70014IronDuke
Established Member
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- 13 Jun 2015
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Cooking my mushrooms for lunch just now, I was pondering a trip I made to Ulster long ago, and I suddenly realised it was almost exactly 54 years to the day when this occured. A small gang of us met up in Belfast to chase a Railway Preservation Society of Ireland special for a day, possibly two, which went to places around Lough Erne and Ballymena. We might have gone up towards Larne as well, it was a long time ago and i didn't plan the trip myself. This, plus the hazy brain resulting from the overnight trip on the boat from Heysham (via the Belfast Boat Express from Man Vic) and chatting on the boat to one particularly pretty Irish student from Leeds teacher training college to long left me rather shell shocked much of the day.
I think it was double headed at times with the wonderful blue 4-4-0 and an 0-6-0. It's also quite possible one of the LMS-esque 2-6-4Ts took the train for some of the way. It must have been late March or very early April 1970 - possibly Easter weekend. I have no idea what happened to my photos of the trip - they were probably pretty poor in any case.
Anyway, it's not the train details that made me think to post, but rather the fact that - to the best of my knowledge - the Railway Society of Ireland was a joint Republic - Northern affair that ignored the political differences on the island and just got on with their core business - railway preservation.
(At this time, there was little or no terrorist activity. The British Army had not been on the streets long, and - from later reading - since they had largely gone to protect the Catholics from the misdeeds of Protestant militants, their presence was welcomed by the former population.)
I'm sure there were differences of opinion on policy etc, but, at least from a distance (I have absolutely no knowledge of the inner workings of the group whatsoever), The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland could be said to be an instution showing peaceful co-operation across the political divide.
Now I'm sure there were other successful cross=border associations in Ireland, and I'm certainly not holding out much hope for the existence, let alone palpable success, of a possible Railway Preservation Society of Palestine or anything like that, but, for all the ridicule and general abuse that is dished out - or at least used to be dished out - to railway enthusiasts, and especially the spotting community, about being spotty nerds in need of a life etc, it's a wonder I've never heard about 'peace making' via railways.
Just thinking.
I think it was double headed at times with the wonderful blue 4-4-0 and an 0-6-0. It's also quite possible one of the LMS-esque 2-6-4Ts took the train for some of the way. It must have been late March or very early April 1970 - possibly Easter weekend. I have no idea what happened to my photos of the trip - they were probably pretty poor in any case.
Anyway, it's not the train details that made me think to post, but rather the fact that - to the best of my knowledge - the Railway Society of Ireland was a joint Republic - Northern affair that ignored the political differences on the island and just got on with their core business - railway preservation.
(At this time, there was little or no terrorist activity. The British Army had not been on the streets long, and - from later reading - since they had largely gone to protect the Catholics from the misdeeds of Protestant militants, their presence was welcomed by the former population.)
I'm sure there were differences of opinion on policy etc, but, at least from a distance (I have absolutely no knowledge of the inner workings of the group whatsoever), The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland could be said to be an instution showing peaceful co-operation across the political divide.
Now I'm sure there were other successful cross=border associations in Ireland, and I'm certainly not holding out much hope for the existence, let alone palpable success, of a possible Railway Preservation Society of Palestine or anything like that, but, for all the ridicule and general abuse that is dished out - or at least used to be dished out - to railway enthusiasts, and especially the spotting community, about being spotty nerds in need of a life etc, it's a wonder I've never heard about 'peace making' via railways.
Just thinking.