Long before greenways were a thing, the former Belfast & County Down Railway trackbed from Belfast to Comber was one. Despite being one of the oldest such greenways, it is only today that I managed to travel it.
I took myself and my bike up to Belfast on the train yesterday, overnighted in Belfast and this morning, cycled from Belfast to Comber and back on the greenway. This is located primarily on the route of the former railway, with some deviations where housing has been built on the line.
I was surprised by the presence of mini hills on the route as generally, railways rose and fell at minimal gradients, however, my legs got a workout this morning due to this (I don’t have an electric bike).
All photos taken at the station sites are now online, however, there is not a lot to show as most stations have disappeared, with little trace remaining.
I am often asked by friends and acquaintances why I dislike Irish Rail despite being a railway enthusiast. The answer is that when faced with the possibility of doing things correctly, they will screw it up and deliver a sub-standard outcome.
If Irish Rail was a privately financed entity operating in a competitive environment, that would be on its owners. However, Irish Rail is a loss making State owned monopoly. As such, its failures effect society as a whole.
Take Enfield, Co. Meath as an example. Historically Enfield had two platforms – in fact, it still has, but only one is in use. As a practice, this actually makes sense, especially in the era of disability access, having only one platform makes it easier to provide services and eliminates the need for lifts with their associated maintenance.
The problem at Enfield arises in that when the line was resignalled for mini CTC, the opportunity to change the layout to relocate the passing loop to east or west of the station was not taken. As a result, the passing loop here is effectively useless (Enfield is not the only such station – Irish Rail have specialised in replicating this situation nationwide).
Whilst this is not evident most of the time due to the paucity of trains on the Sligo Line, there is a morning service from Dublin to Sligo that cannot serve Enfield due to the present track layout. This train uses the loop on the Up side, running alongside the disused platform (in grey), whilst the Dublin bound train it is passing uses the mainline and serves the platform in use (in purple).
Enfield, Co. Meath – Current layout.
A better layout would have been to place the passing loop on the Dublin side of the station.
Better layout for Enfield, Co. Meath.
Such a layout would allow a train heading to Dublin to serve the platform whilst the train to Sligo sat in the loop (in brown). After the former had passed the Enfield end of the loop fully, the Sligo bound train could emerge from the loop and serve the station before continuing west.
The other thing I don’t like about Irish Rail is no forward planning nor obvious co-operation with local authority planners to co-ordinate housing developments alongside their railway (unless CIE owns the land, in which case CIE’s status as a property development company with the inconvenience of a public transport network attached comes into play). This would also require some future proofing when it came to railway layouts. In this regard, Enfield would have a future as a two platform station, but with the currently disused Up platform re-purposed as a turnback siding.
Future proofed Enfield, Co. Meath
In this example, in addition to the passing loop on the Dublin side of the station, a turnback siding would continue on on the site of the existing loop but terminating on the Dublin side of the road overbridge at the Sligo end of the station. This would allow trains to run from Dublin to Enfield and return and also not block the running line for Sligo trains.
With the opening of Grand Central Station in Belfast, this has led to a downgrade in one section of railway, that from Belfast Central Junction to City Junction.
Prior to the closure of Great Victoria Street, trains to/from Dublin ran to Lanyon Place via the old Belfast Central Railway line, departing at Central Junction. However, all internal trains ran via Great Victoria Street, using the Blythfield Curve to do so.
With the transfer of Dublin trains to Grand Central Station, there is no scheduled service between Central Junction (A) and City Junction (B) and the double track has been reduced to single track.
One of the lesser known canals of Ireland, also known as the ‘Dry Canal’, due to never having been completed and misinformation around the reasons for same, is the Cong Canal. I came across this recent Youtube Video on the subject, which makes extensive use of drone footage of the area to highlight what remains.
Greystones Archaeological & Historical Society will be holding their monthly meeting on Wednesday 16th October 2024 at 7.30pm in the Kilian Family Centre beside Holy Rosary Church in Greystones.
The talk will be given by Rob Goodbody on the subject of Glendasan lead mines and Ballycorus Chimney.
The BBC reports that the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society are intending to take Translink to court in a bid to stop the demolition of the Boyne Bridge in Belfast as part of the latter’s plans to develop the area immediately adjacent to the new Grand Central Station.
Whilst part of me sees Translink mimicking CIE’s status as a property development company with the inconvenience of a public transport network attached, I can’t necessarily see that the bridge requires preservation and if it is worthy of preservation, does it absolutely need to be preserved at that location?
