Ireland day 1526. Tuesday 02 November 2025- Ulster Transport

Today’s summary	Got up relatively early and caught a northbound diesel to Drogheda, leaving Malahide at about 9 am. Changed onto an Enterprise (no 1st class) at Drogheda then another quick change at Belfast onto a Bangor train for the Ulster Transport Museum at Cultra. Spent a couple of hours looking round then reversed the journey back to Malahide. Very interesting, especially the Meadb steam loco and De Lorean car. Video call to Val, who now is in London, in the evening. Then more casserole for dinner, and read my book
Today’s weather	Dry sunny and cool all day. Almost no wind. Appx 8c

Today’s overview location (The green line shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The red mark shows where I was) (No GPX today)

Commentary

A couple of weeks ago, Val and I had been to Belfast on the Enterprise train and we really enjoyed the whole experience. More recently, a friend had told me about the Ulster Transport Museum, which is just a short train ride from Belfast on the Bangor line, and suggested that I might find it interesting.

So, with a free day ahead of me and Val still being away, I thought I would repeat the Enterprise experience. And add on the extra leg to the Museum.

To make the best of the currently limited hours of daylight, I got up relatively early and caught a northbound diesel at 9:01 am from Malahide. (I used my senior railcard but got a free ticket from the ticket office in Malahide to simplify going through the barriers at Belfast. I actually got a through ticket to Bangor though interestingly I had to get it ticketed from Connolly as Malahide to Bangor wasn’t an option on the system).

Once at the Drogheda terminus, I switched over to the other platform and jumped on the next Belfast train, which came through a few moments later. Sadly there was no first class, but at least that saved me having to pay the supplement.

We arrived in Belfast on time and I crossed to an adjacent platform to catch a Bangor-bound train to Cultra, where the museum is situated. It’s about half an hour from Belfast, then the museum itself is about a ten minute walk from the station.

The museum itself was really interesting – and reasonable value at £10.40 for seniors. Sadly there was no café today (it’s only open in the summer) but there were hardly any visitors today, so I can see it wouldn’t have been worth it.

There was lots to see – it’s quite extensive with several large exhibition halls split between two separate buildings. The highlights for me were the 1939 Meadb [pronounced ‘Maeve’] steam engine – the largest ever to run on Irish rail, and the now-defunct 1982 De Lorean gullwing car. But there was lots more to see, too, including trams, horse drawn carriages and somewhat incongruously, surfboards.

After a couple of hours I decided to call it a day and head back to the South. Given more time, I’d like to have visited the adjoining Folk History museum, and also the coast path (accessible from the Museum campus). A good excuse for a return visit.

The return journey was straightforward, although the Enterprise was 15 minutes late leaving Belfast, making the connection at Drogheda tighter than I’d have liked. Anyway I got back to Malahide in good time, and was back in the flat before 5pm.

In the evening I had some more casserole for dinner, and then a good video chat with Val. She’s in London now, after a very successful trip to Canada. She returns to Ireland on Sunday. Finally I read a bit more of my book, and watched a some TV.

A great day for trainspotters!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Approaching the Museum from Cultra station. It’s about 10 minutes’ walk	Famous nameplate of number 800

On the footplate of Meadb. A real thrill!	Gullwing aspect of the now-defunct DeLorian

My Enterprise pulling into Platform 5 at Belfast Grand Central. The incoming train was late, so we only had a few minutes to get on before it turned round and set off back to Dublin	I had a 4 minute change at \|Drogheda station – just time to inspect the overhead charging gantries for the new battery-DARTs (now delayed to 2027). Interestingly I learned at the museum today that there were also battery trains on the Dublin-Bray line in the early 1930s. They had a range of about 80 miles / 120km

Overview of one of the many halls of the Museum. There were buses, trams and cars as well as trains. Also, oddly, a section on surfboards, though I couldn’t really see how they fitted in