COPPED! CHIEF CONSTABLE GRICES RPSI RAILTOUR
The RPSI Steam Santa train had a brush with the law on December 7 – but no arrests were made.
The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Simon Byrne, made a surprise visit to Lanyon Place (formerly Central) station in Belfast for a close-up look at GNR(I) ‘Q’ 4-4-0 No. 131.
Enthusiast Mr Byrne, who is a volunteer on the Severn Valley Railway, visited the locomotive’s footplate – and asked NIR drivers Noel Playfair and Gary Moore if they could oblige him by making plenty of smoke for his photograph as the train crossed the Dargan viaduct.
Dr Joan Smyth, the RPSI president, said: “It was a lovely surprise to have this visit by the Chief Constable. He is monitoring our activities through Facebook and the website. We are keen to welcome him as a member.”
On board were 160 passengers from under-privileged families nominated by the Salvation Army and St Vincent de Paul.
Two of the festive trains have run into difficulties. On December 14, the two Santa trains were formed of a Translink NI Railways CAF 4000 three-car DMU after No. 131’s electronics failed on shed at Whitehead, knocking out the Train Protection & Warning System.
The fault was remedied during the day and the engine worked the Santa trains to Portadown and Lisburn on December 15.
It was the first time since 2005 that the Whitehead Santa operation has had to resort to diesel operation.
On that occasion, ‘J15’ No. 186 suffered a hot big end and was replaced by an NIR 80 Class unit.
A Whitehead-Dublin Mince
Pie Special on December 29 was cancelled owing to “problems with crew availability and the lack of a suitable cross-border locomotive”.
The ‘Q’ is not yet cleared to operate south of the border, while Compound No. 85, which handled the Dublin Santa operation, would have to travel north light engine to operate the train.