Komatsu PW130 Road-Rail Excavator
The Komatsu PW130 road-rail excavator arrived at our railway in February 2026. Our two existing road-rail diggers had suffered badly from flood damage, and we sourced this PW130 as a replacement with the help of RPS. Features include a tilt rotator head and significantly greater hydraulic capability than the previous vehicles.
CIÉ 124
124 was one of 15 121 class locomotives built by General Motors for CIÉ in 1960. In fact, these were the first GM-built locos to be exported to Europe. Based on the GM’s GL8 ‘Switcher’ design, they were distinct from other CIÉ mainline diesels in that they only had one cab. 124 (then B124) arrived […]
CIÉ/IÉ Ballast Plough Van No.24852
24852 is a ballast plough van. CIÉ built five of these ballast plough vans in 1978. They constructed these to replace older vans (such as our own 8452 – yes, the numbers are confusingly similar). Unlike the older wooden types, these vans were fully metal-clad. 24852 and her sisters travelled on ballast trains all over […]
CIÉ/IÉ Ballast Hoppers
24122, 24145, and 26633 are three ex-Iarnród Éireann ballast hopper wagons. CIÉ built 24122 and 24145 in conjunction with Whessoe Ltd in 1972 as part of a batch of 25 such vehicles. Known to railway staff as ‘the stones’, these ballast trains were an essential part of CIÉ’s (later Iarnród Éireann’s) Permanent Way fleet. There […]
Thwaites Dumper and Trailer
One of the most useful pieces of kit of the Permanent Way team’s disposal is their road-rail dumper. They have nicknamed it ‘Daisy’. Daisy came to us in 2011, and it’s hard to imagine where we’d be without it! For many years Daisy has performed all sorts of tasks, from ballasting to hauling rails and […]
Atlas Excavator
The Atlas has been a Permanent Way team stalwart since it arrived at Downpatrick in 2010. It’s an incredibly useful piece of kit and one that we’d be very lost without. One of two 1304KZW model excavators built for NIR in 1992, the Atlas is just at home on road as it is on the […]
NIR Ballast Regulator 315
The Ballast Regulator was built in 1978 by Deutsche Plasser Bahnbaumaschinen GmbH (a subsidiary of Plasser & Theurer) for Northern Ireland Railways. It shapes and evenly distributes the ballast beneath and around the sleepers, and is typically used in conjunction with a tamping and lining machine. Of the USP3000C design, it is numbered 315. Despite […]
NIR Bruff Recovery Vehicle
Recovery vehicle No. 20, better known as ‘The Bruff’, was built for NIR by the Bruff Manufacturing Co Ltd., as a conversion of a Bedford lorry in 1986. It is equipped for road and rail usage, with two rail axles that can be dropped down beneath the tyres to enable the vehicle to move along […]
CIÉ 22ft container flat 27756
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, CIÉ embarked on a wide-scale replacement project of the ageing, non-standard fleet of goods wagons it had inherited from Great Southern Railways. One of the types of wagon introduced as part of this scheme was the 20ft container flat (or ConFlat for short). No.27756 is one of these conflats, which […]
NIR DBSO 8918
8918 was built by British Rail at their Derby Works in June 1974, as a Mk2F brake standard open (BSO) No. M9534. It was transferred to the Scottish region in June 1984, becoming SC9534. It had seating for 32, with a toilet, guard’s compartment, and luggage space. In March 1985 it became one of 14 […]