Welcome to the Website of the Irish Traction Group
 

The Irish Traction Group (ITG) was formed on the 4th June 1989 with the objective of preserving at least one example of each class of diesel locomotive to have operated on the Irish railway system. The ultimate aim of the Group is to restore its collection of locomotives to full operational condition. The ITG specifically caters for the modern traction enthusiast, providing up to date news of events and workings on the railway system via its quarterly journal "The Irish Mail". The ITG owns the largest number of privately owned main line diesel locomotives in Ireland and operates occasional railtours both in the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom. Latest Railtour available on the Events Page. Can you help? ITG DEVELOPMENT FUND The Irish Traction Group’s latest fundraising appeal, the “ITG Development Fund” was launched at the end of 2008.  This appeal is to help raise the necessary funds to help secure the future of the ITG’s collection of preserved diesel locomotives. Due to the requirement by Iarnród Éireann for more space within its main workshops at Inchicore Works, Dublin, the ITG had to remove all of its rolling stock previously situated at Inchicore Works to two new homes at the end of November 2009. 001 (A) class locomotive A39 moved to the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway, Downpatrick, Co. Down, whilst 001 (A) class locomotive A3R, 121 (B) class locomotive 124, 181 (B) class locomotive 190 and 201 (C) class locomotive C231 all moved to the West Clare Railway, Moyasta, Co. Clare, for display at a proposed new museum that is due to be constructed at the site soon. Further details of this vitally important appeal are given here. 141/181 (B) CLASS LOCOMOTIVE FUND The Irish Traction Group is currently running a fund-raising appeal to help raise the necessary finance to purchase a representative from each of these two classes for preservation. Whilst the Group has now been successful in purchasing 181 (B) class locomotive 190 for preservation, there is still currently a shortfall in the 141/181 Fund of approximately € 8,000 at the beginning of December 2009 that is urgently needed to help secure a representative of the 141 (B) class locomotives. Iarnród Éireann have already agreed to make 141 (B) class locomotive 146 available to the Irish Traction Group for preservation when it is eventually withdrawn from service in early 2010. Further details of this vitally important appeal is given here. Website Photographs The Irish Traction Group is always looking for photographs of Irish diesel locomotives and other associated rolling stock for display on our website. If you have any photographs that you would like to submit for possible inclusion on the website. There are two areas where we are looking for photos, the withdrawn locos section and the Railtour Archive. If you can help please e-mail your photos to: Scans of photographs and slides are also acceptable. Please note there is an email size limit of 2Mb per email. If the total size is greater than this you will need to split the photos across a number of emails. Pictures will be accredited and remain the copyright of the photographer. If you would like to use any of the images on this website, please e-mail the address shown above, and we will put you in contact with the original photographer. Please feel free to explore our website.

Photo of the Month (January 2010) 103 at MP 25 propelling an up Enterprise possibly during 1980. Photo: Barry Pickup  Do you have a photo for photo of the month? If you have any photos of Irish Traction you would like to see here send to the website email address. Latest Website Update Details of the next Railtours available We had 17,000 unique visitors to the site in 2009 we hope you found it interesting and do visit again in 2010. Happy New Year from all at the Irish Traction Group Railtour Archive Updates A collection of photos have been received from some of the tours of the late 1990s and these have been added to the archive. A number of tours are still missing photos. Can you help?