NIR 111 + 201 Class 'Yankee Explorer' railtour, Knockmore 

Yes, what would you do to see a double 111 tour nowadays!

6,400 hp. Whoosh ! I was there. See my entries for a list of all locos, on this fabulous tour. It included 102 !

Thank you, they were the best years, I did video for 15 years from April 1993 to March 2008, video camera gave up and I didn't replaced it, just do the photos now.

So was I. Outrageous tour, can we have all your available locos on the tour, please ? Including 102.

Thx, I upload little and often to keep things ticking over :)

Ah it wasn't me who shot it, have to thank a certain other person, but yeah, this is one of the few clips of this tour around!

we'll may find a way to thank him cause that footage is price less and will sadly never be repeated

Plus a pair of 121s and 102 from Belfast Great Victoria Street to Belfast Central. Every available NIR loco for haulage (113 was undergoing maintenance).

Np, glad you liked it!

Thx Matthew, glad you enjoyed it, hope to get a few more NIR stuff up again soon.

I was too young to be around for all this, but that's what nearly everyone says about this tour, seems like it was benchmark for all tours!

@Eiretrains Can you imagine going to Roy Beattie (NIR Chief Executive) and Denis Grimshaw (NIR Operations Director) with a proposal to use every available NIR loco on the tour ? We knew double headed 111s were banned south of the border, so we had just the one 111 to Northern Ireland, where a second 111 was added. Then we had a pair of 121s to Derry / Londonderry and back to Belfast Great Victoria Street. Then we had the last remaining Hunslet, 102, from there to Belfast Central. Rumour had it she only had two working traction motors. But she did 20 mph on the one mile journey. Then we asked for 208 and 209 back to the border. NIR expressed concern that they would have no locos for the NIR Enterprise diagram. So we offered them our two 121s ! Outrageous !! Indeed some tour passengers leapt for the 121s, while we had both NIR 201s, and we handed back one before crossing the border. Many thanks to the generosity of NIR giving us every available loco. Thanks to Iarnrod Eireann also. Great tour. My first venture to the Province, but not my last. I was also on the Translink Adventurer which took a pair of 141s to Port Rush.

Thx stephen, it was handy one to put together, yeah you won't see many clips of two-powered 201 workings.

True there, did you see my recent vid of 209?

Irish Rail Trains yes very nice and left a 'like', interesting to think it's the same locomotive that featured in this video all those years ago.

Eiretrains Yeah actually, though its hard to believe how much that loco has changed.

HZCAR87DSZG Thanks :D !

No. The train was booked a pair of 111s and a pair of 201s ! You will see in the video, that NIR used 130 + 135 on a rake of Mark2A (the NIR Enterprise set) firstly to return 130 + 135 south of the border, and secondly because we had nicked all their own locos for use on the tour !!

@@vicsams4431 Thx for the explanation and confirming these were real double headers. Did they cross the border like this or was the tour confined to NIR rails? Never seen a double header like this on any videos south of the border.

@@murphaph The locos were as follows: 170 Dublin Heuston - Islandbridge Jc, 112 Islandbridge Jc - Bray CS - Portadown, 111 + 112 Portadown - Lisburn, 130 + 135 Lisburn - (London)derry - Belfast Gt Victoria Street, 102 Belfast Gt Victoria St - Belfast Central, 208 + 209 Belfast Central - York Road Depot - Portadown, 208 Portadown - Dublin Connolly, 081 Dublin Connolly - Bray CS - Islandbridge Jc, 170 Islandbridge Jc - Dublin Heuston. So to answer your question, the two sets of big GMs only worked in pairs on NIR metals. Dublin Heuston to Bray CS (Carriage Sidings) and vice versa was an ECS move, but some people were allowed to stay on. If they wanted the 4 a.m. start or whatever. I recall the wife chose to get up at a better time, have a full cooked breakfast, and catch Bus 90 from Heuston to Connolly, while us 'men of steel' (hardcore nutters) got Bray CS and the extra loco in the book. What, miss half the tour ?! No comments please about the long-suffering wife.....

@@vicsams4431 thx a lot for the detailed reply vic. Much appreciated :-) Phil

@@murphaph You are most welcome, Phil.