Patrick Davey

The head-on shot of A55 is superb JB!

Fabulous!

Fabulous shed scene in particular, amongst many other fabulous scenes!

Very kind @Billycan, thank you! The stories are inspired by the creativity of @jhb171achill and the ongoing shenanigans at Dugort Harbour Cheers JB!

Keeping a candle lit for maroon & blue from IRM at some stage!

That is one seriously impressive model John. Very neat addition of the doors and windows too.

Impressive Noel, good luck with the extension!

Excellent as always David. That loco is a lovely prototype.

Fascinating photographic record Alan, and well done for getting to this stage! Won't be long before No. 29 graces the stage at Loughan Quay.

Excellent - you must be the most prolific creator on this forum Darius!

Now that is a very good question - I must ask him!!!!

Love the 'troubles' vehicle collection - superb modelling! Railway stuff superb too of course!!

And Larne Harbour maybe!

Ah would have been good to meet you GM, next time!! Glad you had a good visit as well.

I had a very enjoyable visit to this excellent show yesterday, in the equally excellent company of Alan of this parish! Great to meet plenty of forum members there too, especially @leslie10646 And of course I just had to expand my Provincial Wagons fleet while I was there..... An excellent show all round with plenty of top class vendors in attendance. Well done NDMRS for presenting another fantastic show. Some views from my visit: @leslie10646 & myself! O scale Dargle Road O scale Dargle Road The next four views are of the superb 'Fenaghy Junction' in OO: The next three views are of Nelson Jackson's exquisite NER layout in OO: Three views of Gordon Hunt's superb 'Donaghadee', this has to be seen to be believed: These were my top choices - there were many many more excellent layouts on display. Maybe 'Brookhall Mill' will be there next year!

Thanks for clarifying John

Nice! Always great to see trains running.

This is charming!

* BCDR double tracked from Belfast to Bangor and Belfast to Comber * NCC double tracked from Belfast to Ballymena and from Bleach Green to Whitehead * GNR was a bit more complicated, definitely double tracked from Belfast to Dublin (interlaced at the Boyne Viaduct) and Dublin to Howth but there were other sections too including from Portadown to Clones (I think?) and also from Portadown to some point between there and Dungannon and also the final section of the Derry Road, from one of the Donegal stations into Derry. @jhb171achill can fill in the missing details there! Also wasn't the Cork, Blackrock & Passage line known for having the only stretch of double tracked narrow gauge line in Ireland?

It is interesting to speculate on the route and operation of any future line from Derry to Letterkenny. Presumably as this would be a brand new line, it would take a southerly route out of Derry rather than follow a longer northerly route as the Swilly line did. Also, as the talk is about 'reconnecting' Donegal to the rail network, would this line somehow connect to NIR metals at Waterside, presumably via a new (and expensive!) bridge..... OR would it exist in isolation, in the style of The Waterford and Tramore Railway..... Plus.... who would actually own it....and work it........? Have plans been drawn up I wonder........

Lovely work Noel!

Here's some video footage from the above escapade! With continued thanks to Alan (Tullygrainey) for his excellent company and for making this all happen! The BCDR at Brookhall Mill.mp4

BCDR VISITORS TO BROOKHALL By the late 1930s, the GNR(I) had begun supplying Brookhall Mill linen products to other railway companies, principally the neighbouring LMS-NCC and BCDR. These shipments became less frequent once the mill was called upon to contribute to the Northern Ireland war effort, and they did not properly resume until after 1945. One exception to this however was an order received from The Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle, Co. Down, in early 1943. The hotel was owned by the BCDR and the railway company wished to refresh the hotel’s stocks of tablecloths, napkins, bed linen and certain staff uniforms, so after negotiations with Brookhall it was agreed that this order could be fulfilled by mid-1943. The delivery day was scheduled for Wednesday July 7th 1943 but the GNR had informed the BCDR that due to operational demands with wartime traffic, they could not supply locomotives or suitable rolling stock to assist with delivery. Prior to the war, the distinctive cream-liveried Brookhall linen vans would occasionally have been seen in Newcastle, having travelled via Banbridge in either passenger or goods trains. But in 1943 the NI railway companies were making an essential contribution to preparations for the imminent invasion of Europe, and the GNR found themselves sufficiently stretched that day that they would not be able to deliver the order to Newcastle nor to Belfast Queen’s Quay. The BCDR was therefore tasked with collecting the order using their own rolling stock and this produced possibly the most unusual BCDR workings to Brookhall, involving both steam and diesel traction. The day started at 10:03 in Newcastle, when BCDR 4-4-2t locomotive No. 30 departed in the Castlewellan direction, with a short train consisting of three covered vans and a brake van. The train ran onto GNR metals at Castlewellan where a GNR driver was collected, and made its leisurely way along the scenic northern foothills of the Mourne Mountains via Ballyward, Ballyroney and Katesbridge to Banbridge, arriving at 10:40. The train had to wait at Banbridge for 17 minutes to allow GNR traffic to pass, before being cleared to continue to Lisburn via Dromore & Hillsborough. The train was signal checked at Knockmore Junction for 3 minutes before being cleared to proceed into Lisburn, arriving at 11:45. No. 30 ran around her train at Lisburn and departed for Brookhall at 12:01, taking the Antrim line at Knockmore at 12:09 and arriving at the mill at 12:16. This was when things started to unravel, when it emerged that due to a staff shortage and other operational difficulties, the shipment would not be ready at the agreed time of 14:00, and instead it would take a further three hours to before it could be checked, packed and loaded. This presented the BCDR with an immediate problem in that No. 30 was rostered to bring a troop train from Tullymurry to Belfast at 14:35 and of course the troop train would have to take priority. Experiencing similar wartime demands as the GNR, the BCDR did not have another locomotive available to haul the troop train so after a frantic telephone exchange between Brookhall and Queen’s Quay, it was decided that No. 30 would return immediately to Newcastle to collect the carriages for the troop train, and the BCDR vans would remain at Brookhall to await collection later. After having her water and coal topped up, No. 30 departed Brookhall at 12:55 and due to anticipated congestion at Banbridge it was decided that the locomotive would run non-stop through Lisburn and on towards Belfast, take the Belfast Central line and then bypass Queen’s Quay to join the BCDR main line and head directly to Newcastle. There was a signal check at Ballynahinch Junction at 14:05 which caused some concern to the locomotive crew, but this cleared after 3 minutes and after a lively run via Downpatrick Loop No. 30 made it to Newcastle for 14:29. It was decided that to save time, she would run bunker-first to Tullymurry, which was reached at 14:42, where the awaiting soldiers were taken aboard with no further delay, and only a certain amount of grumbling from the officers in charge….. Back at Queen’s Quay they were having to think hard about how to retrieve their vans from Brookhall, as the manager of the Slieve Donard Hotel was getting impatient to receive his valuable shipment. Then someone realised that diesel No. 2 had been in the workshops at Queen’s Quay and had that very morning been released for duty. It was normal practice for a recently-outshopped locomotive to be given a short running-in trip so it was quickly decided to send the diesel to Brookhall to bring the vans back onto the BCDR. The diesel was usually found on the BCDR’s Ballynahinch branch but due to the aforementioned wartime demands, a locomotive from the Great Southern Railways had been borrowed in 1941 to help work the branch - this was ex-DSER 2-4-2 loco No. 430, which eventually retuned south in 1945. Diesel No. 2 left Queen’s Quay at 15:23 and after reversal at Ballymacarret Junction to access the Belfast Central line, the locomotive ran directly to Brookhall, with only a short stop at Adelaide to collect a GNR driver. Brookhall was reached at 16:21 and immediately upon arrival, the BCDR crew were informed of another unexpected problem. The three BCDR vans which had arrived behind No. 30 that morning were not sufficient to transport the complete shipment, so the GNR offered to provide one of their own linen vans to resolve the situation, knowing that it could be easily returned from Newcastle via Castlewellan. There was some concern that four fully-laden vans plus a brake van might be a bit heavy for the little diesel to haul, but after a further telephone exchange with Queen’s Quay, it was agreed that the load should be fine for the locomotive, as long as a speed limit of 20mph was observed on the descent towards Knockmore Junction. The GNR had helpfully shunted the vans ready for the diesel’s arrival and after the paperwork had been signed, the train departed Brookhall at 17:01. Lisburn was passed at 17:25 and in one final unusual act of the day, the train slowed to a crawl as it passed through Adelaide, to allow the GNR driver to alight onto the platform without the train actually stopping. This was done due to concerns about the diesel’s ability to restart the train after a stop because the thought of a BCDR train blocking the GNR main line so close to Belfast wasn’t particularly appealing to anyone. The train continued onto the Belfast Central line and although the climb over the ‘shaky’ bridge was taken at a snail’s pace, the little diesel didn’t stall and successfully made it to Ballymacarret Junction. The train reversed into Queen’s Quay station, arriving at 18:25 and the vans were coupled to the 19:55 Newcastle train that evening, arriving at 21:27. The GNR linen van didn’t quite make it back to Brookhall that same evening but it was eventually returned the following day. And so ended a rather unusual day of BCDR workings to and from Brookhall Mill.

If the BCDR main line had survived into the 1960s, then the new CIÉ diesel locomotives may well have appeared at Loughan Quay: (It might have been possible for a new A class loco to have reached Newcastle (Co. Down) - the locos started arriving in Ireland a few months after the GNR closed the line to Newcastle in May 1955 but presumably the track was still intact during the rest of 1955 at least, so it might have been physically possible......?) And with even more of a stretch of the imagination, had the line survived into the 1970s then NIR's Hunslet locomotives may even have reached Loughan Quay as well: With thanks to Alan for welcoming these unsual visitors to his absolutely stunning layout!

Not this time - it was actually composed by one of my students under my direction! A GCSE composition project!! Aren't Alan's BCDR models amazing JB, the Loughan Quay layout has to be seen to be fully appreciated and I feel very privileged to have seen it twice now. And it was a true pleasure to have such stunning BCDR models visit Brookhall Mill.