Day or two in Ireland for the 071 tour which kicked out 074, 078, 079 during the day.

Some more phots which are now from a different age…

The late 90s and early 00’s saw a number of bashing trips made to Ireland, a magic land at the time where diesel haulage ruled the roost with 071s thrashing along the mainlines and secondary routes were the preserve of “baby” GMs, short rakes of cravens and steam heat. A long weekend at the end of October/early November 2003 would be my last visit – with cartification of the Limerick locals sounding the death knoll for me, preferring not to go back for scraps or solely for 071s as Ireland got very rancid, very quickly. By the time I did venture back for the “141 farewell tour” (which, err, wasn’t even a 141) I hardly recognised a thing on or off the railway…!

Full gen for each phot can be found by clicking on the ‘permalink’ in the image, which also goes back to the far superior pre-slideshow WordPress format

072 Tara St

087 Limerick

134 Limerick

144 Cork

148 Cork

163 Limerick

166 The Junction

166 Ballybrophy

168 Limerick

226 Cork