Derry Central

[David Holman]

Wow, what's the opposite of opening a can of worms? Am I seem to have opened a treasure chest!

 Thank you all. As Patrick says, could easily spend a few weeks checking those aerial photos and it's not as if we don't have any spare time now that all social opportunities are off.

[Midland Man]

Hello David 

Here is some pictures of Derry station  http://catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=Derry+&type=AllFields&filter[]=topic_facet%3A"Railroads"&page=2&view=list 

Edited March 21, 2020 by Midland Man

[David Holman]

Splendid!

[jhb171achill]

The first was taken on the Derry Central, I think at Magherafelt, though I'd need to look that up.

The date is about 1944. It may be the lifting train from Draperstown - again, I’d have to check.

The other was taken in the fifties at York Road.

 

Edited March 22, 2020 by jhb171achill

[Midland Man]

Interesting pics. The tender on the castle class as well as the V(I think) look very old.

[Mayner]

The 4-4-0 is "Whippet" an LMS re-build of an older series of Northern Counties 2-4-0s and 4-4-0s locos, there is a thread on scratchbuilding  a Whippet by DeSelby on RMeb https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80681-an-ncc-whippet/&tab=comments#comment-1292286. The 0-6-0 is a relic from the 1870s, the LMS built 3 new 0-6-0s possibly as replacements in the 1920s.

The NCC have only a handful of 0-6-0 goods locos, the 4-4-0s & 2-4-0s worked the majority of trains on the Northern Counties up to the arrival of the Moguls in the 1930s

[Midland Man]

9 minutes ago, Mayner said:

The 4-4-0 is "Whippet" an LMS re-build of an older series of Northern Counties 2-4-0s and 4-4-0s locos, there is a thread on scratchbuilding  a Whippet by DeSelby on RMeb https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/80681-an-ncc-whippet/&tab=comments#comment-1292286. The 0-6-0 is a relic from the 1870s, the LMS built 3 new 0-6-0s possibly as replacements in the 1920s.

The NCC have only a handful of 0-6-0 goods locos, the 4-4-0s & 2-4-0s worked the majority of trains on the Northern Counties up to the arrival of the Moguls in the 1930s

One of those 0-6-0s number 13  lasted until the 1960s working the docks in Belfast.A lot of NCC engine like Duluce castle were run to the ground by the UTA but nymber 13 only survived as it was given a rebuild in 1953.

[leslie10646]

First, I can attest to the beauty of the "Whippet" model referred to above. When Jim unveiled it on the IRRS stand at Warley a few years ago, everything stopped for an hour while we drooled over it!

Just to underline what was around at York Road in 1961 when I first visited it with the late (Lord) John Laird - I quote from my 1961 account of railway activity -

"Early observations included the usual Class WTs, behind which I was to cover many thousands of miles, indeed behind every member of the Class. Less usual, even then, was the sight of Class W 2-6-0 No.99 “King George VI” shunting and then acting as banker to the “Eight-Five” Goods (the 8.05pm goods to Londonderry). This was the normal running-in turn for a locomotive just out of the York Road shops. I assume that No.99 returned to the Great Northern within the week.

Also there in a siding and by now out of use, was No.80 “Dunseverick Castle”, the last active Class U2 “Scotch Engine”. She was in lined UTA black. Her sister, No.74 “Dunluce Castle” was already marked for preservation in the new Belfast Transport Museum at Witham Street and I have a later note of seeing her at York Road.

From time to time, one would also note another early NCC survivor in the form of    0-6-0 No.13, which often shunted the yard, except when there was a newly-outshopped loco to use.

The final steam locomotive to be mentioned here was No.19, a re-gauged LMS “Jinty” Class 3F 0-6-0 tank, formerly LMS 7553. She and her sister (No.18, formerly LMS 7456) were sent over by the parent LMS to replace locomotives lost in the Belfast Blitz. I saw her frequently during these early visits when she was often in use as a pilot engine.

[leslie10646]

4 hours ago, Midland Man said:

Interesting pics. The tender on the castle class as well as the V(I think) look very old.

No.31 wasn't a "V" Class, but a much earlier beast - a "K" Class 0-6-0 built in 1878 and rebuilt a couple of times before being withdrawn (as seen in Jon's photo) in 1947. 

But yes, the NCC ran some really archaeic tenders behind locos even after the locos themselves had had life-changing surgery which made them look much more modern.

[jhb171achill]

Stranorlar, 1947. I believe that this was mt father’s “chariot” when he did a track inspection of the Glenties branch. 

Sadly, the report was unforgiving about the state of the track and the recommendation could only be “rebuild from ballast up or close without delay”.

The CDRJC had no money to relay the track so it closed.

The second picture was taken from the top deck of the Fintona tram as it was towed away from Fintona station for the last time ever. 
 

It would be towed to Omagh, from where it was later towed to Belfast.

Senior took this pic through the smoke of a GNR 4.4.0......

October 1957.

[Patrick Davey]

JB that last photo is totally mind-blowing!

[Midland Man]

Wow great pics 

I remember hearing about a branch in Cork that was horse oporated. Like on the Fintona The horses only carried one name. Insted of Dick like on the Fintona branch they were all called Paddy.

[leslie10646]

Agreed, Patrick!

That most be the rarest haulage / rolling stock / track combo ever!

The only way to cover the Fintona branch BY STEAM would have been to hitch an illegal ride on the goods, which was, of course, steam - but to ride the branch in the tram, steam hauled was really serious stuff!

For the young among you, we "oldies" only count track if we've been over it behind steam and secondly, being a 'timer' I usually only "time" steam hauled trains - no use making the hobby too easy?

Despite that stringent rule, I have travelled by steam from my home station were I was born and my present home in Surrey to VLADIVOSTOK - over a third of the way around the earth - of course, I had to cross the Irish Sea (steamship) and the North Sea (likewise). There IS a gap - 17kms outside Minsk when the (blank) engine ran out of water and was rescued by one of Dr Diesel's machines. Of course, the route across Germany is a bit circuitous, but is all joined up over thirty years.

 

[jhb171achill]

He took several pics that day, but that was the best. If I ever get around to it I might put them in a book. He was still based in Enniskillen at that stage, tidying up loose ends. Some alterations had to be made at the station to provide a temporary fuel point for UTA buses which were replacing trains, and a survey had to be done of the line as far as Clones to list steel girders and bits and pieces, track and bridges, that could be re-used after lifting. On the day the tram was taken away, there were two locos in Enniskillen. I have a note somewhere (gawd knows where) of which they were. I think the Bundoran railcar had gone to Dundalk, or possibly Derry.

The engine was steamed and went light to Fintona, lifted the tram, and towed it to Omagh. I am not sure how he got back - it might have been on a UTA bus! I have no recollection of him telling me of the loco going back, but a few days later he went with the other loco, light, to survey the line to Clones. On arrival, it was coaled and watered and went back. Just outside Clones, just after turning right onto the INW line, they stopped. My father and a track ganger got down and undid the fishplates joining the rails behind the locomotive, to mark the point where lifting gangs were to stop, as the Clones - Cavan line would remain.

Then off to Enniskillen, and into history. Nothing traversed that line again until the lifting train. 

[Galteemore]

14 minutes ago, Midland Man said:

Wow great pics 

I remember hearing about a branch in Cork that was horse oporated. Like on the Fintona The horses only carried one name. Insted of Dick like on the Fintona branch they were all called Paddy.

Indeed there was. Shannonvale Mill in Clonakilty.....

http://homepage.eircom.net/~decmac/images/millhorse.jpg

[Midland Man]

Yes thats the one 

Imagine trying to model something like that. You would probaly have to pit the motor in the wagon and somehow make the legs of the hourse move.

[leslie10646]

25 minutes ago, Midland Man said:

Wow great pics 

I remember hearing about a branch in Cork that was horse oporated. Like on the Fintona The horses only carried one name. Insted of Dick like on the Fintona branch they were all called Paddy.

Yes, MM, the siding to the Bennett flour mill at Shannonvale (from the Clonakilty line of the CBSCR) was ALWAYS horse worked - I believe that Colm Creedon in his little history of the line stated that the horse pulled wagons up to the main line, but gravity "hauled" them in the other direction!  There is a photo of the (white) horse with a "H" Van at the mill in Ernie Shepherd's later book.

Ah, well done Mr R - beat me to it!

At first I thought it was the Allman's Distillery branch, but that was always loco-worked.

Edited March 23, 2020 by leslie10646

[patrick]

The GG class?

[Galteemore]

Closely related to the U class ‘Lough Neigh’! 

[Patrick Davey]

14 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Closely related to the U class ‘Lough Neigh’! 

Post of the year - fair play GM!

14 hours ago, Galteemore said:

Closely related to the U class ‘Lough Neigh’! 

I guess the Fintona branch was in effect a 'mane' line..........

[Galteemore]

As opposed to a trunk route. To keep vaguely on topic, the bridge that crossed the Bann near Macfin can still be glimpsed in the depths of the river on clear days, according to friends who farm adjacent land. I think part or all of the girder structure was simply dropped in the Bann when the line was lifted !!  On a similarly riparian topic, one of my favourite sights on the trip to grandparents in Leitrim was the blown up SLNC border bridge at Blacklion. Probably the most substantial piece of SLNC engineering infra left  for us to see! Pics courtesy Facebook , Canoe NI and Thomson Reuters.

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Galteemore

[leslie10646]

At last found time to scan the following:

I can't remember how I came to have it, but it is like new! Anyway, and especially for David's benefit, the Derry Central pages show that those lines had as good a service from Belfast as Sligo, Westport, or even possibly Galway had from Dublin in the 1950s/ early 60s?

Of course, to achieve three Belfast to Coleraine services, you did have to change trains! Note that you could even travel by NCC railcar to Randalstown.

On Saturdays, the service was nearly as "busy" ......

None of the trains appear to worked through to Portrush, but you could travel on to the resort half an hour after your arrival at Coleraine.

The Up direction was just as interesting.......

And the Saturday service .......

It's no wonder that Ken Gillen modelled Cookstown Jct - it was a pretty busy place with a serious variety of activity?

The Northerners among you can work out lots of different ways to spend a day travelling on these lines - I wonder how many miles you could do in a day? Answers on a postcard .........

Edited March 24, 2020 by leslie10646

[jhb171achill]

Another Derry Central from the Catacombs. I think it’s probably a 1944 visit.

[David Holman]

Fabulous, as usual. The fountains of knowledge on this forum continue to amaze and delight.

 When I saw the picture from the top deck of the horse tram, my initial thought was to wonder what on earth they had been feeding Dick on!

 Did a holiday to Sri Lanka some years ago and we went on an elephant safari - riding the back of, not shooting I hasten to add. We were given bunches of small bananas, gratefully received every few minutes by the trunk which wafted back over the elephant's head. Speaking of wafting, the similarly fueled beast ahead of us kept up a fairly continuous exhaust from its rear end throughout the adventure, while afterwards we had the chance to help in the 'car wash' too. Great memories.

[Derry Central]

The kitchen in our house is built over the Derry Central trackbed! A photo of Kilrea in days gone by. 

[jhb171achill]

40 minutes ago, Derry Central said:

The kitchen in our house is built over the Derry Central trackbed! A photo of Kilrea in days gone by. 

Superb stuff, DC! Interesting pointwork.

The cattle dock doesn't seem so busy by this stage - early 50s?

[Derry Central]

I think it is perhaps around the 1930s. The picture below is from the 1950s.

[airfixfan]

That photo is in the book Lost Railways of Co Derry. The photo in the book is undated but does look like the 1930s.