The Belfast & Co. Down
Railway
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The
Crest of the Belfast & County Down Railway, incorporating
the arms of Belfast & Down
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Contemporary
BCDR map showing the
network at its greatest size
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Early
1900s postcard of the newly built Slieve Donard Hotel in
Newcastle, adjacent to the railway station
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A
colour postcard showing the BCDR's Queen's Quay terminus
prior to reconstruction in 1911
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An
engine runs-round its train under the post-1911 train
shed, which covered the station's
five platforms
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Queen's
Quay as seen in its UTA days
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Comber
was an important junction, where the line for Newtownards/Donaghadee
split from the main line to Newcastle. It also served the
Andrews Linen Mill, which had its own siding.
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Saintfield,
still largely intact as a private residence, was one of
the intermediate stations on the main line
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Ballynahnich
Junction, where the Ballynahinch line left the main line,
was in the middle of nowhere between Saintfield and Crossgar
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Ballynahnich
Station, what was hoped to be a through station on the line's
way to Dromore ended up a terminus
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Downpatrick
Station in the 1940s, the site is now occupied by a supermarket,
in front of the St. Patrick's Centre
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A
train prepares to leave Downpatrick Station
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Downpatrick
Loop Platform in January 1950. This is the only surviving
BCDR structure in Downpatrick, was were passengers from
Belfast-Newcastle trains could change for the Downpatrick-Ardglass
branch service
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Tullymurray
was the first intermediate station beyond Downpatrick, and
still stands virtually intact
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The
terminus, Newcastle Station,
at the base of the Mourne Mountains
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A
coal-guzzling BCDR 'Baltic' tank leads its train along the
Bangor Branch line
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Having
just run round its train, a BCDR tank engine prepares to
leave Bangor bound for Belfast
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Colourised
postcard of the BCDR's Bangor terminus
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Donaghadee
station, where the BCDR had hoped
to run boat trains to catch ships to Portpatrick
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The
now preserved No. 30 leads it train into the now derelict
Ardglass Station shortly before closure on the 14th January
1950
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Castlewellan
was where the BCDR met the GNR(I) for the second time (the
other being at Central Junction, now near NIR's Bridge End
station)
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A
cuckoo in the nest? GNR No. 39 prepares to leave Newcastle.
GNR trains to Newcastle lasted five years more than their
BCDR counterparts
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| BCDR
Baltic No. 22 awaits its fate in the ruins of the engine shed
in the mid 1950s at Queens Quay |
The
Belfast and County Down Railway Company operated a system for
100 years between 1848 and 1948, which at its peak covered 80
miles, exclusively within County Down.
The
railway scheme came into being with 'a meeting of parties favourable
to the promotion of a railway to Holywood, Comber and Newtownards'
in February 1845, held in the Donegall Arms Hotel, Belfast, and
the company itseld was incorporated in 26 June 1846.
This
was during the height of 'Railway Mania' when numerous railway
companies were formed, usually competing with each other to build
in the same area.
The
BCDR, familiarly known as the 'County Down', was no exception
and had several rivals within the county, including the Great
County Down Railway and the Holywood Atmospheric Railway. The
BCDR bought off the Holywood Atmospheric Railway and a degree
of compromise was reached with the Great County Down, so in June
1846 the BCDR obtained the Act of Parliament necessary to build
the railway.
On
the 2nd August 1848 with the first section of line from Belfast
to Holywood opened to passenger traffic for the first time. Later
this line would extend to Bangor and the main line would run from
Belfast to Newcastle, with branches to Donaghadee, Ballynahinch
and Ardglass.
Despite
its size, the County Down was not an unimaginative railway, although
most passenger services were catered for by uncomfortable and
shaky six-wheeled carriages right up until the UTA takeover in
1948. The railway ran its own paddle-steamer service (the Bangor
Boat) until 1915 and ran bus services to towns not connected by
rail.
The
County Down had 12 different classes of steam engines during its
life, and was not afraid to try out several experimental types
of engine, most notable the Holywood Railmotors, bogie carriages
with locomotives built onto the end, which were highly successful,
operating a shuttle service between Holywood and Belfast.
Less
successful were the 'Baltic' class of locomotives. These required
huge amounts of coal and were unsuited to the main line as they
were too heavy, being relegated to the Bangor line. The County
Down also ran the first ever diesel-electric locomotive in Ireland,
D1 (later renumbered No.2) was built by Harland and Wolff shipyards
and was used on the Ballynahinch line. Another diesel-electric
locomotive was hired from Harland and Wolff, No.28, which operated
the Ardglass line.
The
County Down also played a vital role in the promotion of tourism
in the Newcastle, with the construction of the Slieve Donard Hotel
in 1897 and helping to form the Down Royal Golf Course, running
the weekly 'Golfers' Express' from Belfast to Newcastle.
The Belfast and County Down Main Line
The
original scheme envisaged the line built from Queen's Quay in
Belfast to the towns of Holywood, Comber, Newtownards, Bangor
via Conlig, Donaghadee, Killinchy, Killyleagh and Downpatrick.
Progress
was slow at first and the company decided to concentrate on the
Belfast-Holywood and Belfast-Newtownards sections for the time
being. Work on the lines was contracted out to William Dargan
(who was responsible for building Ireland's first railway, the
Dublin and Kingstown) with the single-track Holywood line opening
in August 1848 and the Newtownards line opening in May 1850, with
a gala opening day on 6th May 1850.
By
this time the powers granted in the 1846 Act of Parliament had
lapsed and had to be renewed before work could start towards Downpatrick.
A new Act of Parliament was obtained in 1855, and saw the original
scheme redrawn from the Killinchy/Killyleagh alignment to serve
the towns of Ballygowan, Saintfield and Crossgar.
This
new route passed through some difficult terrain and required many
rock cuttings. The most notable one between Comber and Ballygowan
was known as “the gullet”, now filled in. In between
Saintfield and Crossgar another branch was built to the market
town of Ballynahinch, opening on the 10th September 1858. Although
a terminus, the station was built as a through-station, in the
forlorn hope of extending the line to Dromore.
The
mainline to Downpatrick was opened 23rd March 1859. Although enough
land was purchased between Comber and Downpatrick to allow double
track to be laid, and overbridges built to accomodate double track,
this entire section remained single track throughout its life.
A
couple of years later in 1861 it was thought that a southern extension
to the railway might be possible when the Downpatrick and Newry
Railway Company hoped to connect the County Down with the Newry,
Warrenpoint and Rostrevor Railway. However, although shares were
issued, the scheme failed to emerge and it was not until 1866
when the Downpatrick, Dundrum and Newcastle Railway Act was passed
that a southern extension became a reality.
The
DDNR was originally an independent company, but a latter Act of
Parliament in 1868 allowed the BCDR to invest in the company,
effectively making it a parent company to the DDNR. The line opened
in March 1869, operated by the County Down for 12 years until
completely taken over by the County Down.
As
this extension was a separate development from the original line,
trains from Belfast had to enter Downpatrick station, run the
engine around the carriages and then proceed to Newcastle. In
order to over come this an avoiding line was built just outside
Downpatrick, linking the Belfast and Newcastle lines. A small
platform was built at the junction of the new line and the Newcastle
line to allow passenger to disembark and board a branch train
to Downpatrick, or later to Ardglass.
The
main line between Ballymacarrett and Knock was doubled from 1877
onwards. As traffic increased two further sections of line were
doubled. This work began around 1892 on the main line from Knock
to Comber and also the line to Bangor. The latter was done in
stages and completed in 1902. The rest of the network remained
single track throughout its lifetime.
The
Bangor Branch
Both
Acts of Parliaments granted to the County Down gave them the power
to build to Bangor via a branch off the Donaghadee line at Conlig,
but after several years the company's Board of Directors decided
against this plan and allowed the powers to lapse in 1861. In
1865 another company had arrived on the scene as well - the Belfast,
Holywood and Bangor Railway. This company had persuaded Parliament
and landowners to carry on the line from Holywood along the shore
of Belfast Lough towards Bangor.
A
separate station was built at Holywood and two notable stations
at Cultra and Helen's Bay were built to serve the area's landowners
before reaching Bangor. The line opened to traffic in May 1865.
From 1859 the BCDR was suffering from increasingly worrying financial
problems and in an attempt to ease these problems sold the Belfast-Holywood
stretch of line to the BHBR, giving that company access to the
city, although the BCDR required the BHBR to build a separate
station at Queen's Quay.
Eight
years later, in an effort to clear itself of heavy debts the BHBR
leased its line to the County Down in 1874. In 1884 an Act of
Parliament transferred all the BHBR assets to the County Down.
All BHBR rolling stock was taken into the County Down's fleet
and renumbered. The two stations were linked by opening a doorway
between the two stations, but a complete renovation in 1911 merged
the two stations, taking in the BHBR platforms and adding an impressive
new glass canopy over the platforms.
The
Donaghadee Branch
The
BCDR itself, however, was now concentrating on finishing the branch
line to Donaghadee, on which work had temporarily halted at Newtownards
in 1850. The line opened in June 1861 and it was hoped that the
railway could tap in to the steamer services between Donaghadee
and the Scottish port of Portpatrick. However, Portpatrick was
far too open to storms and rough seas for any regular service
to occur and soon the main steamer services ran from Larne to
Stranraer, and Donaghadee was unable to offer the County Down
Railway any traffic from Scotland.
The Ardglass Branch
The
branch line to Ardglass came about from indirect government aid
to the herring industry. Ardglass was a busy fishing port, but
had a small population so the majority of traffic was goods. The
line left the Belfast-Newcastle line about half a mile south of
Downpatrick Loop Platform and was built as inexpensively as possible,
there were few earthworks and numerous short, steep gradients.
The
line was begun 1890 with the granting of the Downpatrick, Killough
& Ardglass Railway Act, obtained under the Light Railways
(Ireland) Act, although in reality the line did not differ much
from the rest of the BCDR system when built. It opened in 1892
and stations were built at the Downpatrick racecourse, Ballynoe,
Killough and Ardglass, with halts at Coney Island and Bright built
later.
A
small stretch of line from Ardglass Station down to the harbour
was laid so that fishing boats could unload directly into wagons,
but this was rarely used and was soon lifted.
The Castlewellan Branch
With
Newcastle becoming a popular tourist resort, the much larger Great
Northern Railway (Ireland), operator of the Belfast to Dublin
line, sought to expand into the town. The company already had
a branch line through Banbridge which terminated at the small
hamlet of Ballyroney, 18 miles from Newcastle, and wanted to build
from there through Castlewellan down into Newcastle.
The
County Down fought against these proposals but in the end a compromise
was reached - the Great Northern was to build from Ballyroney
to Castlewellan and the County Down was to build from Newcastle
to Castlewellan.
The
line opened in March 1906, and Castlewellan Station was run jointly
by the two companies, the BCDR maintaining the run-round loop
while the GNR(I) maintaining the station and the signalling, but
crucially, the GNR(I) would have running powers to Newcastle.
In return the BCDR got running powers to Ballyroney, although
they had argued for running rights to Scarva.
This
was a small hamlet and as such these powers had dubious value
and were never exercised. The 24th March 1906 saw the arrival
of the first GNR(I) trains in Newcastle, and with extra trains
running into Newcastle a new station, twice the size of the original,
was opened in the same year.
The
Central Line
Although
not part of the BCDR network, the Central line was used by both
the GNR(I) and the County Down for excursion trains. The line
was built by the Belfast Central Railway with the intention of
connecting the BCDR, the GNR(I) and the Belfast and Northern Counties
Railway, which later became part of the London Midland and Scottish
Railway.
The
Act of Parliament was granted in 1864, but as land was expensive
around the City the Central was soon in financial difficulties.
A new Act and a new Board of Directors in 1872 pushed work forward.
The line ran from a junction half a mile south of Great Victoria
Street to a station at Queen's Bridge, with a branch from the
Albert Bridge to the County Down, joining the line close to Ballymacarrett
Junction. The company soon lost out to competition from tramways
and was bought over by the GNR(I) which ended passenger traffic,
using the line for goods and excursion trains to Bangor.
Later
a tunnel was built under the end of Queen's Bridge, connecting
the Central line with the LMS (NCC), but this was only used for
goods traffic.
Early 20th Century
The
period after the start of the 20th Century was really the heyday
of the BCDR system. In 1914 company dividends peaked at 6½%.
War broke out in August that year. Passenger receipts increased
especially with traffic to the army base at Ballykinlar which
had an unadvertised halt for a period from 1915.
After
the war there followed a period of unregulated competition from
bus operators. At one particular time there were no less than
27 private bus services operating within County Down alone! This
competition was especially felt in towns where the railway journey
was longer than the equivalent road journey to Belfast. In areas
close to Belfast the tram also was a major competitor. The extension
of the tram line to Knock in 1905 led to cut throat competition
for the commuter ticket.
The
Ards Tourist Trophy Races
The
RAC’s Tourist Trophy was the prize for a series of road races
first and was competed for on the Isle of Man between 1905 and
1922. It was later revived from 1928 to 1936 with a new 13½
mile circuit in County Down. The course was roughly triangular
and linked Dundonald, Newtownards and Comber. The start was at
Quarry Corner and the route raced clockwise.
The
BCDR main line crossed the route 4 times. Firstly at the site
of the first Newtownards station. Next at ‘Glass Moss’
level crossing, (1½ miles from Comber towards Newtownards).
Thirdly under the bridge at Comber station and then lastly under
the iron trellis bridge at Dundonald station. The photograph shows
the hairpin bend at the Central Bar in Dundonald. This event proved
to be a great tourist attraction and many people travelled by
train to watch the practise sessions and the races themselves.
The
BCDR took advantage of the situation by offering cheap fares and
even building a semi-permanent grandstand at Comber. Glass Moss
itself was not a normal halt but became so during the races. The
trains could not cross the road and operated to here from either
side. The races ended in 1936 after a terrible accident in Newtownards
when 8 spectators were killed on the footpath near the Strangford
Inn Hotel by an out of control car.
Second
World War and the Ballymacarrett Accident
Before
the war, competition from road passenger and freight services
was stiff and the railway was beginning to show the signs of declining
profits.
During
the Second World War the BCDR saw a considerable increase in traffic.
This was mainly due to traffic arising from evacuees from Belfast
who were living outside the city and also troop movements.
On
a foggy morning on the 10th January 1945 there was a fatal accident
at Ballymacarrett in East Belfast. A railmotor train from Holywood
collided with the 7.10 am train from Bangor which was stopped
awaiting a signal change. 22 people were killed and a further
24 people injured. The enquiry into the accident placed the blame
on the driver of the railmotor for travelling too fast for the
poor visibility and also on the company’s rules relating
to the passing of signals at ‘danger’.
The
company paid out a sum of £80,000 in compensation. This
was a figure the company could ill afford and it wiped out its
Contingencies Reserve. This coupled with declining post-war traffic
was one of the factors that led to the transfer of the company
to public ownership.
The
End of the Line
In
1946 the Northern Ireland Government announced that it was planning
to bring the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board, the BCDR and
the LMS (NCC) under one body to be known as the Ulster Transport
Authority. The UTA came into being in September 1948 and the independent
life of the railways was ended, except for the Great Northern
which was not absorbed for ten years due to the complex legal
arrangements of its cross-border nature.
Apart
from new rolling stock from the NCC, running of the County Down
lines remained unchanged until 1949 when drastic cuts in services
appeared, and from January 1950 all lines south of Comber closed,
with the Belfast-Comber-Donaghadee line closing the following
April. The UTA found, however, that they were obliged to run the
Castlewellan line while Great Northern trains ran on it and this
was serviced by the Harland diesel until April 1950, although
Great Northern services continued until 1955.
Running
on the Bangor line remained unaffected, but the stations at Kinnegar,
Marino and Craigavad were closed, although both Marino and Craigavad
were soon reopened (with Craigavad closing again a year later)
and two new stations and Crawfordsburn and Seahill were opened.
The Belfast Central line, which linked the County Down with the
rest of the rail network, was split in 1965 when Middlepath Street
bridge was removed for road improvements, isolating the Bangor
line.
Steam
services were gradually replaced from 1953 onwards with the introduction
of the Multi-Engined Diesel (MED) railcars, usually running in
a three set formation. County Down carriages were withdrawn, with
the underframes removed for scrap and the carriage bodies sold
off.
All
of the County Down's fleet of locomotives were scrapped, bar No.
30 which was saved for preservation in the Transport Museum and
the two diesels. Diesel engine No. 2 was returned to Harland and
Wolff, where it worked the shipyards until the 1970s when it was
scrapped. Fellow
diesel No. 28 spent the next twenty years shunting at Great Victoria
Street Station, and survived until the closure of Great Victoria
Street when it succumbed to the cutter's torch.
Throughout
its life, the UTA was accused of favouring road transport versus
rail transport. Sixty-one percent of the railway lines in Northern
Ireland had been closed and further cuts were planned. After much
dispute the Transport Bill of 1967 divided the UTA into three
separate companies, Northern Ireland Railways, Ulsterbus and Northern
Ireland Carriers (for road freight traffic).
In
1972 it was announced that the Bangor line was to be reconnected
with the former GNR(I) lines and all services bar the Larne trains
were to be re-routed into a new station to be built on the Central
line, replacing Great Victoria Street Station and Queen's Quay
Station. Work was completed in 1976 and Great Victoria Street
Station and Queen's Quay Station were closed and demolished, although
Great Victoria Street Station was reopened in 1995. The workshops
at Queen's Quay were refurbished to form the Central Services
Depot, which was closed in 1996 when the cross-harbour link between
Central Station and York Road Station was built.
The
main reason given for the closure of the County Down main line
was that the towns and villages it serviced were rural and not
densely populated. However, within ten years of the closures most
towns, for example Dundonald, Comber and Newtownards, had substantially
grown in size, virtually guaranteeing commuter traffic.
In
the last couple of years, due to increasing car use by commuters,
several proposals have been drawn up in regards to the Comber
line ranging from reopening the line as it was when closed, to
a light railway or a limited size busway. Certainly with the near-critical
increase of road congestion, it has been slowly and expensively
learnt that the answer to congestion is not to build more roads
but to fund alternative forms of transport. Perhaps
there's life in the old County Down yet.
This article is dedicated to all those people
who worked on the BCDR
References
and further reading:
Irish Railway Record Society
Wikipedia
- History of rail transport in Ireland
Dundonald
Railway Station Then & Now
Irish
Railwayana Website
H.C. Casserly - Outline of Irish Railway History
D. Coakham - The Belfast & County Down Railway
Dr. E.M. Patterson - The Belfast & County Down Railway
The
Downpatrick & County Down Railway (DCDR) was set up in 1985
with the aim of restoring a portion of the former Belfast and
County Down Railway as a working railway museum, incorporating
the various aspects of Northern Ireland's railway heritage. The
railway project is, to date, the only Irish Standard Gauge railway
restoration project ever undertaken in Ireland (Irish standard
gauge is five foot three inches as opposed to narrow gauge which
is three foot and English standard gauge which is four foot eight
and a half inches). The only other example of a Irish standard
gauge railway in Northern Ireland is 
However,
the tremendous tourism potential in establishing a railway museum
at Downpatrick was soon realised. The site of the museum nestled
in picturesque countryside in the shadow of Downpatrick Cathedral.
The railway could connect the town with an already established,
but highly under-visited tourist spot, namely Inch Abbey, as well
as another potential attraction, an 18th century corn mill being
restored in the small hamlet of Ballydugan located about two miles
south of Downpatrick, both of which are a short distance away
from the old line. An added bonus of the project would be that
what was nothing but wasteground would be redeveloped into a public
amenity, removing an eyesore from the town. The trackbed between
these destinations was virtually intact and the majority was generously
donated to Down District Council for use by the Railway by Dunleath
Estates. As of this time Phase 1 of the project has been completed,
with three quarters of a mile of track laid from the town to the
only BCDR building that survives in Downpatrick - the Loop Platform
and beyond to the reputed grave of the Viking King, Magnus Barefoot.