History was made on Saturday, November 16th, 2024, when a push-pull set formed of mkVI coaches ran a rail tour from Dublin Heuston to Killarney, which also included a trip along the Limerick Branch.
The “Great Southern Railway Centennial” rail tour was organised by promoters of Irish Railway Heritage Táilte Tours CLG.
The tour marked the centenary of the creation of the Great Southern Railway which was formed in November 1924, which was a result of merging the three separately owned railway companies in southern Ireland, the Great Southern & Western, Midland Great Western, and Cork, Bandon & South Coast Railways.
What made the trip historic on Saturday 16 November was that passengers got the chance to travel the Limerick Junction-Limerick line in a set of Irish mkIV CAF set of carriages, something passengers had not been able to do before.
The mkIV trains are no stranger to the Limerick Line, as they were used on the line on test trains in 2005 & 2006 before their introduction to frontline service on the rest of the network.
It had been almost 20 years since mkIV’s last appeared on the former Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway line. It was their first trip down the line with passengers onboard.
Due to the length of the train, it was too long for the track circuit at Limerick Station, so it reversed outside the station before heading back to Limerick Junction.
From here the Táilte Tours train travelled on to Killarney where NIR ‘Enterprise’ locomotive No.209, made its first appearance in several years, having been a regular on this section of the line in the past.
“A tremendous amount of work went into this operation across Iarnród Éireann and we are very grateful to them for enabling us to run the railtour. The formation of the GSR was a key milestone in Irish transport history and is closely intertwined with the development of the tourism industry too, so the operation of a railtour over some of its key tourism routes seemed like an ideal way to commemorate it. Adding the ‘first’ to Limerick seems to have gone down a treat with those on board. Feedback has been
Niall Kelly, Marketing Officer and Co-Founder of Táilte Tours
very encouraging and we’re already working on plans for our 2025 programme”
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