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Belfast Great Victoria Street Station and Adelaide-lookalike tribute


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Back again to more memories from the 70s. The troubles were never far away in 70s Belfast, with GVSt being a target for both actual and hoax devices. The 2 photos below show an army Westland Scout helicopter hovering close to the Boyne bridge,as the RUC and army deal with a suspect package on the abandoned Corporation bus on the bridge. All train services have been suspended until the all clear.post-1918-0-14411900-1518470897_thumb.jpeg

 

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I hope it a hoax Andy, those Landrovers are a bit to close for comfort.

 

It was Kieran,the all clear was given a few minutes later and 'normal' service soon returned.

 

Hard to believe or remember that Belfast Corporation/Citybus sustained damage/loss to more than 2/3rds of their buses during the troubles.

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The bus fleet was therefore quite a modern one I recall friends telling me, silver cloud and poisoned chalice spring to mind.

 

Robert

 

It was Robert, the Daimler Fleetline buses were ahead of their time and very comfortable. When Citybus was formed in 1973 they invested more in single deck Bristol REs with hard plastic vandal resistant seats, not the most comfortable,but inevitable for the times back then.

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  • 3 weeks later...

49 years ago, I can’t believe I have just said that, NIR purchased their first diesel locomotives,the 3 DH class.

Below, DH No.2 is seen heading back to Grosvenor yard with an engineers train. It is seen passing CIE B181 heading back to Dundalk with an empty cement and Guinness train.post-1918-0-77232600-1520289144_thumb.jpeg

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  • 4 months later...
  • 9 months later...

Having not been seen in over 9 months, the railway management  decided something had to be done about the state the railway was in! The CIE weedkilling train was hired to make a start on trying to get the railway back in order, a photo of it in action was recorded for posterity!

 

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Some of the most iconic photos taken of Belfast Great Victoria Street had the old Murray’s tobacco factory as the backdrop. Below is a photo from the 60s taken from platform 2, showing a recently arrived Jeep resting having brought the CIE Enterprise coaches up from the exchange over at Dundalk. An AEC railcar is heading to platform 1 with a local from Lisburn.

 

 

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Andy, your layout and the trains you have modelled are superb. That model of the Murrays factory is an excellent backdrop.

 

A very small point, the 2-6-4T would never have "brought the CIE Enterprise coaches up from the exchange over at Dundalk". The Enterprise sets (whether it was the UTA's 'BUT' set or CIE's loco, DE, hauled set) at the time of locomotive exchanges at Dundalk (1958 to 1965) always worked through between Belfast and Dublin, non-stop except for the down evening service which called at Dundalk to pick up only. Until the spring of 1965, each set worked one return trip only, the UTA set laying over in Dublin from 12.40 to 17.30, the CIE set resting in Belfast from 13.10 to 16.45. It was only from April 1965 that each set began doing two return trips a day.

 

I have UTA/NIR timetables for the former GN section for various years from 1960 to 1967. If you are interested in such material, PM me.

 

GLOVER - I would love to take up pipe smoking! Do you know where in this day and age I could buy a pipe? Furthermore, where would I get the pipe tobacco? It is easier to buy 'weed' where I live!

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2 hours ago, Lambeg Man said:

Andy, your layout and the trains you have modelled are superb. That model of the Murrays factory is an excellent backdrop.

 

A very small point, the 2-6-4T would never have "brought the CIE Enterprise coaches up from the exchange over at Dundalk". The Enterprise sets (whether it was the UTA's 'BUT' set or CIE's loco, DE, hauled set) at the time of locomotive exchanges at Dundalk (1958 to 1965) always worked through between Belfast and Dublin, non-stop except for the down evening service which called at Dundalk to pick up only. Until the spring of 1965, each set worked one return trip only, the UTA set laying over in Dublin from 12.40 to 17.30, the CIE set resting in Belfast from 13.10 to 16.45. It was only from April 1965 that each set began doing two return trips a day.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Lambegman! Being born in 1962 the 60s is not my most knowledgable era, I was more a 70s /80s era, but since building GVSt I have moved to a 60s/70s era. 

There is a photo in Irish Railways 40 years of change by Colin Boocock showing a Jeep hauling green CIE coaches from an exchange at Dundalk in 1963, stating the coaches had been brought to Dundalk by a pair of GMs! ?? I was 1 at the time, so can’t confirm I witnessed it!

 

Yes I would be interested if you had more details of 60s era operations, thanks 

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Hi Andy,

 

I realize from what you've said above that you may not have been aware that up to 1965 the "ENTERPRISE" was a specific service of two non-stop trains (two each way daily) that was started by the GNR(I) back in 1947/1950. Operation of the non-stop "ENTERPRISE" service was continued on the GNR timings as a joint operation between CIE and UTA until 1965. The Boocock photo's you refer to were not "ENTERPRISE" trains at that time, they were semi-fasts.

 

However post 1965 both sides applied the term "ENTERPRISE" to the four remaining Belfast-Dublin 'through' services each way that were left after 1965. This generic use of the term/name has of course continued to the present.

 

By way of a peace offering (and an apology for any offence caused), here are extracts from some public timetables.

 

This is from the UTA's 1961 timetable. You will see that the 'through' service was pretty miserable. Only the two semi-fasts (in each direction) changed engines at Dundalk.

 

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The remainder are possibly more your own era, NIR July 1973.......

 

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I trust this posting has been of interest to you personally.

 

However I feel that to continue posting comments about pre-1965 former GNR section operations (especially train formations) should perhaps merit a separate thread rather than divert attention from your excellent model.

 

Your views would be appreciated.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Steve

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Very interesting Steve, many thanks for taking the time to post and for the copy timetables. Don’t worry about clogging up the thread, if there is information or facts that can help me with creating an authentic model, I don’t mind taking detours on the thread!

Growing up beside Adelaide station I was just too young to remember the locomotive works, it had become part of the bog meadows by then, although there was the odd abandoned steam loco for us to explore! 

I think I have always just thought of the Dublin express as the Enterprise, although I was aware of the semi fast services, it is good to know the difference’s, the book seemed to indicate that all through services had stopped.

As I have picked up a few steam locomotives to convert, a big D etc and have an interest in how the service was before the Derry Road closed, the like of the 61 onwards timetable out and in to GVSt would be of interest.

Thanks again for your information, no need for peace offerings as I would rather have the correct information than not!

 

Andy

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Hi Andy,

 

I thought I would post this one as it was the last summer of the "Derry Road". As it is a 'Working Time Table' it shows Goods and other trains not shown in a public timetable. One point to note is that the 02.15 Dublin-Belfast 'Newspaper Train' conveyed passengers from Portadown onward. I hope this is the sort of thing you are interested in.

 

Because of the document size I may have to do it in several posts.

 

 

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That is nearly the 10MB limit for this post. It will not let me continue with second post. "You are limited to 10MB". You may have to reply to this post for me to continue.

Edited by Lambeg Man
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