Recent content by NIR111Class

Does anyone know if there is any footage of this event in existence? It was a pretty big rail event in its time but I can really only find a handful of photographs on the web. Any footage (or photographs) will be much appreciated. Thanks

On 10th and 11th of September the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland will be holding Open Days at their base at Whitehead for the European Heritage Weekend.

The Modern Railway Society of Ireland are planning an 80 Class railtour called "The Last Thump" on 25th September. This will be the last public working of the Class 80 DEMUs.

The Hastings Thumper's one of my favourite multiple units so this is kind of a coincidence. XD If that's the case I wish I'd be going to Luton myself in September.

Would any of them be passing Luton and Leagrave by any chance? A few relatives of mine live in Luton so I was hoping of informing them about a couple of heritage steam or diesel excursions passing by there. :)

Does anyone know if any railtours or excursions are planned on the Midland Mainline, particularly on the Thameslink section?

Hi Myles I've been talking with a friend on Facebook and apparently he told me one of the volunteers of the RPSI has said they are considering preserving either an 80 Class or 450 Class at Whitehead. If an 80 Class was a choice then it would be an essential piece of rolling stock. Since...

Well, I'll ask this now. Who really wants to group together to tackle the finances of preserving a Class 80 in any way? I know I'm willing to.

One aspect I'm unsure about is the price. If we're going to run it on Downpatrick or store it in a farm barn or whatever, how much will it be to actually buy a unit.

It depends if we could have enough enthusiasts raring to get the project going. So far from this thread it seems quite a few people want to get it started. I've been thinking long and hard about it and researched how Hastings Diesels Limited managed to purchase and preserve 1001 and 1013. They...

To be honest I wasn't really expecting to sit and watch the Society do it on their own. I would be giving donations dedicated to purchasing a Class 80. I forgot the mention that in the letter so, my mistake! But really it would be tough to do it with our own society because there aren't many...

You forget that the 80 Class is basically an Irish hastings unit. It is mechanically identical to any BR Southern unit with a 4SRKT engine. But the Hastings unit's preservation society could be inspiring...

If I had the money and lived nearer to Whitehead I would be more than happy to put money and work into it. Unfortunately I'm a sitting duck between Newry and Dundalk and couldn't be able to travel the distance for paying for and doing preservation work on a DEMU. But I'll keep it in mind to...

Ah, lovely picture. If a unit gets preserved I'd like it to be in either the redstripe or that Suburban livery. Anyway, here's the letter I wrote to the chairman. See what you think of it! " To The chairman of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland I would wish to propose the...

Well, I can paste the letter here to see if it's good enough to send off. It's saved as a document so if anyone else wants in I'll gladly mention them. Really, I don't see the reason why a multiple unit can't be preserved, there are hundreds of ex-BR DMUs in the UK working on heritage...