NIR's DMU 'Thumper' Frieght - Anyone Modelled it?

[Auto-Train Original]

Has to be the most interesting train I have seen on Irish railways. Has anyone every tried to model one? Apparently they had some tractive effort and could haul a surprising amount of wagons.

Freight train at Downhill - 1979

Built by the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) 1966-68, the eight 70-class DEMUs were used by the UTA and its successor Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) for both passenger and freight haulage. Their most notable working was the evening Monday - Friday freight service from Londonderry (Waterside) to Lisburn, operated on behalf of CIE whose own locomotives would then take the train on to Dublin. Headed by No. 71 "River Bush", the train is about to enter Downhill tunnel on its way to Lisburn via Antrim and Knockmore Junction. With improved roads in Donegal and Sligo, this service simply petered-out in the 1980s.
For a 1977 view of this working, see: C7436 : Freight train at Downhill - 1977.

  © Copyright The Carlisle Kid and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

[leslie10646]

A follow-on from the use on goods trains of the Multi-Purpose Diesels some years earlier.

They used to take about thirty wagons on the "Eight-Five Goods" out of Belfast York Road in the evenings. It was commonly banked up the 1 in 76 from Bleach Green by the Station Pilot - usually a steam loco being run-in. I had a ride on a GNR Class UG one evening doing that job.