© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2011 This was a day trip with the Shropshire Railway Society - well, a day plus a late night and an early morning, using the ferry from Holyhead. I had read of the great railway works at Inchicore many years ago, in one of the first railway books I ever bought - a remaindered copy of "The Aspinall Era", by H A V Bulleid. The famed locomotive engineer of the L&YR, apprenticed at Crewe, served at Inchicore under McDonnell from 1875 until taking up his post at Horwich in 1885. "It hasn't changed much" was the comment I heard from my colleagues. Well, of course, it has changed enormously - but much of the original fabric of the works is still there and still in use. I can't remember a lot about the trip around the works. We had a very friendly and helpful guide, who took us more or less wherever we wanted to go. Some of the highlights were undoubtedly the motor shop, looking more like a garden centre, and the presence of Metro-Vick A-class no 055, undergoing conversion into a pub! Were the insides really being completely removed, so that drinkers could enjoy a pint of Guinness? No 055 now resides at the "Hell's Kitchen" in Castlerea, Roscommon. Leaving the works with time to spare, the party split. We took advantage of an IR Dublin area day rover ticket, and had a ride out to Maynooth on a push-pull service hauled by one of the dwindling 121 class diesels. We had seen at least one withdrawn example at Inchicore. I believe the class is still dwindling..... Returning to Connolly, we had plenty of time for a ride out to the lagoon at Malahide, on the former GNR(I) main line to Belfast, where we snapped NIR-liveried no 208 heading for Dublin. Then back to Connolly, where there was just time for a pint of Guinness in Amiens Street, before retracing our steps to Heuston, where the party would rendezvous and catch the bus back to the ferry at Dublin Bay. The lowering sun in the west made some wonderful silhouettes under the station roof (no-one else thought so....) Irish Rail Scenes at Inchicore, Connolly, Malahide and Heuston Links: • Hell's Kitchen • Shropshire Railway Society