RARE OUTING FOR VINTAGE CARRIAGES AT DOWNPATRICK
Three vintage carriages made a rare appearance in traffic at the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway on September 8.
For the European Heritage Open Day event, the wooden-bodied coaches were hauled by Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0T No. 1.
They are Belfast & County Down Railway bogie vehicle No. 148, BCDR railmotor coach No. 72, and No. 836, a 1902-built Great Southern & Western Railway Third.
The trio do not usually feature on the railway’s service trains, being displayed in the Carriage Gallery.
Clerestory-roofed No. 72, known as the ‘Holywood Railmotor’, was one of three built in 1905, with the bodywork coming from the Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Company in 1905 and the locomotives by Kitsons of Leeds.
First/Second Composite No. 148 is made up of two coach halves – the remains of Nos. 148 and 152. It is the sole surviving BCDR bogie vehicle – the railway relied extensively on six-wheelers.
The body is mounted on an ex-GSWR underframe and its restoration was completed in 2007, when it became the first BCDR carriage to run in 50 years.
Newly restored O&K 0-4-0T No. 3 (SR483) is being painted and prepared for a return to traffic. The plan is for a grand launch with Nos. 1 and 3 double-heading.