CSET No. 1
A much loved performer on our steam trains, CSET No. 1 was originally one of nine shunting locomotives built for Cómhlucht Siúicre Eireann, Teoranta (Irish Sugar Company, Ltd.) to work in their sugar beet factories. There were three factories, at Mallow, Thurles and Tuam (a fourth existed at Carlow, which utilised locomotives built by Cockerill […]
NIR Tamper 7
Tamper 7 (officially 7007) was built in 1978 by Plasser & Theurer for Northern Ireland Railways. Its job is to pack ballast underneath sleepers (tamping) and to correct the alignment of the rails to ensure they are as parallel and flat as possible – this is called ‘lining’. Previously, before the advent of tampers, tamping […]
NIR Flat Wagons 713 and C505
DCDR has two of these flat wagons – 713 and C505. They are used by our Permanent Way Department to transport the loads that are just too big for the Dumper and its trailer. Both flat wagons started out life as carriages under the Ulster Transport Authority, though NIR would remove the body from one […]
BCDR Bridge Wagons
This trio of trucks are known as ‘bridge wagons’, so-called because they were used to transport bridge girders from a loading point to the required site. Though in some cases a girder would be short enough to fit on a conventional bogied flat-bed wagon, longer girders had to travel on bridge wagons. These have a […]
GSWR Ballast Hoppers
DCDR has two of these ballast hoppers, 8314 and 8411. They were built at Inchicore in 1902 by the Great Southern & Western Railway, and throughout their working lives were to be found all across the Irish railway network. Unlike modern ballast hoppers, they simply deposit stone into the middle of the track, whilst a […]
GSWR Plough Van 8452
8452 is one of several ballast plough vans built by the Great Southern & Western Railway in 1906. Plough vans were essentially normal brake vans, but with a large plough beneath the underframe. They were an essential part of ballast trains, where they would travel at the rear behind the hoppers and evenly spread the […]
Oil Tanker 1536
1536 is just one example of the hundreds of tank wagons built by Charles Roberts & Company of Wakefield, England for various railways across Britain and Ireland. Though many were built for mainline railway companies, most belonged to private businesses – 1536 is one of the latter, though we haven’t yet been able to identify […]
NCC Steam Crane 3084
Steam crane 3084 was purchased by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1931 to assist in the construction of the Bleach Green viaduct, a double-track 10-arch bridge which still to this day carries the Belfast – Derry mainline across St. Valentine’s Glen in Whiteabbey. The crane consists of three vehicles – […]
NCC Brake Van 33
33 is a rare surviving example of an Irish brake van. Built by the NCC at their York Road works in the early 1920s, it would have been found on the back of goods trains all across the NCC network, from Belfast to Larne, Ballymena, Cookstown and destinations even further afield. It is a simple […]
NCC Brown Vans
In 1929, the Northern Counties Committee began introducing covered parcels wagons on some of its passenger trains. These wagons were built in waves, with the last being introduced in 1947. In total, 25 were built, with the running gear and frames being built by Harland & Wolff and the wooden sides being added by the […]