On Saturday 15 April, Táilte Tours operated the ‘Suir Lee Knot' railtour from Cork to Waterford via Carrick-on-Suir – and declared it a ‘Suir-fire' success!
The tour, which was announced in February, involved the rare treat of travelling on a 1993-built Tokyu Car 2600 class railcar set north of Mallow. The run took passengers from Cork on the banks of the River Lee to Waterford on the banks of the River Suir, via the ‘knot' of lines at Limerick Junction.
This was a rare visit of this class into Waterford, and included an extended stop at Carrick-on-Suir, restoration base of the Irish Traction Group (ITG).
Here, the ITG's volunteers had worked long into the night preparing their 1956-built C Class locomotive No.226 to look its best for visitors. It was the first public appearance of the Metropolitan Vickers-built diesel since its restoration to running order.
Features of the tour included a run through Tipperary loop, which has no scheduled trains. There was also an unusual reverse move out of the south-facing bay platforms in Cork before heading north around the station via the former avoiding line used by freight trains.
Passengers also took part in the on-board raffle, key prize of which was a set of Magnesite wagons kindly donated by sponsor Irish Railway Models. (The prototype vehicles operated over the very line over which the tour traversed).
Set up just last year and named after one of Ireland's largest steam locomotives, Táilte Tours is a voluntary-led committee that seeks to raise awareness for Ireland's smaller railway heritage groups.
They aim to do this through the organisation of railtours and other railway-themed events throughout Ireland. Táilte Tours offers a discount to RailAdvent Plus members.
Niall Kelly, Marketing Officer for Táilte Tours committee, said: “Despite being Ireland's second city, or the ‘Real Capital' as its denizens refer to it, railtours starting in Cork are few and far between and we felt it was time to address that. Uptake on the tour from local enthusiasts and daytrippers alike far exceeded our expectations — we'll definitely try to run more out of Cork as our resources permit.
“We're very grateful for the enormous amount of work put in behind the scenes both in Iarnród Éireann staff and by our fellow volunteers in the Irish Traction Group who burnt plenty of midnight oil into getting 226 ready for our passengers. Hats off to all!”.
