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The Belfast & County Down Railway Museum Trust
An Associate Member of the Northern Ireland Museums Council Index History of the B.& C.D.R. Locomotives of the B.& C.D.R. Trust's Plans Ballynahinch Branch An
Irish Railway Challenge Membership
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Welcome to the Web Site of The Belfast & County Down Railway Museum Trust All photographs on this site are copyright, and are not to be copied for re-sale. ========================================================================================================== Obituary It is with deep sadness that we have learned of the death of our former Committee Member, and one time Trust Secretary, Iain Blair. Iain was a member of the Trust from its inception, and had been a life-long friend of Trust Chairman, Bob Pue. He served on the Trust Committee for many years, and accompanied Trust members on a number of trips to England to visit preserved railways. He was a keen photographer, particularly during the last days of steam in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, and we are deeply indebted to Iain for having given his large collection of negatives and colour slides to the Trust a number of years ago. They will be a memorial to his enthusiasm for Irish railways, and particularly steam, about which he was extremely passionate. Iain spent all his working life in the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and retired only last April. He told us last year of the plans he had, and the places he was going to visit in his retirement, but unfortunately that was not to be. Although we have only heard of his death, Iain passed away on New Years Day, and we would offer our condolences to his friends and family. Ian never married, but he will be greatly missed by all who knew him, and who greatly enjoyed his friendship. ======================================================================================== Join us in a Very Special Tribute
'David Healy MBE' Tribute Locomotive
A unique opportunity for football fans and railway enthusiasts to join forces to pay
A VERY SPECIAL TRIBUTETO A NORTHERN IRELAND FOOTBALLER
Share in this Special Tribute to 'David Healy MBE The
Trust has been in negotiations with Irish Rail, the rail operator in the
Republic of Ireland, who have very kindly offered us a unique opportunity to
purchase, for preservation, one of the 'B' Class General Motors Diesel
locomotives that are now being withdrawn. These locomotives were built in
the early 1960s, and one is expected to be available for removal from Irish
Rail’s works at Inchicore about April or May 2009. As
many of our members are also football fans, and supporters of the Northern
Ireland football team, we propose to use this engine as a means of paying a very
special tribute to David Healy who hails from Killyleagh, only a short distance
away from our line at Ballynahinch Junction.
The engine will be given the Number
9, for obvious reasons, and will be named ‘David Healy MBE’.
In organising this special tribute we would like to allow all fans to
have an opportunity to participate, and to have a chance of meeting David at the
Naming Ceremony. Following
acquisition the engine will be painted in the green livery of the former Belfast
& County Down Railway, and will be overhauled for use on the Ballynahinch
branch line. The engine will be maintained to main line standard,
and, subject to agreement with other railway preservation groups, could be
loaned or leased for operation on the main lines, or at other preservation sites
throughout Ireland. David has agreed for the engine to be named in his honour, and we hope that it can be secured, and be ready later this year or early in 2010. The engine will be fitted with specially cast brass name-plates bearing the name ‘David Healy MBE’. It will also be fitted with a set of specially cast number-plates bearing the number 9. These plates will be copied from the number-plate from the original B.& C.D.R. engine No. 9. This original number-plate is in the possession of the B.& C.D.R. Museum Trust, and will be used as a ‘master’.
To
secure this engine we are inviting supporters of the Northern Ireland football
team to join with us in this unique opportunity by pledging their support
towards the acquisition of the engine, and to participate in this special
tribute to David. A numbered Certificate will be issued for each
pledge honoured, and each certificate will incorporate a photograph David in
action and a photograph of the engine when it has been completely restored, and
named. We hope that it will
be possible to persuade David to sign each certificate individually, and that it
will be possible to fit the Naming Ceremony into his busy schedule.
We
plan to invite all those who have honoured their pledges to attend the Naming
Ceremony, and trust that they may have an opportunity to meet David, and to pay
their own personal tributes. This
will be a very special event for Northern Ireland football fans, and for the
Trust, so don’t miss out on this unique opportunity. In the first instance we would ask you to please make a ‘Pledge’ of funds to help us complete this tribute. Please complete a ‘Pledge of Support’ form and forward it to us as soon as possible. All ‘Pledges’ will be acknowledged immediately, and when sufficient pledges have been received you will be invited to honour that pledge so that the engine can be secured. The maximum pledge that we will accept in the name of any individual will be £1,000, or in the name of any group, club, or corporate sponsor will be £2,500. These funds will be placed in a special account and will be used solely for the purpose of purchasing and maintaining this engine, and not for any other purpose. Special
Certificates will be issued when the locomotive has been fully restored and the
name applied, hopefully before the Naming Ceremony takes place.
We
believe that this is the first time that such a tribute has been paid to any
Northern Ireland footballer, so please support us in this historic event.
For further information, or to ask for a brochure, please contact us
at our e-mail address below. PLEASE
DO NOT SEND ANY PAYMENT WITH YOUR
APPLICATION ========================================================================================================================================= To help put this project firmly on the ground the Trust is seeking a number of benefactors who will help us to raise £100,000 as a matter of urgency. This funding will be used to secure further portions of the track-bed between Saintfield and Ballynahinch, and to restore the route to its pre 1950 state.
In the absence of any major funding contributors we are seeking 1,000 people who would be willing to donate £100 each towards achieving this same objective.
Please take the time to study our web site, and consider joining us to help develop this project as a major Heritage Railway to recreate the real Belfast & County Down Railway.
Please visit An Irish Railway Challenge for further information.
========================================================================================================== The aim of this web site is to promote interest in the history of the former Belfast & County Down Railway, and to allow railway enthusiasts and others to participate in the preservation of its history. It is also to promote the Trust's plans for the restoration of part of the system between Saintfield and Ballynahinch as a Heritage Railway that will truly depict as closely as possible the image, the aura, and the character of the Belfast & County Down Railway during its hundred years of operation through the drumlin countryside of County Down.
What
is
the B.& C.D.R. Museum Trust?
The
Belfast & County Down Railway Museum Trust is a voluntary organisation that
was established by a small group of railway enthusiasts in 1972, the primary aim
being to preserve relics, artifacts, and photographic material relating to the
railways of Ireland in general, and of the former Belfast & County Down
Railway in particular.
The formation of the Trust was prompted by the loss in
the early 1970's of a number of extensive collections of Irish railway archive
materials which where not unfortunately protected in any way.
As a safeguard therefore, the Trust was registered through the Northern
Ireland Legal system at the time of its formation, thereby giving a guarantee of
security to the materials and artifacts within its collection.
The collection is overseen by a Board of Trustees who are charged with
the responsibility of ensuring its continued preservation.
The day to day running of the Trust, is in the hands of
a committee that is made up of members of the Trust who are elected at an A.G.M.
each year. This Committee
also has a representative from the Board of Trustees, who acts as the 'Go
Between', being the link between the Trustees and the membership.
Soon after its formation the Trust proposed the
development of a Working Railway Museum using a portion of the track bed of the
former Belfast & County Down Railway, and indeed was the first railway
preservation organisation in Ireland to promote the idea of an operational
railway museum. The
section of line chosen was that between Saintfield and Ballynahinch, which
incorporated two miles of the former main line between Rowallane Gardens at
Saintfield (The headquarters of the National Trust), and Ballynahinch Junction,
and also the 3½ mile branch line from Ballynahinch Junction to Ballynahinch
Town. It is still the Trust’s intention, to relay the track between Saintfield and Ballynahinch using the standard Irish track gauge of 5' 3". Towards achieving this objective the Trust has acquired a section of track bed at Cahard, on the Ballynahinch branch, and is currently in negotiations to acquire the remainder of the route. 2008 being the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Ballynahinch line, the Trust is undertaking a major operation to have track laid before the end of the year. Full details of the Trust's proposed developments, and how you can help, can be found on other pages of the web site. ====================================================================================================================== WANTED ALL
KINDS OF OLD
RAILWAY PHOTOGRAPHS, BOOKS
and MAGAZINES Particularly
anything relating to the Belfast
& County Down Railway FOR
PERMANENT PRESERVATION PLEASE
CONTACT THE
B.& C.D.R. MUSEUM TRUST 9 Kilbright Road Carrowdore NEWTOWNARDS Co. DOWN, BT22 2HQ Freephone:
0800 980 1242
E-mail: countydownrailway@yahoo.co.uk All items in our collection are protected for posterity under the terms of our Deed of Trust =========================================================================================== THE LAST TICKETS HAVE BEEN ISSUED, NEWCASTLE HAS SEEN THE LAST TRAIN OFF, AND THE SHARP WHISTLE BLASTS THAT DAILY RENT THE MORNING STILLNESS HAVE BEEN SILENCED
AFTER EIGHTY YEARS. A
shade of sadness cast its sentimental gloom over sweet County Down when the last
train passed over the many miles of the serpentine iron ribbon between Newcastle
and Comber. Yes,
that train rocked and shook and passed by the hills and dales and vanished like
a phantom on its journey into the past, and reminded one of the funeral cortege
of a gallant warrior who had served his country well.
Though there was no muffled drum, a death-knell did sound, not from a
louvered belfry but from the occasional short blasts from the locomotive
whistle, the signal of a duty being performed for the last time. As
those sonorous blasts died away in the evening air, so passed into the limbo of
history a major portion of a railway whose embankments and cuttings will
perpetuate it in the archaeological future when much of its story will have been
long forgotten. To
those of us who remember its heyday, its decline and fall in this age of
automotive transport on the highways and byways, the old 'County Down Railway
will remain one of our most cherished memories.
Reprinted
from the
BELFAST
TELEGRAPH at
the closure of the main line of the Belfast
& County Down Railway on
16th January, 1950. =========================================================================================================== A Journey in Time A Journey in Time A Journey in Time
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