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The IE 201 class locomotives were built by GM in 1994 and 1995 for Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) and Irish Rail. They are the most powerful (3,200 hp), heaviest (108.862 tonnes or 107.143 long tons; 120.000 short tons) and fastest (102 mph) locos to ever run in Ireland.
201 Class No.234 "River Aherlow" trailing behind an IE mark 4 set, passing by Salins & Naas station, county Kildare, Ireland.
In a grand total, 32 locos were built from Irish Rail's orders, those being from 201-234, while NIR ordered 2, those being locomotives no.(8)208 "River Lagan" and no.(8)209 "River Foyle".
These are essentially a mixed traffic version of the EMD Series 66.
11 of these locomotives have been withdrawn so far, being withdrawn in 2009 and stored in the Inchicore works, Dublin due to incapability with IE's push-pull trains.
Technical Information[]
219 on empty timber.
201 class locomotives are fitted with 12-710G3B engines (used by the Class 66 and the Class 67). These engines are capable of producing an output of 3,000 hp (or 2,400 kw)
They are capable of a top speed of 102 m.p.h, mostly restricted to only 90 mph when pulling the Enterprise, and 100 mph pulling the IE Mark 4s
24 of these locomotives are capable of HEP (Head End Power); but their use has been put to an indefinite halt due to no. 230 catching fire in 2013
Issues[]
These locomotives chronic issues with overheating when supplying HEP to trains. One example of this was 201 Class no. 230 "River Bandon" burst into flames while working the cross border "Enterprise" service in 2013.
Another issue is that a crack in the bogies of no.231 "River River Maigue" appeared.
Then in July 2020, no. 224 "River Feale" suffered a serious failure to its underframe. The official RAIU (Railway Accident Investigation Unit) report, issued in July 2021, concluded that a weld repair to a non-structural bed plate had been unnecessarily applied to a structural chassis plate, causing an eventual structural failure of the locomotive.
Gallery[]
