Whole of N.I.R. in Ulster progress

[rjhowie]

I thought that my previous thread on the NIR and a junction query might give the impression re the title the content is still on a problem which is solved. So instead I have instigated this so progress can be seen.

To that end I have started working on a website but meantime I have put up a whole list of pictures to show what is happening in Ulster.

If you surf into this.... http://northernirelandrailwaysim.moonfruit.com/

Then go to the end you will see a temporary page with quite a number of pictures of the Bangor Line which is done and some random pictures at the start of the Larne and Portadown Lines. These are purely temporary and will be removed as I complete each liune with fewer pictures. Must apologise for the small page description at the foot as didn't realise it would be so small but you can pause and squint (!) to see what the picture is about!

Bobby

 

[pfx]

It's a great start Bobby. Gives me a good reason to get those '450s' finished. I've messed the config up so I'm starting again. Again. Haha.

I'll let you know when I finally get that completed.

 

[rjhowie]

Got you message okay pity you lost that work. I'm being slowed up with scenery in Belfast and so much in built up areas but persevering so I can batter on towards Lisburn and get a break from urban hold backs and some country stuff. Once I get the Border Line done and suspect that will drift into February as I reckon I will go as far over into the South to Dundalk, I can jump to the other lines.

I know I wont have the advantage of Google Earth or similar as they only go so far and most of the route is blurred. Still reckon that the Larne Line will be fiddly so leaving that until later. Do also intend to include the cross country mothballed via Crumlin but still to figure that one out and when I reach that bit there may be much guess work. I hope to get over and see what I can suss out via buses and a limited bit of walking but don't fancy the idea of walking from Lisburn to Antrim! Once the weather eases may sail over and do a recce of Larne and the Londonderry and Portrush Branch.

With you producing some modern NIR stock and me doing the present day system we will eventually have a modern scene from across the Irish Sea and fill a gap. I have put a bit of the story of the Ulster rail scene on the site and will gradually work on it in between my rail build. Will leep in touch with you and the Trainzers with news updates and website progress.

 

[pfx]

I had a good look at the site Bobby. I like what you have there and hopefully other Trainz users will pick up on the NI side of things. So far it seems to be you and me! Haha. Would be nice to see other contributors as my abilities are very limited.

Meant to say, in the interests of accuracy, Ulster also includes Counties Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan but I may just be being a nit-picker there.

I meant to ask what platform you're using? I may have read it and missed it somewhere. I use 2009 so I don't know if that affects you with backward compatability. I was wondering if this is the correct forum to have this thread in?

 

[worthless]

Enjoyed your temporary pics - but I am intrigued to learn that the Bangor line passes through Groomsport! I don't know how the name got there, but I imagine it was meant to be Crawfordsburn.

It must be very difficult for anyone without detailed personal knowledge of the area to capture the feeling of that part of Bangor which surrounds the station. The land to the north of the station drops steeply - the roof of the telephone exchange (a 3-story building in Southwell Road) is roughly at the same level as the roadway in upper Main Street. By the time the line has cleared the station, at the road overbridge, the land is rising to the north. Brunswick Road leaves the Abbey Street/Belfast Road/Newtownards Road roundabout and climbs - gently but pretty consistently - over the railway bridge and nearly all the way to Bangor West, where the station sits in a cutting.

It is over 50 years since I lived in Bangor, but I have family there and make fairly frequent visits. My comments are intended to be helpful and I hope you will accept them in that spirit.

Please keep up the good work!

Peter

 

[rjhowie]

Well done that man! You are right Peter I meant to say as you spotted!

Not living there is difficult (Glasgow, centre of the Universe) also many bits will be perceptions and the up and down bits (!) maybe not what they should be. But my main aim is to get the idea of the NIR and what is left of the much depleted Ulster rail network. In addition I felt that there is a considerable gap of modelling Trainz across the Irish Sea. Personally I enjoyed great holidays as a youngster in Waringstown, Lurgan, etc. In later years for a long time took a uniformed youth group over for summer camps in Castlerock, Donaghadee, Millisle. I recall also when young the original Great Victoria St Station full of trains going everywhere and that other long gone Queen's Quay. The York Rd Station had a distinctly different and different atmosphere. Was in Bangor a couple of months ago and always a pleasant visit.

Anyway before I get too carried away I will continue to plod on from distant Glasgow trying to reproduce something of the NIR and the parts of the Province it runs through. Keep watching Peter!

Bobby

 

[rjhowie]

Oh I am not completely mixed up worthless as there used to be a Groomsport Station as it happens. It is an impressive wooden building now used as a restaurant!

 

[worthless]

Found that lovely picture of the wooden station, Bobby. Unfortunately, it shows how easy it can be to be totally misled by what we find on the Web. That picture is of the old station at Petworth, West Sussex. How someone managed to relate it to Groomsport, I cannot understand.
Groomsport is a couple of miles along the coast to the East of Bangor. There was a station 3 or 4 miles South of the village, on the line to Donaghadee. It was renamed Ballygrainey in 1924.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to future developments.

Peter

 

[rjhowie]

Will plod on as best as one can from the distance I am working from here in Glasgow. Google Earth is only a very part help and through a message passed on here I got an alternative giving me the whole of the Larne Line which I couldn't get on that. As you know with so much urban stuff around Belfast and towns like Lisburn and others slows you up and have decided just to do only more limited scenery around the lines or this build will take for ever. Especially as Google disappears into blur. I also have a booklet which gives me all the trackwork but in linear form but bits of that are dated now.

At present jumping about doing different bits of the Border Line between Belfast and Lisburn which is dragging and will be glad for some open spaces (!). Then the next line will be the long one to Londonderry and Portrush Branch with the rest in due course. Innis has embarked on getting trains in NIR livery so that is a great help. The biggest thing is to get this system done even with breaks.

Anyway will keep you posted from time to time and thanks for the support. Maybe others may in time come to appreciate something more of the rail scene across there? Thanks for you comment and support.

 

[pfx]

I'm having a complete nightmare with the rolling stock. I somehow managed to 'break' the chameleon numbering on the 156 so started yet again. Then I deleted the unit! Starting yet again. AAAAAARGH!

 

[rjhowie]

And I am getting frustrated trying to figure out immediate scenery! But you prob is worse I think by far than mine. Must be galling but I do hope that you can manage to salvage or get over the hurdle. Even more so that something of the modern Ulster scene is being attempted by me.

I am doing clumps of scenery along the Border Line at specific points then starting to fill the gaps between so I don't feel I am not getting anywhere. Want to get all this urban stuff to Lisburn out the way so I can batter on with some open country through Moira to Lurgan, Portadown and beyond. Not much of a consolation bto you in your frustration but I remember a good friend of mine that supported Partick Thistle for years.......!

 

[pfx]

Not much of a consolation bto you in your frustration but I remember a good friend of mine that supported Partick Thistle for years.......!

I know how bad that can be. I support Alloa Athletic. Hahahahahaaaaaaaaa.

Sorry, OT I know.

 

[rjhowie]

Ha, ha, for that you deserve to get back to the drawing board as punishment. Now I am floating around Lisburn time to get further south next week towards Lurgan. Not sure if I will reach Newry or the border but we wil see. Nice to have aims even if we don't all keep to them! If i can roughtly be not too late means I could then turn my intention beyond Bleach Green and do the Londonderry and Portrush Lines in February/March. Following that try Larne direction.

Toying with the idea of a couple of days over there and get a bus to Crumlin and get a feel for part of the area. There is a bus which runs between Lisburn and Antrim but it doesn't follow the mothballed railway which is not helpful. Not going to be too purist though. Or alternatively train to Antrim and get a bus part of the way say to Crumlin and see if I can get near a couple of parts of the rail line. Could also bus rom Lisburn fromm the other end towards Crumli and get off for a recce.

By the way I have a railbus which has been done in Trainz and very modern. It is very close to the NIR one in the Ulster folk Museum. I actually travelled on that when it did run. NIR used it over a couple of summers on the Portrush Branch and we travelled on it when we were at BB Camp in Castlerock. It lay in the sidings at Coleraine for a while before being shifted to Cultra as it didn't work out very well. The Trainz one is in blue and white and could be taken for NIR although unfortunately the builder hasn't got a cab view as he was kind of busy. Maybe he will get round to a cab?? I have kept it so I can run it on the Coleraine-Portrush track in due course. I have a map which I have put on the website of suggested re-openings in Ulster.

 

[rjhowie]

Still working when I can down the Portadown line towards the Border. Have passed Lurgan and Portadown both of which held me up no end! Now back into countryside and working towards Scarva and Poyntzpass. I hope all going well that into the following week I will be well on my way to Newry. It is always the same - you can never manage to keep to date aims! Not easy doing the Ulster rail scene when you don't live there. Bing aerial maps have been a help but in places they start toi run out and it is guess work. If I can now reach the target of over the Border as far as Dundalk by end of July I can then turn my attention to the next line. That will be the Londonderry route which will take quite a time being a long one. As the Portrush Branch is off that will fiddle around with that when I get as far as the Coleraine junction. I do have some concerns about the Larne route so leaving that now until the others are done. Have enough to keep me going through 2010 and would be "nice" if it could be finished this year.

When I have completed all the N. Ireland Railway Company routes I will then decide whether to upload it or take a giant leap and continue the line south to Dublin for those Enterprise Express runs (or leave till later for a second offering). For now I am kept active enough when I get to the pc doing the N.I.R. Bing maps have been a great help but in many places they only cover only part of the railway. Although i have popped over from Glasgow the Crumlin Line is the most awkward being presently mothballed. In places it isn't near a road for having a look at and awkward. Have with some difficulty found poor pictures of Crumlin and Ballinderry halt and one or two equally unknown parts of it.

So that's the Ulster project news so far!

 

[rjhowie]

I have now progressed south beyond Portadown and passed Scarva and now at Poyntzpass station on my way to the border.

The Bangor Line as intimated is well completed and part of the Crumlin Line as far as Ballinderry with some scenery in. Nothing ever goes to plan or on target of course. When I get beyond Newry and stop over the Border at Dundalk I will then switch to the Londonderry (and the diverging Portrush Branch) Line. I have Mossley West and Antrim station and junction completed and just tracks with no scenery as of yet. That will be another uphill one like this Border route both being long. Without setting dates in stone I hope to have done the Border bit by the end of September then start the LDerry after that. The other challenging track will be to Larne which is a ways in the future yet apart from the station and junction at Whiteabbey.

My hope is that by some time next week when time permits, I will have got to Newry and that by the start of September off and on the Border. If I do when finishing the whole of what is left of the Ulster rail scene consider extending the Border Line down to Dublin from Dundalk for Belfast-Dublin Enterprise Expresses that may be a bit more skimpy. I still ask myself why I started this!

The good thing about this project is that it will at long last have something from across the Irish Sea. A much neglected area on Trainz to date. As a side to this it has led to modern NIR trains being built and an Ulsterbus(!) which has been an encouragement and my thanks to those who were pleased to see the NIR being tackled. It's not an easy project as I don't live there but I like a challenge!