BLAST FROM THE PAST
A VINTAGE train puffed its way slowly through Wexford recently, much to the surprise and delight of those people lucky enough to see it.
However, the 96-year-old steam locomotive pulling the carriages returned via Wexford to Dublin the following morning minus its coaches, because Irish Rail do not allow passenger trains to travel across the Barrow Bridge to Waterford on what is effectively a mothballed line and a bridge too far.
Instead, in a convoluted arrangement, the passengers were disembarked at Rosslare and bussed to their hotels in Waterford, while the carriages were hauled back to Dublin from Rosslare and then down to Waterford by a diesel loco.
Another steam locomotive had travelled to Waterford on the ‘normal line’ between the cities and the carriages were hooked up to it in Waterford before the passengers were reunited with the train.
Wexford railway enthusiast Joe Ryan said that a few weeks ago a weed spraying train and a heavy maintenance train had crossed the Barrow Bridge and he couldn’t understand why the steam train could not.
‘ They wouldn’t be running a maintenance train across it unless it was safe to do so.. .this sort of action is bad news for our tourism,’ he said.
The train was provided by the Irish Railway Preservation Society and was a private charter arranged by a British company called Steam Dreams.
The locomotive which passed through Wexford was No 461. Built by Beyer, Peacock & Co., in Manchester, in 1922, it was withdrawn from use by CIE in 1965. Its preservation career dates back to 1990.
The locomotive was one of several that were delivered in 1922, when Ireland was in the grip of a civil war.
The railways frequently came under attack and many engines and other rolling stock were destroyed.
Rather than send their brand new engines into this danger the DSER negotiated with the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) to have them stored in the relatively peaceful North until the trouble was over.