NIR FREIGHT

[airfixfan]

When did freight traffic to Belfast stop running? What year did regular NIR freight trains stop running to and from Derry?

[NIRCLASS80]

As a Train mad kid I once stayed  all night with the crossing keeper at Killagan (between Ballymoney and Ballymena) during 1981. The Up goods past at around 10.30pm and the Down goods past shortly after 3am. Powered by Class 70 DEMU's in both directions. The Up was a decent length but the Down was about 3 wagons. 

I remember then sometime around 1983 a Down fertiliser train of 10 wagons with NIR GM passing Killagan around 8.30pm. By this time I never remember seeing any other freight on the Derry line other than the very occasional fertiliser and even remember an Irish rail  A Class hauling one. 

Then there was a short period of timber trains late 1990's or early 2000's bringing Irish Rail 071 haulage to the Derry line  

 

[StevieB]

In the later years of freight operation in Northern Ireland, there were two very different types of train. In the 1960’s and 1979’s, the carriage of freight by rail in NI was actively discouraged, while CIE used the rail network to transport goods to and from such as Donegal.

Stephen

[jhb171achill]

Until 1965, steam engines and loose-coupled trucks (generally looking extremely dishevelled / neglected). After the UTA abolished all internal goods traffic and the Derry Road closed, MPD cars (2 or 3 together) were used generally, but as the 1970s progressed, these were gradually replaced by 70 class cars. Waterside station in Derry usually had a single MPD car as a shunter in the late sixties and early seventies. 

The CIE engine would bring the Derry goods as far as Lisburn, where it would be left in the back platform for the UTA / NIR railcars to pick up. CIE locos worked the Belfast goods first to Grosvenor Road, later to Adelaide. The CIE engine shunted Belfast after 1972; the ex BCDR diesel plus the CIE loco before that, and steam up to about 1968/9, usually Jeeps.

The CIE motive power was usually pairs of 121/141/181s.

As mentioned, very short lived timber traffic operated in the 1990s. I am not sure of the exact dates. This traffic, plus fertiliser traffic was also operated between  Dundalk and Lisburn by CIE / IE, but as the 70 class cars were withdrawn in the early 1980s, NIR diesels took over. The three Hunslets had a turn, especially 102 but rarely 103; later the three 071s (111/2 especially; 113 less often). The second hand C class locos were occasionally used in the mid 1990s.

By the time the Adelaide goods traffic ended (was that, I think, about ten years ago?), motive power was still inevitably “pairs” - variously 121, 141 and 181 classes. I recall 133 & 135 on it quite often, but I’m sure they all had a go.

I never once saw a CIE / IE 071 on goods in the north. I can’t say with certainty that not one ever did, but I think it unlikely. If an 071 ever DID deal with goods to the north, it would have been an extremely rare one-off. Perhaps others might be able to clarify this.

[MOGUL]

Jhb, the 071s worked the timber to and from Derry when it operated.. think it was a three month period in the early 2000s..

The Irish rail freight to Adelaide would have ended around this time also.. would have been a mix of fertiliser, cement and keg beer worked in a mixed train 

[NIRCLASS80]

I can remember one of the 071's failing in Derry and being recovered by another engine, may well have been one of NIR's 111's.  Went round to Killagan on a frosty winter's night and you could hear the howl of the engine on full throttle 10 mile away on Ballyboyland bank just outside Ballymoney with the full timber and dead engine in tow. Needless to say the lot came through Killagan like a bat out of hell!!!  

Best memory of the Big GM in full throttle I ever had. 

[Mayner]

During the 1950s the GNR introduced the "Derry Vacuum" Dublin-Strabane-Foyle Road express goods service for urgent overnight traffic to Donegal. The Vacuum appears to have been initially an AEC railcar set hauling a couple of fitted vans and container wagons, before morphing into the Derry Goods of the UTA/NIR era. 

This seems to have been the first fully fitted express freight train in Ireland the precursor of the modern Liner Train running close to passenger train speeds with power braking on all wagons. 

JHB may be able to correct me but Dundalk appears to have been what the Americans call a division point for Dublin-Belfast operation with NIR crews operating cross border freight services. This would have been tied up with pre-1993 Customs examination and working arrangements with the CIE & NIR Unions.

This lead to trip working from Dundalk to Adelaide with quite varied wagon consists (keg, container, bulk cement, fertiliser in the one train) compared to  the more uniform wagons consists south of the Border.

One of the more interesting workings were loose coupled trains carrying Harp Larger traffic between Dundalk and Adelaide operated into the early 80s. These trains included the unusual combination of modern 4w keg wagons and 30t brake vans. Loose coupled operation ceased when the keg traffic was transferred from the station to Barrack St Yard.

The early 90s was probably the busiest time for cross border freight operation when Freightliners Ltd ceased their Holyhead-Dublin sailings and attempted to serve Dublin by a rail connection off its Liverpool-Belfast sailings. 

This resulted in Freightliners chartering two daily return Belfast-Dublin liner trains to handle traffic to and from the South.

[Irishswissernie]

I visited Dundalk in October 2000 and video'd a pair of light 141's heading north and later 072 arrived from Belfast with 3 container wagons and half a dozen bubbles. After shunting  the Dundalk yard a couple of 4w Guiness, 2 or 3 containers and some more bubbles were added to the train.

This is 072 after shunting off the bubbles from Belfast so that the Dundalk bogie wagons could be added to the head of the train. 

Traffic to and from Belfast was becoming increasingly sparse.

Ernie

[jhb171achill]

4 hours ago, Mayner said:

 

JHB may be able to correct me but Dundalk appears to have been what the Americans call a division point for Dublin-Belfast operation with NIR crews operating cross border freight services. This would have been tied up with pre-1993 Customs examination and working arrangements with the CIE & NIR Unions.

This led to trip working from Dundalk to Adelaide with quite varied wagon consists (keg, container, bulk cement, fertiliser in the one train) compared to  the more uniform wagons consists south of the Border.

One of the more interesting workings were loose coupled trains carrying Harp Larger traffic between Dundalk and Adelaide operated into the early 80s. These trains included the unusual combination of modern 4w keg wagons and 30t brake vans. Loose coupled operation ceased when the keg traffic was transferred from the station to Barrack St Yard.

 

Correct, indeed!

5 hours ago, MOGUL said:

Jhb, the 071s worked the timber to and from Derry when it operated.. think it was a three month period in the early 2000s..

 

An Irish Rail one, the whole way through?

I had thought it was NIR ones....

4 hours ago, Irishswissernie said:

I visited Dundalk in October 2000 and video'd a pair of light 141's heading north and later 072 arrived from Belfast with 3 container wagons and half a dozen bubbles.......

This is 072 after shunting off the bubbles from Belfast so that the Dundalk bogie wagons could be added to the head of the train. 

Traffic to and from Belfast was becoming increasingly sparse.

Ernie

Interesting, Ernie, many thanks!