NI Railways - History

History

NIR was formed in 1968 when it took over from the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA), which had operated the province's railways since 1948. Much of the railway network closed during the 1950s and 1960s, declining from 900 miles (1,500 km) to 206.61 miles (330.58 km) at present.

Suffering frequent disruption and damage to infrastructure caused by the Troubles and starved of investment by successive political administrations, the NIR network had become badly run down by the 1960s, with old rolling stock and poorly maintained track. NIR's last steam locomotives were withdrawn in 1970.

In 1970, NIR started using new rolling stock to re-launch the once-popular Enterprise between Dublin and Belfast with three new NIR Class 101 diesel locomotives built by Hunslet in England and Mark 2B carriages built by BREL. Despite frequent interruptions due to bomb scares, the service has remained a more or less constant feature of the NIR network.

As older trains became obsolete in the 1970s, the Class 80 diesel-electric multiple unit was introduced. BREL built these units between 1974 and 1977 to British Rail's MK 2B design with some trailer cars rebuilt from hauled stock. The power cars are powered by an English Electric 4SRKT engine, nicknamed 'Thumpers' due to their characteristic sound, and have two English Electric 538 traction motors. These entered service on the suburban lines around Belfast, becoming a stalwart on the whole network. Now a rare sight, a few of these slam-door trains remain in service primarily on the Larne-Belfast line and the Coleraine-Portrush Line. In the early 1980s, NIR purchased one of the prototype LEV Railbuses built to test the railbus concept on the British network. This was intended for the Coleraine-Portrush branch, but was withdrawn due to the capacity constraints of operating a single car on the route. A plan was mooted to utilise the vehicle on the Lisburn-Antrim line to prevent it from being closed. This proposal failed, again because of the limited capacity provided by the vehicle.

NIR has three EMD class 111 locomotives, 111–113, for freight and passenger use, built in 1980 (111–112) and 1984 (113).

During the eighties it was apparent that additional trains would be needed. BREL built nine 450 Class sets on former MK 1 underframes between 1985 and 1987. The power cars have an English Electric 4SRKT engine recovered from former 70 Class units (except 457, which uses the engine recovered from 80 Class power car 88) and have two English Electric 538 traction motors. The sets are three-car diesel-electric multiple units, based on a more modern British design, with air-operated sliding doors. Now in the process of a mid-life refurbishment, these trains continue in service.

In 1994, NIR bought two EMD 208 Class locomotives, identical to Iarnród Éireann's 201 Class. These haul the cross-border Enterprise, dedicated sets of modern carriages.

In 2004/2005, NIR received 23 3000 class diesel multiple units from CAF of Spain, in an £80m order. The final unit, 3023, arrived in Belfast Harbour on 18 July 2005. All units had entered service by 24 September 2005. They operate principally between Bangor, Portadown and Londonderry and Belfast.