NORTHERN IRELAND RAILWAYS (NIR)
■ RAILWAYANA: One of the original nameplates from ‘Hunslet’ locomotive No. 101 Eagle was recently sold at auction for £6000.
■ TRANSLINK: Infrastructure Minister Nicola Mallon and other members of the Northern Ireland Executive have discussed the financial position of Translink, which continues to experience a significant loss of revenue because of the Covid-19 crisis. However, the company continues to invest in its railway facilities.
The platform at Cullybackey on the Londonderry line is to be lengthened at the Ballymena end to facilitate new signalling in the area. This is to be installed in connection with upgrading of three level crossings: Cullybackey South, North and Station.
Planning permission is being sought for a new 400+ space park and ride facility at Moira. The entrance will be on Station Road on the down side of the station. The facility will supplement the existing small carpark on the up side, and also relieve congestion on local roads caused by commuter parking.
Clearance work on the site of the new Belfast Transport Hub was completed by mid-February. An internet presentation by Translink for the Belfast Chamber of Commerce stated that the hub and its commercial/ residential neighbourhood (called Weavers Cross) will be completed by 2025 and cost £380 million.
■ TRAFFIC AND TRACTION:
DMUs from the Cross-Border pools of NIR/IR three-car units (Nos. 30016 and Nos. 22x03-6 respectively) continued to be diagrammed on most ‘Enterprise’ services during the period under review. No. 3004 was active on January 24/27, and No. 3006 on the 31st and February 4. One car of No. 3006 continues to sport ‘Trainbow’
NHS vinyls.
On Sunday, January 31 the 14.00 Dublin Connolly-Belfast Lanyon Place was terminated at Dundalk because of “emergency engineering works”. Passengers were bused to Belfast.
The 16.00 ex-Connolly the same day was delayed but was able to work to Belfast.
NIR stated on February 1 that it was anticipating “high demand” for travel on the 16.25 Bangor-Portadown service forward from Belfast GVS. It therefore planned to run a relief from Lanyon Place (dep 16.47) to Portadown serving Botanic, City Hospital, GVS (dep 17.01), Lisburn, Moira and Lurgan. It is reported that this relief subsequently operated on a regular basis.
Stormy weather and high tides delayed services on the Downshire to Whitehead section of the Belfast to Larne Harbour line on February 14. The 12.10 GVS-Portrush and 13.05 Portrush-GVS were delayed by adverse weather conditions later the same day in the Ballymoney area.
On and from February 15, the 06.25 Bangor-Portadown was retimed to depart at 06.10 and run 15 minutes earlier throughout. Also on the 15th, the 08.05 Lanyon Place-Connolly was worked by a De Dietrich/Mk.3 train (DBFO 9004) powered by GM No. 207, while No. 8208 powered the 11.20 exConnolly on the 18th. It was reported that these loco-worked trains doubled as crew training runs.
“Poor weather conditions” was the official reason for the following alterations on February 16: the 06.45 GVS-Whitehead and 08.15 return were cancelled, while the 07.45 GVS-Larne Harbour started from Lanyon Place and the 08.10 GVS-Portrush started from Botanic.