Cork Kent station at 8 O'clock on a bright sunny Sunday morning was surprisingly busy with local trains (26xx units) for Cobh and Midleton; the first express to Dublin powered by '220' and other push - pull sets with '217' and '218' stabled. Gradually familiar faces began to appear and 41 participants soon stood eagerly at the barrier for the 08.25 to Dublin to leave so that our tour train could come in.

This unit 2605+2616 was in spotless condition with the added bonus of a window in the cab doors allowing a view ahead and we needed every window open as the heating would not turn off! From P4 it was off to Cobh Jn and the Midleton branch, crossing a service train at Carrigtwohill and then into the rare Midleton P2. At this point our enthusiastic train crew deserves a mention; Driver Ken Fox and Neil Dinnen whom also provided occasional commentary and historical notes - used in this report, aided by Kieran Marshall from Irish Rail on the tour during the day which made it outstandingly enjoyable.

We then set back and ran into the usual Midleton P1 where locals were keen to board, thinking it was a Cork service (due in 30 minutes), and watched open mouthed as we ran eastwards a further 16ch to the very end of the line (6m 45ch) towards Youghal! This was, of course, new track for those who had never been to Youghal, but also for those who had, as the long headshunt deviates southeast off the original line. We were the first passenger carrying train to do it too, a great highlight of the tour.

Returning speedily to Cork P3 this time it was off to the end of line at Cobh where a two coach length of platform edge is fenced off towards the buffers but on reaching them we could exit by the rearmost door. Next was the station siding, once part of the run-round loop before a photo stop at Carrigaloe then the highlight for many, the Cork Loop outside the train shed, joining the Up line at Cork Tunnel.

According to our knowledgeable Cork driver, Ken Fox, this was only the second passenger train over it, the previous one was the Irish Traction Group (ITG) 14 Oct 2006 'Supertrain' railtour. A speedy run then took us to Mallow, reversing in P1 before joining the Tralee line to the first station of Banteer (10m 58ch), where the siding at the east end of P1 was fully griced, followed by the the seldom - used P2 loop. We then passed Millstreet (18m 78ch) where the bidirectional station loop (no platform) is fairly new; in 2004 there was just an Up siding facing Tralee. However the bidirectional loop has been out of use since 19 Feb 2018 due to a signalling issue. It was last used by the 'Emerald Isle Explorer' run by Railtours Ireland on Wed 1 Oct 2014 in the Down direction. With 084 + GSV + 4 Cravens coaches, that ran as 10.00 Cobh to Killarney crossing the 11.05 Tralee to Mallow service train here.

At Rathmore (25m 34ch) the Down Siding was done behind P1 after reversing in said P1 (required by the signalling), then it was a shunt to P2 to cross the longer 7-car well filled 11.50 Tralee to Dublin before continuing to Tralee Jn, otherwise known as Killarney Check (39m 55ch). Our tour took the facing points and climbed, passing Killarney terminal station below us, through Farranfore (50m 42ch) to Tralee terminus (61m 35ch) and the rare bay P2 with the 13.45 to Dublin in P1 - which some participants made a dash for. It's a good job that Paul and Tim had already sold the well travelled raffle tickets [there is no escape... even in ireland]. The main P1 is now truncated short of the trainshed.

During our lunch break the unit shunted to P1 so the 14.23 arrival from Cork used P2 and we could do both platforms. Returning to Killarney Check the tour ran to the very end (39m 26ch) of the reversing siding, long enough to stable the Grand Hibernian Luxury Train, (seen in Belfast the day before). The Cork Stopper then set back into the rare Killarney P2, Rathmore saw us through the Down Loop (both lines and platforms covered) but at Banteer it was P2 again. At Mallow reversal was in P3, followed by a return to Cork crossing right to and through P5 westwards and reversing to terminate in the rarer bay P3 at 16.47. After a most enjoyable trip of over 204 miles our reporter was back at Birmingham Airport (via Dublin) by 23.30 - remarkable. Thanks are due to Kev, Irish Rail and all the Crew and another sometime one please! Almost €4,000 was raised for Railway Children by this charity tour.

To follow a few pictures taken during our 18 May 2019 'Cork Stopper' railtour all by Neil Dinnen.
https://thewandererphotos.smugmug.com/ is Neil's website, a massive collection, mostly Ireland. All pictures were taken by fully qualified and authorised staff with permission.