Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 34, 2010

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 1951 and 1975. 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 (Ireland) and Northern Counties Committee followed shortly thereafter. In 1951, CIÉ ordered a series of 60 cars similar to the GNR(I) examples, again combining AEC engines and Park Royal bodywork. They were delivered between March 1952 and September 1954 and numbered in the series 2600–59. Six additional cars were ordered in August 1954, however, the cars' bodywork was constructed at CIÉ's Inchicore works to a distinctive design by the company's Chief Mechanical Engineer, Oliver Bulleid. The railcars were employed on mainline express trains, including crack workings such as a three-hour nonstop service between Dublin and Cork. Many were later converted for push–pull operation with diesel locomotives, finally being withdrawn when displaced by the electric Dublin Area Rapid Transit service in the mid-1980s.