"Croagh Patrick" - 071 Class Diesel Railtour

Saturday 12th October 2024

The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland is delighted to announce the "Croagh Patrick" Diesel Railtour.

The tour will depart from Dublin Heuston at approximately 07:50 with our Big GM 071 Class loco immediately powering off from the capital as it makes its climb out of Dublin. This journey will recreate the journey from the 70s, 80s & 90s as you travel on our 1960s built carriages which have been beautfully restored and maintained by our volunteers and are hauled by an 1976 built 071 class locomotive.

The journey out of Dublin will be a fast one along the mainline, passing through The Curragh of Kildare and then for a pickup at Portarlington. We will then turn right and head in a more Westerly directon heading through Tullamore and then to Athlone. After Athlone, we will cross the River Shannon and be into the Western part of our tour.

We will have some photo stops along the Mayo branch at Roscommon, Castlerea and Castlebar as we push ever West to the now end of the line at Westport. Here our locomotive will run around and we will only have a short break here due to pathing constraints on this single line railway. We retrace our steps to Claremorris.

Our loco will then run around the train here, before heading this time to beautiful town of Ballina on the River Moy. At Ballina from 14:40 - 16:40 there will be time to alight and explore the town where US President Joe Biden calls "home".

On departure from Ballina, we will be heading back on the way to Dublin winding our way across the country from coast to coast. We will set down at Athlone and Portarlington and then have an estimated arrival time of just before 21:00 into Dublin Heuston, our journeys end.

The train will be made up of our Cravens coaching stock complete with usual facilities of snack car serving a variety of hot and cold items throughout the day alongside our renowned bar car with draught and bottled beverages available all day. We now accept debit / credit cards on board as well as cash payments.

Route:

07:50 DUBLIN HEUSTON - 08:32 PORTARLINGTON (PICK UP) - 09:40 ATHLONE (PICK UP) - CASTLEREA - CASTLEBAR - 12:07 / 12:50 WESTPORT(REVERSE)- 13:20 / 13:55 CLAREMORRIS (REVERSE) - FOXFORD - 14:40 / 16:40 BALLINA 2 HOUR BREAK (REVERSE) - 19:00 ATHLONE (SET DOWN) - 20:05 PORTARLINGTON (SET DOWN) - DUBLIN HEUSTON ARRIVE 20:57.

Requested haulage - IÉ 071 Class locomotive hauling the RPSI Cravens carriages.

N.B. IMPORTANT INFORMATION RE: ONLINE TICKETS

Tickets are NON-REFUNDABLE once purchased.

If travelling as part of a group - you MUST make one booking to be seated together. Seating requests cannot be made after.

You will receive your tickets by email as soon as your booking goes through. These are you tickets which you must print off or have QR code available for inspection on the day.

Seating allocations will be emailed, no later than 2 days before departure. Please check your emails.

Children aged 2 and under can travel free of charge on their parent's lap.

Child Tickets are valid for 3 - 15 year old's inclusive.

We have seats for sale in the carriage opposite the guards van and in the bar carriage for the day. Please note that these are ONLY available as adult tickets.

Host or Publisher Railway Preservation Society of Ireland