Irish Traction Group

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Over a 21 year period, the Irish Traction Group operated 45 railtours. Regrettably, these ceased when the cost of running the tours became prohibitive.

Detailed below is a list of all railtours that were operated by the Irish Traction Group and its trading subsidiary, ITG Railtours Limited, together with a list of each locomotive to have worked that particular railtour.

All the tour listings have itineraries, a copy of the tour brochure (if one was printed) and a copy of the commemorative ticket. Some of the listings include photographs of locomotives working the trains and while we would like to be able to show at least one picture of all the locomotives on each tour, there are a number of tours where we do not have pictures. If you have a picture of a missing locomotive (highlighted in red on the list below) the ITG would be very grateful if you would contact us with a view to using your photo on the website.

Date	Tour Name	Traction
10/09/89	Bangor Belle	101, 104
07/10/89	Irish MV	016, 103, 108, 106
21/04/90	Hunslett Farewell	113, 111, 101
22/07/90	Clockwork Orange	001, 132+134, 072,
17/11/90	Last Resort	112, 102, 101, 071+111
09/03/91	Beet Route	104, 027, 056
12/10/91	Bridge Too Far	144+164, 035, 124+134
07/03/92	Cobh Rambler	159, 051
22/08/92	Mini MV	105
21/10/92	Sligo Avoider	150, 053
03/04/93	Mystery Train	158, 054, 005, 121+127
23/10/93	Bell Viewer	012, 051, 049, 036
20/08/94	Western Ranger	015, 177
26/11/94	Beet Campaigner	036, 039
08/04/95	Tuam Freightliner	202, 131+172, 185*
15/07/95	Early Bird	124+131, 112, 187*
07/01/95	Flying Pig	185*, 088, 003#, 130+166, 190
23/03/96	Yankee Explorer	170*, 112+111, 130+135, 102, 208+209, 081
19/10/96	Europort & Lemon	084, 112
12/04/97	Translink Adventurer	166*, 082, 155+177, 111, 113
08/11/97	Western Venturer	152*, 081, 141+173
04/04/98	Herman Munster	160, 077, 149, 079, 133+134, 183, 176+187, 151
03/10/98	Whistling Yankee	185*, 123+131, 111, 141
23/01/99	Silver Cloud	149*, 039
27/03/99	Back in Black	170*, 039
12/06/99	Mayo Metro Vick	145, 039, 003, 166, 181
09/10/99	Leitrim Leprechaun	187*, 039
08/04/00	Queenstown Rambler	141*, 173+181, 127+134
07/10/00	Tipperary Trekker	166*, 127+129, 123+151
10/03/01	West’s Awake	185*, 127+135, 081, 123+133, 073
13/04/02	Travelling in Hope	072, 141+184
12/10/02	Non-exec Director	076, 147+169, 128+133
22/03/03	Branch Liner	077, 151+134
11/10/03	Southern Comfort	112, 147+163, 144, 175, 162+186
03/04/04	Galway Galloper	124+145, 153+170
09/10/04	Suir Thing	085, 159+186
16/04/05	Beyond the Pale	149+156, 124+162, 151+162
08/10/05	Plan C	160+162, 145+153
08/04/06	Portrush Thumper	8083+8780+8754+8734+8779+8089
14/10/06	Supertrain	080, 171+192, 124+134
31/03/07	The Docklands Pioneer	233, 152+190, 146+189
16/02/08	The Irish Mail	D1015
24/05/08	The Cross Border (Plan B)	111, (80) 8089+8733+8738+8069, (450) 8455+8795+8785
05/12/09	The White Rose	D1015
06/03/10	The 141 Class Farewell	078
* Dublin Heuston - Islandbridge Jnc and/or Islandbridge Jnc - Dublin Heuston
# Limerick - Limerick Check and Limerick Check - Limerick

Railtours up to and including the ‘Flying Pig’ on 7th October 1995, were organised by the Irish Traction Group (with the exception of the ‘Clockwork Orange’ railtour on 22nd July 1990 which was organised jointly with Southern Railtours Limited). All railtours that operated between the ‘Yankee Explorer’ on 23rd March 1996 and the ‘White Rose’ on 5th December 2009 were organised by ITG Railtours Limited, the trading subsidiary of the Irish Traction Group. On 31st December 2009 ITG Railtours Limited ceased to trade, and the final railtour, the ‘141 Class Farewell’ on 6th March 2010, was once again organised by the Irish Traction Group.

In addition to the above, the Irish Traction Group and ITG Railtours Limited between them, have also organised seven visits to the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway at which the following ex. CIE diesel locomotives have been used to operate special services:

Date	Service	Traction
08/10/95	Shuttle	E432, G613, G617
20/10/96	Shuttle	G611, G613, G617
09/04/00	Shuttle	G611, G613, G617
17/04/05	Shuttle	E421, G611, G613
07/03/10	Shuttle	A39, E421, G617
05/03/11	Shuttle	A39, 146
18/11/12	146 at 50	A39, 146, G611, G617

On 13th November 1999, the Irish Traction Group operated a special train in connection with the Group’s 10th Annual General Meeting. This special train was not advertised to the general public and was only open to attendees of the AGM and invited guests. As such, it was not deemed to be a railtour and is therefore not included in the above list. The special train ran from Dublin Heuston to Wicklow and back, and was hauled by locomotive No. A39.

Including the seven visits to the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway, a total of 97 different Irish diesel locomotives and 1 British Rail diesel locomotive have appeared on the railtours. A class by class summary of these locomotives is given below.

NIR/NI Locomotives
Class	Locomotive Number
101 Class	101, 102, 103
104 Class	104, 105, 106, 108
111 Class	111, 112, 113
208 Class	208, 209

CIE/IÉ/IR Locomotives
001 Class	001, 003, 005, 012, 015, 016, 027, 035, 036, 039, 049, 051, 053, 054, 056
071 Class	071, 072, 073, 076, 077, 078, 079, 080, 081, 082, 084, 085, 088
121 Class	121, 123, 124, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135
141 Class	141, 143*, 144, 145, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 162, 163, 164, 166, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 175, 176, 177
181 Class	181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 192
201 Class	202, 233
421 Class	E421, E432
611 Class	G611, G613, G617

BR Locomotives
Class 52	D1015

* Dublin Heuston - Islandbridge Junction only

History Base

ITG Owned Ex ITG Locos Withdrawn Active

003 039 103 124 146 152 190 226 231 601 611 616 617

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