Modern Day Rail on Derry Road

[GNRi1959]

If the railway network was still intact today on the Derry Road, what rolling stock and locomotives do you imagine would be working their way through Omagh. I think its nice to model the 1950s steam era but it would be a nice touch to also consider running modern day trains.

Would the original station building have been kept or would it have been relocated elsewhere to a modern NIR platform outside town?

[NIRCLASS80]

It would be CAF Dmus like the rest of the system and a rationalised station like most others. 

[jhb171achill]

You'd have no freight since 1965, apart from possible through Derry - Dundalk traffic. They'd have been hauled in the 70s by 141s probably, but long gone by now. As NIR80 says, CAFs would be the order of the day. You'd be looking at a straight run through with passing loops at Strabane, Omagh, Sixmilecross and Dungannon. Probably a two-hourly service to GVS.

Enniskillen likewise, though if there was a Dundalk - Enniskillen service too, that would most likely be a 29000!

[MOGUL]

Not too sure about the no freight since 1965 JHB.. The Derry timber could have been a success if it ran Derry to Dundalk via the Derry Road.. so you could have 1/2 trains a week of timber flats hauled by a 111 to Dundalk

[jhb171achill]

9 minutes ago, MOGUL said:

Not too sure about the no freight since 1965 JHB.. The Derry timber could have been a success if it ran Derry to Dundalk via the Derry Road.. so you could have 1/2 trains a week of timber flats hauled by a 111 to Dundalk

Yes, Mogul, quite possibly.... Could well be loaded at Strabane rather than Derry, to avoid humping large trucks of logs through the city streets! That would actually make a great basis for a very unusual layout. The ex-GNR station in use by CAFs, and let's say for artistic licence there's a through service from Dublin too - probably an ICR set! The old Donegal station is now a bus station, with the area where the narrow gauge tracks were being a timber loading depot........

While less likely in real life had it survived, on a layout there could also be a Ballina-type container hub, with various 071s or 201s arriving with the boxes each day.....

The closure of the Derry Road ranks with the West Cork main line, the Belfast - Comber line and the Harcourt Street Line in Dublin as the most criminally insane of the closure fever of the mid 20th century.

Edited January 7, 2018 by jhb171achill

[GNRi1959]

3 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

You'd have no freight since 1965, apart from possible through Derry - Dundalk traffic. They'd have been hauled in the 70s by 141s probably, but long gone by now. As NIR80 says, CAFs would be the order of the day. You'd be looking at a straight run through with passing loops at Strabane, Omagh, Sixmilecross and Dungannon. Probably a two-hourly service to GVS.

Enniskillen likewise, though if there was a Dundalk - Enniskillen service too, that would most likely be a 29000!

I don’t imagine that the original buildings or platforms would have remained. By the early 70s the platform, though still in place were crumbling at the edges and falling apart.

I think the station have have moved out to Crevenagh just before the line approached the Market Branch with the current new Park and Ride serving it well.  

The Lynn Bridge would certainly have needed an upgrade, pictured earlier today.

Edited January 7, 2018 by GNRi1959

[jhb171achill]

I suppose that fifty years' neglect hasn't helped, Tony.  Lisburn station survived intact, as did the road underdridges near Lambeg, which are the oldest railway bridges in Ireland, dating from the Ulster Railway Company. And - they're made of sandstone, which is about as durable as custard for making bridges with! Omagh was a fine station building, as was Strabane; it would be nice if they had survived even if no longer in railway use.

Edited January 11, 2018 by jhb171achill