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The Córas Iompair Éireann 121 class is a railway locomotive which was manufactured by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. These locomotives were in regular service on the Irish railway network until 2002, with the last two remaining in service until 2008. == History. == The Class 121 locomotives were manufactured in December 1960 and January 1961 and numbered B121 to B135. The last two locomotives that survived in traffic (Nos. 124 and 134) were both withdrawn from service on 3 May 2008. Prior to 1961, almost all Irish diesel locomotives were built in Great Britain, but from the 1960s onwards, GM became the sole supplier of locomotives to CIÉ, which eventually also extended to Northern Ireland Railways locomotives at a later stage. These were EMD's first ever fully American-built locomotives delivered to Europe. The Class 121 locomotives were a typical American-style single cab ‘road switcher'. The layout of the cab was quite different from the other conventional CIÉ diesel models of the time, with the controls to the side of the driver, rather than the front. Due to apparent driver complaints of reduced visibility when operating with cab trailing, it was ultimately decided that these locomotives should only operate in a cab-leading formation. Later conversion for multiple-unit working allowed two 121 class locomotives to be coupled hood-end to hood-end, removing the need to turn them around for their return journey. Although originally fitted with an EMD 8-567CR engine of , all were later fitted with 645 type "power packs" (piston & liner assemblies) for parts standardisation, while at the same time keeping their original power output for reliability reasons. They weighed and had a maximum speed of . Numbers 126-129 were later rebuilt with an EMD 8-645E engine of ; as used in the 181 Class locomotives. All but three (121, 125, and 135) were fitted with Train Door Control equipment for operation with the Inchicore-built, BR Mark 3 based, Push-Pull train units. The push-pull equipment of locomotive 132 was subsequently decommissioned. Entering service in 1989, these trains, consisting of a single 121 class and up to six carriages, were mainly used on the Dublin northern suburban passenger railway service. These were to be the last regular passenger duties for the 121s (edit - incorrect, Dublin suburbans went to 201s in the Winter of 1995/6, the Limerick shuttle continued to be 121 worked for several years after this date). In 1994, a railcar "revolution" had begun, and the push pull carriages were later re-deployed to inter-city duties with the Class 201 locomotives. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「CIE 121 Class」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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