THE VIEW FROM THIS SIDE

Ireland, also the Isle of Man
Ireland is 1967-1969, IoM is 1965 and 1967.

Locations include
(1) Isle of Man - St Johns, Ramsey line, Peel, Foxdale, Port Erin line.
(2) Ireland - The Larne line, Belfast Great Victoria Street, Antrim, Crumlin, Balmoral, Lisburn, Portadown, Poyntzpass, Dundalk, Dublin Connolly, Wicklow, Athlone, Mallow, Portarlington,  Limerick Junction, Limerick, Cork and various others on the way back to  Dublin.
The traction falls into three mixed groups
(1) Isle of Man. The Beyer Peacock 2-4-0 tanks plus 'Caledonia' and the former County Donegal Diesel Railcars.
(2) Northern Ireland working steam - class WT 2-6-4 tanks (the 'Jeeps') on the Maghermorne - Belfast motorway contract trains (the famous 'Muck Trains').
(3) Railtours - class WT 2-6-4 tanks, J15 0-6-0 No. 186, S 4-4-0 No.171 Slieve Gullion,
0-6-4 tank No. 27 Lough Erne. Some CIE diesels, inc Metrovick 'A' types as well as General Motors 'B's
Special, interesting or otherwise rare features include
The Isle of Man Railway when it was still intact, even the long disused Foxdale branch.
Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway 0-6-4 tank Lough Erne working.
The last working main line steam in the British Isles - it is often forgotten that the Northern Ireland Railways'  'Muck Trains' outlived BR steam by almost two years!

Samples from this show. These images are compressed. Actual images on the CD are high resolution:-

Antrim,  29th October 1967. The RPSI’s ‘Killultagh’ railtour after arrival, behind one time Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties  Railway 0-6-4T No. 27 Lough Erne.  The SLNC’s locos never carried  numbers, 27 was the number allocated to this machine after the Ulster Transport Authority acquired it. Remarkably, despite its ancient  appearance, No. 27 was turned out of Beyer Peacock’s works in 1951 - so it was still a teenager when this picture was taken! But this was Ireland.


 
 

Whitehead, 11th September 1968. Class WT 2-6-4T No 50 at rest in the station, at the rear of one of  the (in)famous ‘muck trains’. A similar  machine is at the other end of the train. The real thing in Northern Ireland. You can almost smell the soot, grease and rust.
 


Portadown, 2nd November 1968. WT No. 54 just after taking the waters, GSWR No. 186 waits in the centre background. This was the RPSI ‘Colmcille’ tour which should have run from Belfast to Londonderry. After an overnight track washout, the RPSI and NIR decided to try running the train to Dundalk in the Republic instead. They phoned CIE, who said ‘sure, time enough’……. No one told the customs at Dundalk though, and they were in the pub by the time the train got there….
 


 

Athlone, 15th September 1968. The splendid Midland Great Western Railway bridge over the Shannon. No.186 performs the ‘false start’ for tour participants wanting photos, crossing from Co. Roscommon to Co. Westmeath in the process.


Kirk Micheal, 5th September 1967. Crossing on the Ramsey line, IoMR. The former Donegal railcars and their lady guard are the 1120 Douglas to Ramsey, just arrived to meet 2-4-0T No.12 Hutchinson with  the  1134 Ramsey to Douglas.
 
 
 


Ramsey 10th August 1965. Mona and the 1345 to St. John’s. Apart from the driver at ease on the platform edge, notice the splendidly shining Morris Commercial lorry, which was part of the IoMR’s road cartage fleet. At this time, there was no attempt to operate the railway other than as a transport service. It simply wasn’t seen as being anything else.
 
 
 
 

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