European Railroad Discussion > A Wee Taste of Irish Railtours

While making arrangements for a (non-railfan) first ever trip to Ireland via a cruise around the British Isles, I came across an Irish Railtours offering of a one day trip out of Dublin.
The tour bus met the cruise ship and took us to Connoley Station, then got to Arklow to give us a road tour mostly back roads for our return.
All in all an excellent day and fun for general tourists or railfans.  In addition to the train trip we saw a very old and still functioning woolen mill at Avoca and most of us took a 1.5 (?) mile walk between the upper and lower lakes at Glenaloch.  Ireland surprised me a bit because the forests look so much like the Cascades (I even poached some blackberries), all the counryside is a delight to the eye.
The trip is billed as "Wicklow Mountain" but for me the highlight was the trip along the coast.  Near Bray the line winds through tunnels and along sidehill cuts about 65 feet over the surf, then further south the line runs along the beach just like the Santa Fe at San Clemente or the UP (old SP) at Ventura/Seacliff.  This route, south out of Ireland, was reported as Ireland's first.
I now hope to return and take one of their 3 or 5 day tours...someday.
Photos:
1.  Our group getting off at Arklow.  The boarding in Dublin was in the midst of the morning commute hour, their suburban service seems to be well patronized, actually making photography challenging.
2.  The station at Bray had a series of small murals depicting Irish RR history, this was the first panel showing the inagural run.  We left so quickly I could only get about three of the 8 or so panels.
3.  South of Bray we are at sea level.  As compared to the heavy rock rip-rap we placed along the San Clemente shore their rocks are more organized but their problems are the same.  The white part of the image is a foggy mist over the sea.  Google Earth shows nothing over about 15 feet of elevation for some miles along here.
 

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Sounds like you had a good trip. It looks like is one awesome line to ride, very rugged terrain and right next to the sea. How did the DMU's ride?
We spent a day and night at Glendalough a couple of years ago and did the hike between the Lower and Upper lakes as well. Well, we actually went much farther due to a couple of energetic kids who weren't quite so energetic on the way back!
For your next trip, consider taking the train to Killarney in Co. Kerry.
 

The ride quality was very good.
I liked the snack trolley too. Theri "filter coffee" offering was new to me. It was a sealed packet of grounds dumped into a cup with hot water.  The cap had a filter arrangement that resulted in very fresh, very good coffee.
The DMU was about 30% occupied out of Dublin but by Arklow people were wanderig the aisles looking for seats.
Yes, I  hope to make some more trips to explore Ireland via these tours.

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> I liked the snack trolley too. Theri "filter
> coffee" offering was new to me. It was a sealed
> packet of grounds dumped into a cup with hot
> water.  The cap had a filter arrangement that
> resulted in very fresh, very good coffee.
Getting a good cup of coffee anywhere in Ireland was a challenge until recently. The first time I was over in 1998, it was freeze-dried instant coffee or you were drinking tea. On a big family trip in 2006, my brother-in-law packed a small coffee maker but it blew out two different power adapters in less than five (one of many comedic events on that trip!). On our last trip in 2015, most of the restaurants offered fresh brewed coffee.