RPSI The "Phoenix" railtour from Dublin Connolly to Dundalk with disel and back with 131, returned to Ireland after 60 years, a historic moment! .
Many years of hard work behind the scenes fully restoring Q Class 4-4-0 No.131 from a static exhibition to mainline operation between 2003 and 2015, No.131 has now been cleared to operate on the Iarnród Éireann network for the first time since 1963. Previously the locomotive had only been cleared to operate on the Northern Ireland Railway network from 2018 to now.
To position the locomotive into Dublin for the forthcoming Steam Dreams tour, the decision was taken to operate a railtour from Dundalk to Connolly with the locomotive coming light engine from the RPSI base at Whitehead. Appropriately the tour was given the name “The Phoenix” and the outward leg from Dublin was worked by an IE diesel locomotive, No. 074. Due to the untimely passing of NI Railways Driver Noel Playfair in January of this year, the movement from Whitehead was undertaken by an Iarnrod Eireann crew with an NIR Driver conducting as far as Dundalk.
Many years of hard work behind the scenes fully restoring Q Class 4-4-0 No.131 from a static exhibition to mainline operation between 2003 and 2015, No.131 has now been cleared to operate on the Iarnród Éireann network for the first time since 1963. Previously the locomotive had only been cleared to operate on the Northern Ireland Railway network from 2018 to now.
To position the locomotive into Dublin for the forthcoming Steam Dreams tour, the decision was taken to operate a railtour from Dundalk to Connolly with the locomotive coming light engine from the RPSI base at Whitehead. Appropriately the tour was given the name “The Phoenix” and the outward leg from Dublin was worked by an IE diesel locomotive, No. 074. Due to the untimely passing of NI Railways Driver Noel Playfair in January of this year, the movement from Whitehead was undertaken by an Iarnrod Eireann crew with an NIR Driver conducting as far as Dundalk.