The 201 Class is a group 34 locomotives that were built for Ireland during the boom years of the Celtic Tiger and were manufactured by General Motors EMD in Ontario, Canada. 32 for Iarnród Éireann and 2 for Northern Ireland Railways. They arrived in Ireland during 1994-1995, the first to arrive was 201 which flew into Dublin Airport on an Antonov An-124 for tests and driver training, the rest travelled by sea. All were named after Irish Rivers, with both Irish and English translations except fot the NIR engines which only had the English translations. For the NIR, the 2 engines were designated to run the Enterprise between Dublin and Belfast and were renumbered 8208 and 8209. The engines started off in the blue NIR livery pulling Mk2 coaches before being repainted in the original Enterpise livery, coinciding with the arrival of the De Dietrich Set in 1997. All Enterprise engines received this livery, the livery was then changed to a Green and Silver Livery in 2009 and then a Purple and Silver livery in 2015. For IÉ, the 201 Class had mixed duties being used for both freight and Intercity services, 2 of which were designated to the Enterprise just like the NIR. 24 of the engines were fitted to provide Push/Pull services with Mk3 DVTs, Enterprise De Dietrich sets and later MK4 sets. With the introduction of the 22000 DMU Class for Intercity services in 2007, the use of the 201 Class declined. All non-Push/Pull locomotives were put into storage at Inchicore, Dublin in 2009. While the remaining engines have been used for freight, Intercity services between Dublin-Cork with MK4 stock and the Dublin-Belfast Enterprise with De Dietrich stock. In 2016, 2 engines were earmarked for use for the luxury hotel company, the Belmond where 216 has been used on the luxurious train service, the Grand Hibernia. The engines for IÉ arrived in standard orange and black and in 2006, non-Push/Pull engines received additional yellow faces which still retain this livery in storage. Push/Pull engines received the new Green and Silver Intercity Livery coinciding with the arrival of the Mk4 Stock which is still in use today. However in 2015, 4 of the Intercity Engines were then transferred to Enterprise services, 2 being repainted in the new Silver and Purple Enterprise livery and the other 2 being in the Common Livery. These Common engines were intended to be back up Enterprise engines but were often used for other duties on the IÉ network and so had to bear a neither IÉ or Enterprise Livery to maintain nuetrality(for Enterprise services) but also be different than the current Enterprise Livery(so it could be used on the IÉ network). In 2016, 216 was repainted from the Intercity livery to the Belmond Blue. Additonally 230 still retains the Green and Silver Enterprise Livery while in storage in Belfast.
Тип: traincar