowed Iarnród Éireann to begin significant investment in the infrastructure of the railways, which began with an order for 32 brand new express locomotives from GM-EMD. Northern Ireland Railways also purchased 2. The first were delivered in 1994, with deliveries continuing until 1995.

To allow clearance tests and driver training to commence in advance of the delivery of the main order of 201s, it was decided to transport the first locomotive, number 201, to Dublin by air. An Antonov An-124 was used to transport the locomotive from London, Ontario to Dublin Airport, arriving on 9 June 1994. The first light-engine test run operated from Inchicore works to Kildare on the 14th.

Unfortunately, the locomotives have had a chequered service history. The authors of Jane's Train Recognition Guide noted that IÉ had had problems with engine fires and bogie cracks.

Technical details

Equipment new to IÉ locos

Variants

There are three versions within the Class 201:

InterCity

Today push-pull equipped members of the 201 class operate the only passenger locomotive hauled services in the Republic of Ireland between Dublin and Cork. They operate with Mark 4 carriages which were introduced to the route in 2006/2007. The current livery was introduced in 2006 and it primarily consists of green and sliver. All locomotives have full yellow ends to enhance visibility.

Non push-pull locomotives were withdrawn from service because Mark 4 carriages operate a push-pull system and rolling stock on other InterCity routes was replaced by 22200 Class DMUs. The only other locomotive-hauled service is the Enterprise cross-border service to Belfast which is detailed below.

Enterprise

The Enterprise is a cross-border passenger service between Dublin and Belfast operated by Irish Rail and Northern Ireland Railways. This is also a locomotive-hauled service and operates a similar push-pull system like services to Cork. As this is a jointly operated service, it is marketed as the "Enterprise" and the coaching stock and locomotives carry a separate livery to either operator's own services. It consists of light grey with a purple and red strip. Locomotives also have full yellow ends to enhance visibility.

As the service is shared, locomotives (8)208 and (8)209 are owned by Northern Ireland Railways. The coaching stock is owned by operators, Irish Rail own the odd numbered coaches and NIR own the even numbered coaches.

In addition, Irish Rail introduced four former Mark 3 generator vans in September 2012 to operate this route in a bid to improve reliability of the service and reduce maintenance costs. Previously the service operated with head end power and this caused regular locomotive failures, increased wear and tear and also contributed to locomotive 230 been removed from service after an engine fire while operating a passenger service with HEP in operation.

Freight

201 Class locomotives also operate some freight services as required. There are two container flows between Dublin Port and Ballina and Belview (Waterford) and Ballina. There is also a timber flow between Waterford and Westport/Ballina.

From late 2016, 201 Class locomotives will operate increased freight services as the weight and length of some freight services will be increased due to customer demand.

Common Livery

Locomotives 231 and 233 are painted in a common livery which consists of light grey with a black stripe. The reason for this is they are assigned for Enterprise duties and as part of the refurbishment of the Enterprise in 2015-2016 only six were given the full livery. Prior to this some of those given the current livery had previously had the InterCity livery. As part of Irish Rail's logo change all InterCity 201's will carry the new Irish Rail logo which includes the Irish flag and for operational and safety reasons they will not operate cross border services so a common colour scheme was adopted.

List of locomotive names

The entire class is named after Irish rivers, with the IÉ locomotives carrying two nameplates, one in Irish and one in English, on each side of the locomotive. As 8208 and 8209 are owned by Northern Ireland Railways, they carry English language only nameplates. The nameplates are trapezium shaped, with the names in upper case.

Current operations

All of the non push-pull capable locomotives (201–205 and 210–214) were placed in storage at Inchicore during 2009, the last being 214 in July 2009. This was due to the withdrawal of the Mark 3 fleet and their replacement with 22000 Class DMUs on the vast majority of passenger services. This left only the Mark 4 Dublin–Cork services and the cross-border Enterprise service (with De Dietrich rolling stock) as the only locomotive hauled passenger services operated by Iarnród Éireann.

The reduction in the number of locomotive hauled passenger workings, combined with the withdrawal of older GM locomotives, has seen 201 Class locomotives used on freight workings, whilst four push-pull capable units were transferred to join the original four dedicated locomotives in use on the Enterprise.

In 2010 Iarnród Éireann planned to store some of its remaining push-pull capable Mark 3 coaches, which could potentially have been used with 201 Class locomotives to enhance Enterprise's service. However, most Mark 3 carriages were scrapped during 2013 and 2014.

A fleet of 10 Mark 3 coaches were sold to Belmond Grand Hibernian, while 216 and 225 will be returned to service to handle the extra traffic generated by Belmond operation. As of May 2016, 216 has returned to service however it's not expected that 225 will return before 2017.

On 15 February 2016, two 201 Class locomotives (226 & 8209) operated freight trials with a long train of 15 HOBS ballast wagons plus one un-powered loco, possibly assessing the loco's capabilities for future freight services.

As of October 2016, Irish Rail are seeking solutions to re-power most of the fleet during a mid-life refurbishment. They are looking for floor-up engine and control gear solutions, which keep the existing cab controls and compatibility with the existing GM fleet and push/pull equipment. The body, cab controls, bogies, and traction motors will remain unchanged. 201 and 205 have been brought in from storage for internal and external inspection, possibly in relation to this re-powering. The re-powering is due to begin in Q1 2017.

Model

In the late 90's, Model Irish Railways produced a resin bodyshell kit with nameplates, numbering, brass grills and the standard yellow / black livery line transfers. Marks Models also released a resin kit for these locomotives in 00 gauge in c.2000.

In 2001, Murphy Models commissioned LIMA to produce an '00' gauge 201 model loco. They were produced in IÉ orange (201, 216, 217, 219, 230) and Enterprise (206, 207, 208, 209) liveries, in batches of 300 (except 500 of #207).

In 2011 Murphy Models launched a completely new version of the 201, with all wheel drive, centre can motor and preinstalled speaker. This was released in IÉ orange (original and revised), Green Intercity and NIR blue as well as NIR Enterprise original and revised.

Railtec Transfers and Studio Scale Models [8] make transfers for the full range of 201 liveries, No's 201-234, original and updated Orange, original and updated Enterprise and Green Intercity.

The 201 Class has also been released in virtual form as a player driveable locomotive in the Microsoft Train Simulator add-on, "Irish Enterprise North", by Making Tracks, and for OpenBVE by Celtic Trainsim.