Not to worry you unnecessarily, but Mark 1 coaches are banned from public service here as they are not an integral constructed unit. i.e. in a crash the coach can sheer away from the underframe crushing the passengers inside.
They're a very old design (50s/60s)
Coaches of similar design crashed in Ireland in the early 1980s and failed catastrophically crushing people inside.
There were 4 generations of "intercity" coaches: unimaginately named by British Rail Engineering as Mark 1 thru Mark 4.
Mark 3 runs happily at 125mph (these are also common in Ireland)
Mark 4, slightly faster.
These two models still make up the backbone of intercity services in the British isles.. although that's changing as newer fleets come online.
Since BR was privatised, it's manufacturing division merged into other major companies e.g. Bombardier, Alstom etc etc. So, the "mark" technologies are now merged into other products.
Ireland uses the rather odd 1600mm / 5ft3in Irish gauge over all 2300km of public railways.
All long distance trains are diesel-electric hauled/push-pull or DMU (Diesel multiple units) i.e. each carriage has its own engine.
Electrification:
Dublin suburban (DART) : 1500V DC
Tramways: 750V DC
As for the intercity services on-board power:
The newest locomotives are capable of delivering 230/400V 50Hz "Head End Power", however, this feature is only used by the Dublin-Belfast "Enterprise" fleet and has proven to be unreliable. The loco has to constantly run at high revs to keep power to the lighting/air conditioning and it has resulted in reliability problems and locos suffering from excessive wear.
The rest of the fleet, including the brand new Cork-Dublin express fleet all have a generator car seperate from the locomotive. This provides 230/400V 50Hz to feed lighting, heating, air conditioning, power outlets for passengers' laptops, on-board systems, automatic doors, etc etc. This arrangement has been the norm here for decades.
DMU trains, which will make up most of the fleet soon, generate their own power in each coach with a small underfloor diesel generator. Apart from the high speed push-pull services between Dublin and Belfast and Dublin and Cork the rest of the fleet is being replaced by DMUs built by Mitsui of Japan. So, all the trainspotters (railfans) will be rather upset as old and not-so old coaches and diesel locos go to the scrappers to be replaced with "boring" computerised Japanese-built DMUs with all the character of a Toyota. I on the otherhand, will be glad to see the back of the 1960s/70s crocks!
All trains have a battery back up UPS style system in each carriage to provide emergency power to the automatic doors and basic lighting should the generator fail / become disconnected.
[This message has been edited by djk (edited 12-29-2005).]
