BACKGROUND

The history of diesel traction on Northern Ireland Railways and the predecessor Ulster Transport Authority was, for much of the fifty years from the early 1950s on, very much a matter of make-do and mend. The original four LMS (NCC) single-unit cars built new in the 1930s (of which No. 1 was originally petrol-engined) were followed in 1951 by the second-hand Ganz unit, No. 5. The first multiple unit railcars, Nos. 6 and 7, were converted from carriage stock, also in 1951, and fitted with AEC power equipment. More than half of the innovative multi-engined diesel (MED) fleet which followed between 1952 and 1954 were also conversions of older non-powered stock, their origins well-concealed by a sleek exterior and modern fittings such as power doors. Existing carriage stock was again the basis for the likewise innovative multi-purpose diesel (MPD) railcars, built between 1957 and 1962, the only significant example in these islands of railcars designed for and used on both goods trains as well as every kind of passenger service. All of these units up to and including the MPDs had underfloor engines with diesel-mechanical transmission.

This diverse railcar fleet undoubtedly served the railways of Northern Ireland well, but reliance on conversions of older equipment had inevitable limitations. The next delivery of diesel units, the eight diesel-electric trains of the 70 class with above-floor power equipment, were built from new by the UTA in 1966-68. The subsequent twenty-four units of the 80 class, again diesel-electric, delivered between 1974 and 1978, were also a new build, the manufacturer being in this case British Rail Engineering Limited in Derby. For the nine likewise diesel-electric units of the “Castle” (or 450) class, there was a reversion to the rebuild approach. These cars used the power units from the scrapped 70 class and one of the 80 class on ex-British Rail Mark I underframes. Built in Derby between 1985 and 1987, they did however reintroduce power doors, which had been dropped in favour of slam doors for the MPDs and the 70 and 80 classes.

While railcars handled almost all internal and suburban services within Northern Ireland, there was parallel but limited development of locomotive-hauled services, primarily for the Enterprise services to Dublin. Initially, Mark II coaches (some new, some second-hand from British Rail, the last arrivals being the “Gatwick set” in 2001) and three Hunslet locos delivered in 1970 were deployed on the NIR contribution to this operation. The Hunslets were succeeded by three GM machines similar to Iarnrod Éireann’s 071 class, delivered in 1981 (two locomotives) and 1984 (the third). A new carriage fleet from De Dietrich in France which arrived in 1996 and two further GMs identical to the IÉ 201 class and delivered in 1995 then brought the Enterprise into the 21^st century.

Looking now at infrastructure, retrenchment was the order of the day through the 1950s and 60s. The County Down was closed in 1950, all but the Bangor branch and Castlewellan to Newcastle, used by the GNR until 1955. On the former Northern Counties section, all that remained after 1959 was the main line and the Larne and Portrush branches, while by 1965, the Great Northern was similarly reduced to the main line to the Border and the Antrim branch, the latter closed to passengers since 1960. The Bangor line was severed from the remainder of the network in 1965, when the old Belfast Central link was closed.

However, 1976 saw the reinstatement of the link between the GN and the Bangor and the opening of the new Belfast Central Station, then as now anything but central in its relationship to the city centre. This positive move was offset by the loss of the conveniently located former GN terminus at Great Victoria St. – just a few minutes walk from Donegall Square and Belfast City Hall. In 1978, Londonderry trains were diverted to Central instead of York Road, running via the GN Antrim Branch, reopened for passenger service in 1974. The old NCC main line was then closed, save only for a brief experimental service for some months in 1980-81.

Belfast’s city centre obstinately refused to follow the railway to Central Station, so in 1995, Great Victoria St. was reinstated, while at the same time, York Road was linked directly to Central Station by a completely new route with a spectacular bridge over the Lagan. Finally, in 2001, Londonderry services reverted to the NCC main line, heavily refurbished between Bleach Green and Ballymena, but on the negative side, in 2003 the Antrim branch again lost its passenger service.

Welcome as most of these developments were, the increasing average age of the fleet and the dated nature of the onboard ambience constrained potential gains from the new infrastructure and NIR entered the 21^st century in considerable need of new rolling stock and further attention to infrastructure if the railway was to survive and to play its part as life in Northern Ireland returned to normality after years of civil turbulence.

ORGANIZATION OF TRANSLINK AND NIR

As one of the few remaining publicly-owned transport authorities running both rail and bus services, the organizational structure of NIR as the company this new phase was also relevant to its ability to deal with these challenges. The three operating entities of Ulsterbus (buses other than in Belfast), Citybus (Metro) for Belfast and Northern Ireland Railways operate under the common identity of Translink and are subsidiary entities of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company (NITHCo). NITHCo constitutes the property-owning element in the overall structure and is directly responsible to the Department of Regional Development in the Northern Ireland government. Translink reports to the NITHCo and is managed by a Chief Executive and two General Managers, one for rail and one for bus, while five functional divisions serve both road and rail, namely: Projects and IT Division, Finance Division, Marketing Division, Human resources Division and Infrastructure and Property Division - a compact and effective management hierarchy, but one leaving little spare capacity for big schemes

The remainder of this article appears in IRRS Journal number 164, published October 2007.