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 […]

GSWR 1287 – Tri-Composite’ Carriage – the ‘Tarry’

Originally built in 1915 by the Great Southern & Western Railway in their works at Inchicore, Dublin, 1287 is an excellent representation of a typical ‘tri-composite’ carriage – seating first, second, and third class passengers in individual compartments – which worked suburban services in Dublin a century ago. In the 1920s it passed into the […]

BCDR 154

Irish railway companies had a unique fondness for six-wheeled passenger carriages right up to the mid-20th century, while in Britain and elsewhere the practice of building longer ‘bogie’ carriages resting on pivoted trucks had prevailed since around the 1910s. The Belfast & County Down Railway, which operated as a commuter railway in our local area, […]

MGWR 53

Over 70 of these carriages were constructed in the 1890s to a standard design en masse, to provide passenger accommodation on the Midland Great Western Railway’s then-new branch lines. 53 was built in the MGWR’s Broadstone works in Dublin, seating third-class passengers. The carriage passed into the ownership of Great Southern Railways in 1925, who […]

BCDR 39

39 is one of only two remaining BCDR brake coaches, the other being No. 72 which is also under our ownership. On every passenger train, a guard is required to ensure the safety of everyone onboard – their responsibilities include ensuring all the doors are closed and all couplings are working, operating the emergency brake, […]

MGWR 25

No. 25 was built to the same design as our other MGWR carriage, No. 53, except this one sat second-class passengers instead of thirds, and was built in England under contract instead of in-house at the MGWR’s Dublin Broadstone Works. It was converted to a first-class carriage in 1914 and was subsequently fitted with toilets […]

BR 11095

11095 was built by British Rail Engineering Limited, at their Litchurch Lane works in Derby. It is a Mark 3B, a sub-variant of the Mark 3 carriages that British Rail had been mass-producing since 1976. Aside from a small number of mechanical improvements, the main difference between the 3Bs and the standard Mark 3s was […]