19 February 2026 Lance King in Ulster 1957-1970, The Northern Counties Committee

Presenter: Leslie McAllister

A significant number enjoyed a presentation by Leslie McAllister, the railways of Northern Ireland during the last years of steam and transition to DMU operation. The source material came from the extensive set of colour slides taken by the late Lance King on his trips to that part of the UK, interspersed with black and white images attributed to H. Casserly depicting the same scenes from decades previously.

Initially images of the terminal stations around Belfast were shown, and associated railway architecture, followed by lineside shots of both passenger and goods services on the routes to Derry, Portrush and Larne Harbour. Stations along each route were included, as were harbour facilities at Larne including images of the ferries sailing to various ports in the UK. Interesting was the method adopted for quickly loading luggage from the trains safely to the ships.

Finally the presentation focussed on the so-called spoil trains operated by WT Class 2-6-4 tank engines mainly in top and tail configuration which for 5 years moved around 4.5million tons of over-burden from Magheramorne Quarry to Belfast which was used to reclaim land in the construction of the M2 motor-way. These operations significant in that they represented the last scheduled steam operations in the UK finishing in May 1970.