The Belfast & County Down Railway basically served the City and County in its title and had two links to its larger neighbour the Great Northern Railway. The GNRI also had running powers from Castlewellan into Newcastle and this meant that this section survived for a few years after the UTA closed all but the Bangor line in 1950.
The GNR also worked into Bangor on excursions and sometimes through coaches from Dublin.
The train services in the Working Timetable for July 1940 are also included. If you are interested in purchasing a photocopy of the complete timetable (32 pages) I can supply one for £6 (UK postage included). Please e-mail me for details

Here are a few more recent acquisitions which need locations

Lines of the GSWR & DSER in the Dublin area and out to Arklow and Clara and Portlaoise via Portarlington.

Most of these views are from Railtours in the early 1970's. The stored steam locos from 1963. There are several views identified only as Youghal branch. If anyone knows the exact locations please e-mail or leave a message/comment.

Images mainly from 1963 and June 1964 (ILD ref)

The area around Limerick City plus parts of the old WL&W to Tipperary and Sligo

The routes from radiating from Waterford plus the D&SE from Eniscorthy mainly in June 1964 but with a few views from the early 70's

A collection of views mainly in the 60's (photos with an ILD ref are June64 unless a date is quoted). There are some later views from 1973-6

A small collection of views along the siding connection from Heuston to the Brewery and some shots at the Brewery taken mainly in June 1964

The ex GNRI lines in the Eire mainly in the 1960's, but with earlier black and white views. T

A look at the railways of Kerry in the 1960's or thereabouts featuring several lines that have now gone.

This collection covers the Republic's railways from the 1960's to the early 1980's the images are from original material purchased from various sources.

Motive Power and views of the ex Belfast & Northern Counties railway, later the NCC, from before WWII through to the UTA and NIR

A small collection of the old routes of the CORK, BANDON & SOUTH COAST Railway now sadly but a memory.l

This collection features motive power and scenes from the old Great Northern Railway in ULster mainly after partition.
The Bundoran branch for the sake of simplicity only is included in this gallery.

This collection covers the narrow gauge lines, Bordna Mona and minor broad gauge lines. Lines include:
Dundalk Newry & Greenore Railway
Sligo Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway
Bordnamona
County Donegal Railways Joint Committee
Londonderry & Lough Swilly Railway
Cavan & Leitrim Section CIE

We made a day trip to Dublin to catch what freight action remains around the City on 29 June. I finally found the vantage point to photograph Islandbridge Junction which turns out to be a small metal cabinet alongside the 6foot high wall which by standing on it enables one to see the action. Luckily our 10minute visit produced 165 on the Guiness trip adding some wagons of wheels from Inichcore to the consist. 163 and 176 were busy shunting rakes of coaches and I just missed an 071 class returning to Inichcore.
Moving on through Heuston to North Wall where the remains of the yards are rapidly being covered with Office blocks to Alexandra Road where the tracks adjacent to the level crossing for some reason have been re-laid and encased in concrete although only one running line remains contigous. Moving on towards Connolly, on our way we were surprised by 146 and 134 reversing down to North Wall but managed to get shots and video of them departing up the link with the log mts. Unfortunately since last year the overbridge has been re-built with a higher parapet and another concrete monstrosity blocks the view down the GNR main line towards Connolly.
Finally we headed out to Balbriggan where we managed to video the Tara mts although the return was a light 071 class and finally 192 on the Dundalk liner mts.
Finally we rounded off the day with a visit to the Fry Model Railway which proved somewhat dissappointing. The static exhibits and artefacts are good but the layout itself poor, somewhat basic, with many modern additions not part of the late Cyril Fry's collection and the commentary suspect in historical accuracy.

Heuston station before the re-building to provide more platforms

Photos from around the system featuring lines not covered by specific collections; including Sligo,Ballybrophy,Portlaiose,Rosslare Harbour,Thurles and Bagnealstown.

Memories of the Mallow to Tralee line before the demise of freight and the advent of CTC

A selection of photos covering the period 2001 to 2005 depicting the railway installations at Limerick

WESTPORT is one of the most attractive stations remaining on Irish Rail and with the resuming of log traffic operations are quite interesting. Whilst observing activities beware of the shunter and the log loaders as they are not enthusiast friendly and the shunter told me not to photograph him or his colleagues. As I hadn't come all that way to film his acne this did not seem to be an unreasonable request. The rest of the staff are great and there is even a small museum set up in an old waiting room. The log train has to be shunted and split for the passenger service and then reversed down the goods old quay remnant to clear the loop for the passenger loco to run round. Log train departure depends on loading and I was lucky it left after the passenger so that I could observe it again at Claremorris. Most photos were taken on 20 June 2005 with a few dating from August 02.

More photos for modellers plus views of train operations. The new siding is basically a re-alignment of the Sligo line and facilitates the shunting of the Guiness traffic. Timber trains are often held for the passage of passenger trains or the exchange of Drivers.

Outside the Dublin suburban area for train frequency you cannot beat Cherryville Junc as all the trains for the west including those from Waterford reversing pass through here. If you stay at Cherryville Farm which surrounds the junction then the owners, Mr & Mrs Johnston will no doubt let you have the run of the fields which include the 2 private occupation bridges on the Waterford and West lines. In addition a good view is available form the guest bedroom windows. Some of the bovine inhabitants appear to be quite into train spotting but can be quite intimidating if you are not used to large animals.

A hive of activity due to firstly a loco failure in Cork which delayed passenger trains to Dublin by up to 2 hours and resulted in 202 being swopped with 190&134 in order to get it back to Dublin to take up the failed locos diagram. Secondly a faulty brake pipe on the down liner led to the removel of the first 2 container wagons which were put into the sidings where they were subsequently picked up by a second down liner hauled by 212. 212 also dropped off 4 Guiness and 7 containers for Limerick City as there is now no direct Limerick Liner. These are tripped around about midnight by a small GM working out from the City. 202 also added several Guiness, repaired bubbles and 2 oil tanks to the up cement mts.

A survey of the railway facilities and traffic at Claremorris with the emphasis on providing information and photographs for railway modellers. This first batch were taken in May and June 2003

A portrait of Ennis on 15 June 2001

Trains at Limerick Junction

Trains on the ex GNRI main line

This was the main freight complex in Dublin. As freight declined facilities in the area dissappeared or became increasingly derelict. This gallery covers the various sites prior to the decimation of 2004 onwards.