Myself,Paul Frilly and Johnny C got a lift to Nobber school, O'Carolan College on this train from the Lisnagrew level crossing on the Kingscourt Navan Road,in the spring of 1995,possibly making us the last 3 passengers ever to travel this line. We were late making our way to school standing at the level crossing when the train crossed.We asked the drivers helper for a lift to school as he opened then closed the gates across the road.He said OK & we jumped into the cabin with the drivers! Yeahhh!
Magnificent footage, and a real trip through time. I remember seeing the gypsum trains pulling westwards out of Drogheda - I could see a short section of the line from my house. Hard to believe the only traffic on the Navan branch now is Tara Mines, and that Tara Mines outlasted cement ! Thanks Colm for this wonderful video and to Eiretrains. More, more !!!!!
Superb! Thanks for uploading this... and to Colm for the original footage. What a dose of nostalgia. And a great sound from that A-class, it takes me back a few years.
Just love this raw sound. I heard an A class once in reality, during a holiday in 1987. It must have been between Limerick and Cork somewhere, as we were travelling the main road and stopped at a picnic site for lunch. I heard this incredible thrash and told my mates "what the hell on earth is this, must be a train or something, but I cant see a train and I didn't see tracks as well. How can a locomotive produce that much noise". So I didn't see a train, but seeing the video's of an A class tell me that this is positively the sound I heard, as they sound different from a 141/181 class. And Google maps showed me the railway is close to that N20 road we were on.
Thanks, glad you like the music of the A Class, they were very distinctive, fortunately you can still hear an A Class at work at the preserved Belfast & Co.Down Railway. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WNLf8DSyxZE.html
Great footage of the A class in action scenes never to be seen again. I worked nearly all of them. A39 was the last one in 1995 and it was great to revisit it in Downpatrick 2010.
Thank you for your comments, that Panasonic camera last me 15years, some of my buddies who also did video have gone thru about 3cameras in that period, wearing out the heads was my own fault as I tried to edit as I filmed, Eiretrains has done a great job in editing here for RU-vid, Panasonic, well the rest is history.
6:57 - when men were men and weren't afraid to step in front of a train, out of sight of the driver, right after signalling him to start moving it! Great video though.
Yes during a drivers strike in 2001 the gypsum traffic went over to road and never returned to rail, also the slow speed limit of 25mph and the cost of operation was also factor.
At full throttle, they're still quieter and smoother than their Australian cousins, the West Australian Government Railways X class. Both started with a Crossley 2 stroke V8, but the Irish lost patience with them, swapping out the Crossleys for GM diesels. The X class however stayed with their Crossley engines. They ran them from 1953 to 1988, with more powerful, more reliable and more efficient locomotives taking their place
Is there any videos of either an A or C class with sound of the original Crossley engine? I came across one from Australia but the loco is running on a closed throttle so there isn't much engine noise ( I can't find it anywhere either)
Yes very same indentical wagons, but always kept separate, to prevent ballast (stones) contaminating the gypsum, the gypsum would be useless if it had stones in it, to prevent that, wagons had gypsum printed on the sides to make sure these particular wagons never ended up in a ballast set.
They are done manually, either by the train crew (on freight-only lines) or crossing attendants. On that particular line, the gates were nearly all done by the train crew, except at one location (Wilkinstown) where the old halt keeper at the station there did the crossing gates herself. The line has since closed (2002).
