80th Anniversary Railtour Outing Dublin Connolly to Thurles Return

Join us to celebrate 80 years of Irish railway history.

We are delighted to announce that a Railtour outing has been arranged for Saturday 24th October 2026 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Irish Railway Record Society.

With thanks to the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) and Iarnród Éireann, we will undertake an outing from Dublin to Thurles, hauled by a pair of Iarnród Éireann 071 Class locomotives and featuring the renowned RPSI Cravens carriages, complete with their legendary Bar Car and Dining Car offering hot and cold drinks, alcoholic beverages, sandwiches, snacks, and light refreshments.

We have requested that the tour is routed to operate via Portarlington Down Loop (outward), Portarlington Up Loop (return) & Ballybrophy Loop (outward).

All timings are indicative until confirmed by Iarnród Éireann.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

On Monday 6th October, the RPSI informed the IRRS that their Steam Locomotive No. 171 which was originally planned to operate our tour will now not be available for our trip on the 24th of October to Thurles after it suffered a serious mechinical defect on an RPSI outing to Dundalk on Sunday 5th October.

In discussions between ourselves, the RPSI and Iarnród Éireann, we have proposed that the tour operates using Iarnrod Eireann 071 Class diesel locomotives dating from 1976 and which are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year.

We plan to use two of their heritage liveried locomotives No. 071 (in CIE livery from 1976) and No. 073 (in Irish Rail livery from 1987), subject to availability, throughout the day working in multiple together.