Hello, I’m just back from my third time visiting Dublin, and I used various parts of the rail system to get around while I was there. It occurred to me what a great, multilayered TSW addon could be created in the Dublin area. if you look at a route from Greystones in the south, to Dublin Connolly, and onward to Drogheda in the north (with the short branch to Howth) you get: - High frequency, electrified DART services. - Regional DMU services - The Dublin - Belfast Enterprise diesel service, which makes its first stop at Drogheda after Connolly. What makes it interesting in my view: - an interesting layering of frequently stopping DART services (essentially like an S-Bahn), medium stopping regional routes, and a long stopping intercity route. Lots of service pattern options to keep things interesting…the DART runs up to every ten minutes at rush hour so it would be a really busy route, and threading regional services through that continuous stream of DART trains would be fun. - mix of diesel and electric equipment - great scenery and tunnels along the coast. - an interesting, busy station at Connolly. - a great first entry into Irish DLC as I know it’s often requested. - Single license holder in Iarnród Éireann - Relatively close to DTG offices for research purposes - DTG staff would get to spend time in amazing Dublin while researching - Similar signalling to the UK, but as I understand it, the safety systems are similar but different from the UK, so something to learn. - There’s a multitude of equipment types operated on the route, it to start you could get away with one DART equipment type, one DMU, and the Enterprise train set. If three is too many, then I would see the Enterprise getting sacrificed. - There are opportunities for future trains DLCs to support the route. The DART is about to introduce new trains, and it already operates multiple types. There are different DMUs as well I do believe. - As for era, I think current day (2026) would be best. Lots of older DART stock still in use and new stock to come. - This could serve as a base for other future Irish routes since the stock (other than the DART trains) could be used on other routes, particularly west out of Dublin Heuston Station. If running all to the way to Drogheda was too long to be an option, Malahide (along with the Howth branch) would be a good compromise, though that makes it difficult to run the Enterprise trains. Thanks for reading. I’m sure if missed something here so hopefully the others hoping for an Irish route can add on! Dave
Sadly, apart from the one MSTS route, Ireland - North and South - have been steadfastly ignored by the commercial/payware sector.
We need to keep hounding them. IÉ would get a great pr excercise out of it. Johannes would have a field day here. Dublin to Portlaoise would be my first pick as it's squarely in the Goldilocks zone in terms of raw mileage (50ish). 4 line running on the way out of the greater Dublin area. Inchicore works on the Heuston end and L-TCD on the Portlaoise end makes for something quite similar to GWE. Class 201 GM locos + MK4 DVT and MKIV coaching stock (modified MK3s with automatic doors) for the cork runs that call at portlaoise most of the time and takes about 40 mins ISH (idk I'm not really interested in these) 201s also run timber trains/ballast wagons and other cargo liners. Class 81 "BOBO" locos for freight. The 22000 Class DMU by Hyundai Rotem is my favourite unit on this earth which handles everything else. Voith transmissions, The dynamic braking on these things sound amazing. Notched throttle like a voyager, 0-100% on the brakes which are seperate handles. The 90000 class by alstom is currently in testing on these lines. Some of these will be BEMUs Quad line working with the inners (70PSR for slow services). Outers (100PSR for through running) as far as Hazelhatch and Celbridge) which sees the line converge to two lines at 100MPH. P=Platform. All stations out of Heuston are as follows; Parkwest/Cherry Orchard. (4P) Clondalkin/ Foothill (4P) Kishoge (4P) Adamstown (4P) Hazelhatch and Celbridge (4P) Sallins and Naas (2P) Newbridge (3P, one for Grand Canal dock services) {The curragh area drops to 90MPH with an immediate further check down to 80, back up to 100 before->} Kildare (2P with a center road for freight runarounds) Monasterevin (2P) Portarlington (2P with stabling roads mainly used for ballast wagons) (80PSR IIRC) Portlaoise (90PSR, TERMINUS FOR ROUTE) extra mile down the road on the left is Laois TrainCare where the ICR fleet nap. The routes that can be put in timetable are as follows -Dublin Heuston to Portlaoise (Suburban service) all stops. -Heuston to Cork (Fast one which only calls at portlaoise usually but a few more in the Sheila depending on the service) -Heuston to Waterford (Diverges after Kildare, calls at a mix of Newbridge, Sallins and Kildare. 20:20hrs calls at all stops on the slows) -Grand canal dock to Newbridge (Starts at phoenix park tunnel just put of Heuston on our proposed route, connects to Dublin Connolly and can allow route hopping to DLC if successful which includes DART services) -Heuston to Westport (Diverges out of proposed route) -Heuston to Limerick direct (one person day each way I think, likes to call at adamstown and a few others) -Heuston to Galway (Usually fast to Portarlington but uses Kildare at times) -Heuston to Tralee (IDK much about this one) CAWS is a safety system that uses track circuit codes to tell the in cab aspect display unit what aspect is ahead, very reminiscent of AWS with some US style stuff in its DNA. This safety system drops out at Kildare if you're going on the branch. Prompting driver to switch the system to disabled to avoid issues) Which won't be included in the route. Though it could be as far as Carlow which sits nearly 60 miles from heuston) I think this would be the most appropriate route because itl grab all demographics, the slow crowd, the fast crowd and the freight/ engineering crowd. Thatl maximise the success of the proposed dlc. Sorry for the bible lol but the more people mention this the higher the odds and tbh the place has been abuzz with Irish mentions this month. I know the team are seeing this too. Which makes me quite hopeful (please don't humble me lol) Edit: one of the stations out of Dublin does have 5 platforms I just can't remember which one
The other day trip I did on this visit was Dublin - Kilkenny so I would have travelled along a lot of this corridor. This was another one on my mind for the reasons you’ve mention.
Haha for good reason, the sector between cherryville junction and athy is 100mph for a while which feels so bizarre on a single line setup, With crossings and whistle boards everywhere
Also just like to mention. That's a mere 68mm less than lisbon - setubal. Use those splines. We don't mind Like I've said many times before. I've got access to free rail travel. I will take every single painstaking reference photo required. I'll run the dog work for any dev willing to undertake this.
