Gavin Hamilton

A question for those knowledgable about coaches - I've seen b&w photographs of the Ballymena & Larne 'boat train' coaches as running on the Ballycastle line with the corridor 'blanks' lettered LMS NC but I don't know what colour it was, I wonder if it may have been gold to match the lettering in the livery? Regards Gavin

Certainly Balleyboley Junction but I think the photograph was taken from the watertank as the light coloured debris on the ground by the loco marks where signal cabin had stood. Gavin

I've found Boyd a reliable source though there is at least one person (very active on FB - with a false name) who is very vocal with his criticism (I won't be glorifying this idiot, I was told his real name and the fact he is a prick) No idea where his archive might be. I've never heard of the Coey/Cowie brothers though the book sounds interesting so finding a copy should be worth a look. Going off at a tangent - does anyone collect/possess NCC 'working timetables'? These could be interesting, especially for what might have run after the end of passenger sevices, timetables only get a very vague mention in the Patterson books. Regards Gavin

Typical - answered one part of the question and only realised I'd missed the rest of it after I pressed transmit I have no idea who has the Coakham Archive but if I was to speculate I'd suggest who might know, and this is a wild guess - try Charles Friel - and if it isn't please accept my apologies. Gavin

I had been wondering the same thing, without a photograph we are left assuming that the loco being scrapped was 110. Book captions can leave a lot to be desired :), there is one of 113 hauling a load of side tipping wagons from Larne Harbour towards the NG town station, one caption suggests 'unknown MR tipper wagons' for the bauxite traffic to BAC at Larne but if you dig a bit more the wagons were BAC stock and I assume whatever they contained was going somewhere to be tipped (waste). If I'm really at a dead end (probably soon if the madness continues) I might go through the wagon photos to attempt to work out a number range for the Hoppers Regards Gavin

Lacking in total confidence, it shared the shed with 110 (which was still 'red' in June 1945 according to an article by Desmond Coakham in Railway Bylines May2004, but the passengers didn't have the nerve to ask 113's crew to pull 110 out for photographs) 13th June 1945, given that 113 had a reputation for being 'slippery', 110 (unused for about 4 years) must have been even worse - the only 'action' shots of 110 are all as a shunter at Larne Harbour so I suspect it would have had issues climbing the bank out of Larne - or it had been tried and the general opinion was 'never again' Gavin

Sounds similar to my 35 years experience in the IT industry, India would demand a major change be done 'NOW' and if we read the email trail in full they had been planning the event for the last 6 months but just hadn't got round to informing us - I was very relieved to discover that I had put enough into my pension fund so I could afford to retire - no payoff of course, the bigwigs just wanted to save money which would go on their bonus and the unions were not interested in 'constructive dismissal' cases either - don't expect a long service award if your ultimate employer is a corporation based in the USA - just glad i'm not dependent on them anymore Gavin

There is a photograph in the Mike Morant collection, taken in Larne NG shed, showing UT livery. Gavin

There is a very old joke this side of the Irish Sea that the painters usually arrived a couple of weeks before closure though I think reliverying a locomotive after it had made it's last run in service is going a bit far - maybe the copy of the final closure notice hadn't reached the painters in the case of #42 Gavin

Looks like it did get the UTA livery, the colour photograph of it (#43) in Ballymoney yard after closure shows the 'UTA symbol' (not sure of the term) on the Tank side - #42 was reliveried in Larne Shed after it had last run Gavin

I'd certainly be interested to see the picture of the compound tank heading north out of Ballymena. I got a nice picture of #43 still lettered NCC with the LMS crest on the cab side in the yard at Ballymoney, dated March 1950, from Charles Friel collection (E.M.Patterson photo) Regards Gavin

I checked the Mid Antrim Narrow Gauge book and I found 2 published pictures of the 0-6-0T's and 6 of the Cushandall 0-4-2T's north of Ballymena but none of an S class on that line, I've only seen one leaving Ballymena for Parkmore so this might be the only photograph seen. It looks like the BCRBR is a very rarely photographed line and having checked the closure dates against what could have been in service there must have been an S class over the whole length of the line, even hauling track removal trains when it closed Gavin

Loads of stuff in your collection that interests me such as the Callander & Oban line - my Great Uncle (and possibly even earlier ancestors) was a driver on this line Gavin

The 'Lurgi' is holding up a load of things at the moment! Thanks, hopefully something does surface. Gavin

Hopefully they might be able to assist Gavin