Passengers on the railway lines of Northern Ireland may recently have enjoyed a glimpse of blue, a rush of steam, the unmistakable sound of a steam train whistle.
After 10 years of restoration work, mighty express steam locomotive “Merlin” is back on track and ready to pull passengers on Sunday 13th April.
The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, based at Whitehead, has worked since 2004 to restore, repair and breathe life back into one of Irelands finest express steam engines. The locomotive has been trial running for a few weeks and the results have been excellent.
Sunday April 13th will see Merlin pull a passenger train from Belfast Central to Portadown, with two return trips from Portadown to Lisburn, before returning to Belfast Central and the Society is selling tickets for the trains.
Built in 1932 in Manchester, Merlin was one of 5 locomotives built especially for the Belfast-Dublin “Enterprise” service operated then by the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland). Designed to climb the steep gradients and haul heavy passenger trains at averages of over 60mph, the locomotives revolutionised the Belfast-Dublin train service at the time. The Society is especially pleased to have Merlin back in-traffic 50 years after the RPSI was formed in 1964.
RPSI Operations Officer Mervyn Darragh picks up the story “Naming steam locomotives was quite common. Whilst Merlin is magical to us, she and her sister locomotives were actually named after birds of prey. The locomotives were painted a very striking shade of blue, trimmed in red and lined in black and white. Merlin makes a very impressive sight and oozes pent up power. We are taking the opportunity to get as many miles of running-in as possible and it is great to get the opportunity to bring the engine back to the former GNR(I) route between Portadown and Lisburn. We hope lots of people in the Lisburn and Portadown area take the opportunity to experience the magic of travelling behind this marvellous machine.”
“After Sunday 13th Aprils operations, we will take Merlin back to our depot at Whitehead for checks, then she will be used to haul our annual Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday “Easter Express” trains. These trains are lots of fun for all the family, with Easter Eggs for children and plenty of nostalgia for the adults. Merlin will be the icing on the cake for us.”
Ticket details, timings and online sales (where relevant) are handled through www.steamtrainsireland.com.
Tickets for the Sunday April 13th trains cost just £10 and are available on the train on the day. For that fare passengers can choose to travel in any combination of Belfast Central (1110)-Lisburn (1130)-Portadown and then on two return trips from Portadown (1210 and 1455) to Lisburn and back (1310 and 1610), before departing Portadown at 1655 to drop off at Lisburn (1735), Belfast Central (1755).
Tickets for the Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday steam trains are selling fast from Belfast Welcome Centre (Tel: 028 9024 6609). They cost £11 each and ticket holding children will receive an Easter egg.
Tickets are also on sale from the Belfast Welcome Centre for the Railway Society’s annual Steam and Jazz trains with the Apex Jazz band. Held on Friday evenings in June each year, these trains are a social calendar mainstay.
FACTFILE:
- The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland was formed in 1964 and is celebrating it’s Ruby Anniversary in 2014. Set up to preserve and operate steam trains and associated railway heritage stock and items, the RPSI is still managed by volunteers and the majority of restoration work is carried out by volunteers in Whitehead, Dublin and Mullingar.
- Merlin is unique, the last of 5 “V”-class, three-cylinder compound locomotives built by Beyer Peacock in Manchester for the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1932. The locomotives were built to be powerful and fast, but still be small enough to be worked on inside the dimensions of the railway company workshops at Dundalk.
- The 5 locomotives were named after birds of prey – No.83 Eagle, No.84 Falcon, No.85 Merlin, No.86 Peregrine, No.87 Kestrel.
- No.85 was last steamed in about 1962 and was eventually bought by the Belfast Transport Museum. The locomotive was on display at their museum in Witham Street Belfast until 1982 when Lord Henry Dunleath provided substantial funding to have the locomotive restored.
- The locomotive’s first overhaul in preservation was largely carried out by Harland and Wolff and she ran from 1985 to 1990 before returning to the RPSI depot at Whitehead for further extensive work.
- She hauled steam trains all over Ireland from 1994 to 2004 before retiring again for overhaul. The overhauls are largely carried out by volunteers and the work on Merlin earned junior volunteer Nathan Lightowler from Moira the national award of UK Volunteer of the Year 2013.
- The RPSI is always seeking new volunteers and interested persons should first of all join the Society, details of which can be found online at www.steamtrainsireland.com