Ulster Railway

The Ulster Railway was a railway company operating in Ulster, Ireland. The company was incorporated in 1836 and merged with two other railway companies in 1876 to form the Great Northern Railway (Ireland).

History
The Ulster Railway was authorised by the (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. xxxiii), an act of the UK Parliament, and construction began in March 1837.

The first 7 mi of line, between Belfast Great Victoria Street and Lisburn, were completed in August 1839 at a cost of £107,602 11s. 5d. The line was extended in stages, opening to Lurgan in 1841, Portadown in 1842, and Armagh in 1848. In 1836 a Railway Commission recommended that railways in Ireland be built to broad gauge. The Ulster Railway complied with this recommendation but the Dublin and Drogheda Railway (D&D) did not. In order for Dublin and Belfast to be linked without a break-of-gauge, in 1846 the UK Parliament passed an Act adopting a compromise gauge of for Ireland, to which the Ulster Railway's track was then re-laid.

Extension of the Ulster Railway resumed, reaching Monaghan in 1858, Smithborough in 1862 and Clones on the Dundalk and Enniskillen Railway, later the Irish North Western Railway (INW), in 1863.

The Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway (D&BJct) between Drogheda and Portadown was completed in 1853. This connected the D&D with the Ulster Railway, thus completing the main line between Dublin and Belfast.

The Ulster Railway operated three lines that remained in the ownership of separate companies: the Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway (PD&O), the Banbridge, Lisburn and Belfast Railway (BLBR) and the Dublin and Antrim Junction Railway (D&AJR). The PD&O reached Dungannon in 1858 and Omagh in 1861, and the contractor, William Dargan, sold the Ulster a 999-year lease on it in 1860. The BLBR opened between Knockmore Junction and Banbridge in 1863, and the D&AJR opened between Knockmore Junction and Antrim in 1871.

In 1876 the Ulster Railway merged with the INW and the Northern Railway of Ireland (formed by a merger of the D&D and the D&BJct the previous year) to form the Great Northern Railway (Ireland).

Preserved stock
One example of Ulster Railway rolling stock has survived. The body of No. 33, built as a family saloon in 1862 and withdrawn in the 1920s having passed into GNR hands, is preserved at the Downpatrick and County Down Railway. It has been moved to the carriage workshop where restoration is now underway. The body has been stripped down framing repaired and reassembly is underway. Many original features remain with many of the original panels being refurbished and re-installed. Some of the unique features of the original body highlight that this coach was mid way between the stagecoach bodies of the 1850s and the classical Victorian coach body of the 1870s onwards. These features include rounded tops and bottoms of the windows, door handles placed below the normal waist line in stagecoach manner for access from lower platforms and internal water piping within the frames in a mixture of hessian hose and lead fittings.

The coach is a family saloon with two large compartments and a small toilet compartment accessible to each compartment. Both toilet compartments are in the centre of the coach. The internal piping rises to roof level where a water tank will have been fitted. The internal branch indicates that a small wash basin must have been fitted. It was lit by four pot lamps with two in each of the main saloons. The original roof holes and interior bezels remain. The lower level of roof canvas remains with the original lamp holes remaining. The underframe has not been preserved. It was fitted with electric lighting in late 1890s and it may have had a new GNR under frame fitted at this time. It likely had an unbraked, six wheel wooden framework. The short body length of 23 feet would have meant a relatively short wheelbase. A similar sized 6-wheeled Ulster Railway coach was part of the train involved in the Armagh accident (1889), but by this time the Smiths simple vacuum brake had been fitted and the under frame may have been renewed, so exact details are unknown. A 4-wheeled, vacuum-braked underframe replica will be built using vintage components, but replacing wood with modern steel channel assembled such it will look like wood when painted.