CIÉ 2600 Class

The Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) 2600 Class were Associated Equipment Company (AEC)–engined diesel multiple units (normally termed railcars in Ireland) that operated InterCity and suburban services on the CIÉ system between 1952 and 1975. Many were later converted for push–pull operation with diesel locomotives, finally being withdrawn when displaced by the electric Dublin Area Rapid Transit service in the mid-1980s.

Background

The first single-unit diesel railcars in Ireland were introduced on the narrow-gauge County Donegal and Clogher Valley railways in the early 1930s. The Great Northern Railway and Northern Counties Committee followed shortly thereafter. However, early railcar trains did not exceed two cars in length. Early in 1948, the GNR(I) ordered a fleet of 20 railcars, capable of operating in pairs with one or two intermediate trailer cars, from AEC. Introduced in 1950 and 1951, these vehicles drew on AEC's experience with the Great Western Railway's pre-war railcars. The cars combined AEC diesel engines (two per car, each of 125 bhp (93 kW)) with bodywork by Park Royal Vehicles. CIÉ had been interested in railcars since its inception in 1945, but an initial plan for a four-car diesel-electric unit was cancelled. However, the success of the GNR(I) cars and the 1948 Milne Report's recommendations in favour of railcars (but not diesel locomotives) encouraged the company to place a large-scale order with AEC in September 1950. (Note also that 10 of the 20 GNR(I) AEC cars were inherited by CIÉ on the Great Northern's dissolution in 1958, along with 10 of 24 later cars built by the Great Northern Railway Board on British United Traction (BUT) underframes; the remainder went to the Ulster Transport Authority—see also UTA AEC.)