Ballymena's Forgotten Narrow Gauge Terminus

[Patrick Davey]

Exploring the narrow gauge routes of County Antrim with Alan @Tullygrainey yesterday started me thinking about the former and very short-lived terminus of The Ballymena & Larne Railway in Ballymena.   The line from Larne opened in 1878 and terminated at Harryville, on the southern side of Ballymena.  The location was provided with fairly extensive facilities including a coal store, goods shed, engine shed and turntable, although the passenger facilities were very limited, maybe due to the realisation that ultimately a connection would be needed to bring narrow gauge trains into the broad gauge station.  This connection was opened fairly quickly, after only two years, and narrow gauge trains ran up to the broad gauge station from 1880.  An avoiding line was built around Harryville station on an ascending embankment, crossed Queen Street on a girder bridge before plunging through a row of terraced houses (two houses had to be demolished to facilitate this) to meet the broad gauge line and run parallel with this into the station.  The B&L had a short independent existence, bring taken over by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway in 1890.  Much later, in 1928, under LMS ownership, the line was provided with a fleet of quite luxurious bogie carriages, the finest to run on the Irish narrow gauge, which served the declining passenger traffic on the boat trains to Larne.  These unique carriages only saw 5 years of service on the Larne boat trains, as passenger services on the line from Ballymena to Larne ceased in 1933.  What a memorable trip that must have been.

The former railway facilities at Harryville are long gone but the gap in the terraced houses in Queen Street survives.  The fabulous Britain from Above website includes a decent selection of aerial views of Ballymena and in the background of one such view taken in 1953, the remains of the layout at Harryville can be seen, along with the avoiding line embankment, and the old goods store and coal store.

 

 

 

[airfixfan]

NCC coach 318 survives today aa CDR coach 58 at the Donegal Railway Heritage Museum. We have a talk this Saturday afternoon at 14.30 by Charles Friel

[airfixfan]

Interesting photo from 1953 considering Harryville closed completely in 1940 and was quickly lifted during WW2. 

[Patrick Davey]

Just came across this cracking aerial view of Ballymena from 1943, which clearly shows the NG line crossing Queen Street and diving between the houses!!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2788669854589162&set=a.422306921225479&locale=en_GB

Edited August 15, 2024 by Patrick Davey

[airfixfan]

So proves story line lifted quickly is untrue

[airfixfan]

Patrick cannot get that photo to open. Will send you a PM

[Galteemore]

14 hours ago, airfixfan said:

So proves story line lifted quickly is untrue

Patterson makes odd remark that line was lifted in June 1940 and shipped to France for use by BEF. This sounds like a real urban myth. No way that BEF in June 1940 was looking for light railways! Small ships, perhaps….

[Patrick Davey]

4 hours ago, airfixfan said:

Patrick cannot get that photo to open. Will send you a PM

Jim it’s a Facebook group, don’t think it has any privacy restrictions though?

[Tractionman]

26 minutes ago, Patrick Davey said:

Jim it’s a Facebook group, don’t think it has any privacy restrictions though?

here it is : 

[airfixfan]

Thanks for that

[jhb171achill]

On 19/8/2024 at 9:17 AM, Galteemore said:

Patterson makes odd remark that line was lifted in June 1940 and shipped to France for use by BEF. This sounds like a real urban myth. No way that BEF in June 1940 was looking for light railways! Small ships, perhaps….

If I had a euro for every every nonsense urban myth I’ve ever heard that such-and-such a railway was “lifted for the war effort” (north AND south!) or “dropped on Hitler”, I’d be a billionaire. 

The one and only line which was deliberately dismantled with this purpose in mind, soon after it closed in 1942, was the Clogher Valley.

Certainly not like Patterson to propagate urban myths, but there ye go.

Senior reported a small section of the Cushendall line as being navigable in the very early 40s. He travelled on the footplate of a light engine up to Cargan or Rathkenny or somewhere like that at about that time - though since I’m unaware of the date, it’s possible that jaunt was a few years earlier. The mission was to collect an empty wagon from a dairy siding somewhere.

[Galteemore]

20 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

If I had a euro for every every nonsense urban myth I’ve ever heard that such-and-such a railway was “lifted for the war effort” (north AND south!) or “dropped on Hitler”, I’d be a billionaire. 

The one and only line which was deliberately dismantled with this purpose in mind, soon after it closed in 1942, was the Clogher Valley.

Certainly not like Patterson to propagate urban myths, but there ye go.

Senior reported a small section of the Cushendall line as being navigable in the very early 40s. He travelled on the footplate of a light engine up to Cargan or Rathkenny or somewhere like that at about that time - though since I’m unaware of the date, it’s possible that jaunt was a few years earlier. The mission was to collect an empty wagon from a dairy siding somewhere.

Interesting chat with Galteemore snr yesterday who recalls NG steam at Ballyclare -on footplate of a Larne Aluminium loco on the lifting train c1953!! Imagine the noise of that up Inver bank!!

Edited August 21, 2024 by Galteemore

[40 milepost]

On 19/8/2024 at 1:25 PM, Tractionman said:

here it is : 

An iron girder bridge locally called the war horse bridge as it had an ad for warhorse tobacco on it.