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Belfast Great Victoria Street Station and Adelaide-lookalike tribute


Hunslet 102
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Jim's reply is very interesting. Thanks for posting it up Andy.

 

Apropos my cab ride in the MPD set with Andy Rushe driving, I also recall the following.

 

It was a very sunny summer evening. Andy was sat in the driver's seat which was on the right hand side of the cab and I was standing looking out of the left hand front window. As we bore down on Balmoral I could see that the oncoming colour light signal was red. I glanced over at Andy to see what his reaction was. There was none as the low sun behind us meant he could not see the signal clearly. I chose to say nothing, after all Andy was a professional railway and it was not for me to comment on his driving. Past the signal we hammered, whereupon Andy glanced at me and said "What colour was that?". "Red" says I. On we sped. "Aw we'll see what the next one's doing." said Andy................

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Jim has a great knowledge of those days. The use of an AEC car to shunt Grosvenor Road was certainly news to me. I wonder what the legal situation around Grosvenor Road was after 1965 when the UTA ceased running their own goods trains? The only trains using the depot after 1966 were CIE goods trains from Dublin and Dundalk powered of course by their DE locomotives. Yet on arrival UTA/NIR appear to have had the responsibility for shunting and marshalling the CIE wagons in the yard itself, while presumably the 'train' engine sat by.

 

Thinking about CIE '141's operating to Belfast in the late 1960's, I did one morning see a Belfast bound 'local' service at Lambeg formed by an NIR 3-car AEC set. However it was being hauled by a CIE '141', presumbably because of engine problems.

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It was a purely operational (rather than legal) arrangement.

 

The UTA regularly used railcars (MPD) to not only shunt but also haul the CIE goods over the Lisburn - NCC - Derry line. Occasional mail workings from York Road to Larne also.

 

On the GN section, they had nothing but the old Co Down diesel to shunt Grosvenor Road. When it was out of use for some reason, an AEC or BUT car was used to shunt. While I personally never witnessed this, a friend said he saw a 2-car AEC fulfilling  this duty, I presume around 1970.

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  • 2 weeks later...
9 hours ago, Colin_McLeod said:

Nice scene.

 

The FLT driver appears to have been a bit rough with his forks and knocked the flat wagon off the road. ;)

I know Colin, his lack of experience as he tried to take the Capri off the wagon ended up a mess! As an FLT driver myself, I will endeavour to sort it out later!

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  • 1 month later...

 

Tried my first ever video, hope it works and you enjoy it.

It’s a nostalgic one, as 49 years ago in July 1970, NIR used the Hunslet’s for the Enterprise service. 101Eagle features in the video, as today on 23/7/93 was the last time she was ever used.

DH2 can be seen passing with a ballast train, herself only 1 year old having arrived in 1969, amazingly 50 years ago!

It still feels like yesterday to me!

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15 hours ago, Hunslet 102 said:

 

Tried my first ever video, hope it works and you enjoy it.

It’s a nostalgic one, as 49 years ago in July 1970, NIR used the Hunslet’s for the Enterprise service. 101Eagle features in the video, as today on 23/7/93 was the last time she was ever used.

DH2 can be seen passing with a ballast train, herself only 1 year old having arrived in 1969, amazingly 50 years ago!

It still feels like yesterday to me!

 

Is DH2 a respray of a model RTR or scratch built?

 

Wiggy.

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4 hours ago, wiggy1 said:

 

Is DH2 a respray of a model RTR or scratch built?

 

Wiggy.

It is a part modified and part scratch built Mainline class 03 shunter. The chassis is unmodified with parts of the body and plasticard used for the conversion.

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4 hours ago, kirley said:

Well done Andy on what I hope is the first of many videos.

Thanks Kieran, if you knew how long it took me to work out how to load a video to the thread.....but hopefully in time departures and arrivals from GVST can be filmed!

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On 24/07/2019 at 18:06, Hunslet 102 said:

Thanks Kieran, if you knew how long it took me to work out how to load a video to the thread.....but hopefully in time departures and arrivals from GVST can be filmed!

 

But you got there in the end, more please,

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  • 5 months later...

Well as this year draws to a close, it looks like the current GVSt station will also be closing its doors!

Thankfully, a new GVSt station is planned to commence next year, with some extra room becoming available!

Plans are at an early stage, but the current 4 platform station with the tobacco factory will still be the main feature, with an extension to the platforms and an incorporation of Grosvenor goods yard and the carriage sidings. Adelaide yard will not be modelled, but a revamped Adelaide station with the original buildings that I remember so well will be modelled!

Lots of dismantling, preparing and modelling to be done! At my rate of work it will be slow progress, but looking forward to it!

Happy new modelling year everyone.

Edited by Hunslet 102
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