Were you stuck in a massive traffic jam on the road from Lisburn to Saintfield on Sunday 1st June? Sorry, that was us! We had a rather large delivery arrive at the railway.
A year of planning, paperwork, negotiations, behind the scenes work, disposals, and tracklaying has paid off, as four diesel locomotives belonging the Irish Traction Group’s locos are joining our fleet, with the first two, 124 and 190, arriving on Sunday.
The locos were stored for some years at Moyasta, Co. Clare, waiting for their chance of restoration. As a well-established museum we have the skills and experience to look after them, we have many shared volunteers with the ITG, and we have a line for them to ‘stretch their legs’ on. Importantly, a larger pool of locos would allow us to eventually take some of the existing diesel fleet out of service for repairs, or provide cover for breakdowns, as well as being interesting in their own right.
With the big day finally upon us, and all necessary shunting completed, 124 and 190 arrived together on Sunday afternoon, and over the next few hours they were carefully winched off the trailers and hauled onto DCDR tracks for the first time by 80 class power car 69. Each loco was parked over the pit in the workshop so we could assess traction motors, top up oils, and carry out a general inspection. They were then shunted to the loco yard where eventual restoration will take place.
124 is one of the original 121 class GM locomotives which entered service with CIÉ in 1961. These were first GM-built locomotives to operate in Europe, setting a trend that continues to this day. She is no stranger to Northern Ireland’s railways for this class were regulars on the Dublin-Belfast “Enterprise” in the 1960s.
190 is the last survivor of the 1966 vintage 181 class, an updated variant of 146 which has been the mainstay of our shunting and positioning operations since 2010.
We’ve also updated our website with the histories of locomotives 124 and 190.
More news is on the way, so do stay tuned…
