GSWR 90

Iarnród Éireann made a few bum bags out of Dart moquette to celebrate the 40th anniversary Maybe not extremely fashionable but will make a nice museum piece at DCDR – it’s the closest we can get to preserving the real thing!

Yes! Just an idea that has been batted about – it had two toilets, so one would be a (non-functioning) toilet and the other would be a museum. I think that would be more informative/interesting/better use of space than just another toilet. Even if we don't do that, would still be nice to have some more UR artefacts.

I will start going to greater efforts to get UR stuff once we have agreed that the toilet is becoming a museum... Would be a pain to acquire stuff only to have nowhere to put it I think we'd mainly be looking for non-paper items, as the humidity in the workshop and the gallery unfortunately tends to make paper go soggy after a while

By the way, if anyone has any Ulster Railway railwayana I'd be very interested in speaking with you. Some of us have discussed turning one of the toilets into a small museum about the Ulster Railway, as very few people know much about the UR even though it was the first railway in what is now Northern Ireland. However, it can be very difficult to get artefacts from a railway that closed 150 years ago

In 1862, when 33 was built: They stopped making groats in 1855 so they probably still used them in 1862 Bismark became PM of Prussia and Germany hadn't been invented yet Italy had been unified the year before, but it didn't include Rome yet (which was still under the control of the Papal States) The American Civil War was still going on, and the US emancipation proclamation hadn't been made yet The famine was closer to 1862 than the troubles is close to now The first confirmed landing on Antarctica didn't occur for another 30+ years Funny enough, if they had measured it in mm they might have noticed that one side of the coach is 12mm longer than the other!

It's amazing how far it's come from being a container to store seats not so long ago. Length of underframe is 7045mm, width is 2285mm. If you are planning to make a model of it, please let me know, as we've done quite a lot of research into what it should look like

They had some in stock yesterday! Hope that this story provided some good advertising for them. I’m confident they’ll make more at some point, we’re talking to them about printing some other stuff for us too

Based on the drawings that we do have, I think only the wagons had UR plates (see bottom pic). However, we are after Joseph Wright works plates to either make resin replicas of or to scan for 3D printing.

We got ours from Titan Forge 3D and you can buy them on Etsy. The older version is a replica of one supplied by the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

Harland & Wolff are currently constructing an underframe for the Downpatrick & County Down Railway's oldest coach, Ulster Railway 33. When we got 33 in the late 1980s, it had been out of use as a railway carriage for about 60 years. The interior fittings had all been removed, it suffered badly from various forms of rot, some idiot (not me) had hit it with a digger, and it didn't have an underframe. It was wrapped in tarp and used to store seat cushions for a long time out the front of the yard, until about 2013 when the old horrible-looking fence was replaced by the current brick frontage. One of our volunteers designed a metal frame so it could be very carefully lifted onto a donor brown van underframe which was built by Harland and Wolff in the 1940s. Volunteers removed the cushions and started to carry out some remedial work so it didn’t fall apart. The more they pulled out the fittings from its life as an office and on a farm, the more original panelling they found, and the more they realised that they had something special on their hands. With most of the bodywork restoration completed between 2018 and now, the main problem became getting an underframe sorted. Although the original drawings for this particular coach didn't survive, one of our volunteers along with two master's students from Queen's University designed a new one from scratch, using other contemporary drawings in the hands of Birmingham City Council for guidance. They spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours measuring the coach and the parts we have, and creating and testing CAD models. I wonder what the craftsmen who built 33 in the 1860s would have thought of that? We thought we'd be pushing our luck by asking H&W to fabricate the underframe, but the opportunity couldn't have been more perfect for both of us – they have over 100 apprentices who are constantly looking for projects to work on, so this is a perfect opportunity for them to learn unique new skills. It should hopefully be delivered for Downpatrick in the next few weeks, where the wheels, brake gear etc can be added. This is the first time that a new underframe has been constructed from scratch for a preservation project in Ireland (and we even got 3D printed H&W works plates) – and hopefully not the last...

Here’s a test piece based on the sample of UR paint found on the coach

That was quick! Exactly what I was looking for, thank you so much!

Hello, Does anyone have any photos of any other bilingual/Irish language signs used by the GSR/CIÉ? I’m looking specifically for a relatively large metal one that the GSR might have used. Thanks

Someone mentioned to me that the English font for GSR running-in boards is Gill sans or something very similar to it. The Irish is in bunchló GC, which seems to have been a pretty standard + very gorgeous seanchló from the 19th century. It, or something similar to it, seems to have been used in at least some CIÉ carriage signs until the 1950s. You can download it here at gaelchlo.com, along with keyboard extensions which allow you to use poncanna séimhithe and other interesting things – e.g. ṁ, ı, and ⁊. There are several stylistic sets included in the font, including new and old versions of the tironian et, as well as new and old versions of 's' (ſ) and 'r' (ɼ). You don't need a licence to use the font to write in a Celtic language. Here are some samples:

Thank you, good idea. Will see what we can do

Found some of what is hopefully the original livery on the coach

Thanks – they were able to provide the colours for our BCDR and GSWR coaches, not sure whether that was because they provided paint to them themselves or because they have the records of another company. I emailed them a while ago and I think their records only go back to the start of the 20th century

The people at Downpatrick are thinking of colours for the Ulster coach... does anybody have any ideas on specifics? We know that it was 'brick red' but that's not very helpful! Would anyone happen to have the RAL numbers for e.g. the Indian Red on the Manx or Furness locos?

Would anybody have any details of the interior of 900? There was a photo online I think of it after withdrawal but I can't find it. GSWR 69 at Downpatrick is being rebuilt to a configuration similar to 900 and I'd be very interested to see some photos of the inside of the original for inspiration.

Hi all, To what extent was the Irish language used by Irish railways in their signage/tickets/etc before the creation of the Free State in 1922 and the GSR in 1924-5? Does anyone know of any railways that had a bilingual policy prior to this period? I'd be particularly interested to learn about the use of Irish on railways in what is now Northern Ireland. Thanks

We have held a few autism-friendly events before at the railway at Downpatrick, e.g. events with no music, reduced passenger numbers, and dimmed lighting. We're looking into doing more in the future, as well has having ear defenders, a quiet space specifically for neurodivergent people, and calm bags for both adults and children.

Don’t suppose anyone has a list of the letters in English and seanchló/Irish used by the GSR on its running in boards, or know the name of a similar font?

Very well done to IÉ and the IRRS for making this possible. I’m very tempted to go on the IRRS railtour, but I can’t afford a hotel in Cork! Táilte Tours put up a great article about the 2600s a few weeks ago – you can read it here

Well, 90 was running railtours on the mainline not so long ago…