Quite a coincidence indeed Thewanderer! I hadn't thought about that incident myself for many years. It was indeed a very old wooden bodied coach having its window replaced at Connolly that day.
Being in my teens in the 80s, it was great to visit Ireland as frequently as I did at that time, because it afforded an opportunity to see railway operations of a type almost extinct in Britain by that time. Health and Safety? Forget about it. On the Portrush Flyer one year, we were bucketing along double headed by No. 4 (train engine) and 171 piloting tender first. This on very old track indeed. Coming down Ballyboyland Bank near Ballymoney the train hit an irregularity in the track, and I was never more scared until I crashed my car on the M1 last month! I knew from my experience of using the Larne line as a footpath at Carrickfergus (as many of the townsfolk did) that chairs on old NCC lines often were marked 'Midland Railway'. More than 60 years old in other words. Try to imagine this in Britain (or indeed in Ireland now): train of wooden bodied stock rattling downhill at nearly 70 mph, tender first, on 60+ year old track! Beggars belief!
Being in my teens in the 80s, it was great to visit Ireland as frequently as I did at that time, because it afforded an opportunity to see railway operations of a type almost extinct in Britain by that time. Health and Safety? Forget about it. On the Portrush Flyer one year, we were bucketing along double headed by No. 4 (train engine) and 171 piloting tender first. This on very old track indeed. Coming down Ballyboyland Bank near Ballymoney the train hit an irregularity in the track, and I was never more scared until I crashed my car on the M1 last month! I knew from my experience of using the Larne line as a footpath at Carrickfergus (as many of the townsfolk did) that chairs on old NCC lines often were marked 'Midland Railway'. More than 60 years old in other words. Try to imagine this in Britain (or indeed in Ireland now): train of wooden bodied stock rattling downhill at nearly 70 mph, tender first, on 60+ year old track! Beggars belief!
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