Over the last two weeks, we’ve quietly been taking delivery of a few new additions to our historic wagon fleet. The ‘new’ (to us) wagons consist of two 22ft container flats, and the last remaining example of a CIÉ pallet van. Our thanks go to the private owner who saved these wagons and kindly donated them to our railway. While hundreds were built, very few now survive as Iarnród Éireann stopped using 4-wheeled wagons in the 2000s.
The container flats, numbered 27350 and 27427, had previously been stored at Enfield station in Co. Meath since the early 2000s. The pallet van (or PalVan, as it’s more commonly known) is No. 26405. It had been in storage at Mullingar ever since its last official use by CIÉ in 1978, when it was used as a toolvan during the production of The First Great Train Robbery.
The last few decades out in the open have not been kind to the appearance of these wagons. Structurally, they have held up well, however. We have uses earmarked for all of them – and we’re hoping that some of them might make nice projects for the local regional colleges. Plus, they follow on quite nicely from the cement bubble and last year’s arrivals from Moyasta. In time, we can look forward to recreating a traditional Irish liner train.
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