| This vehicle was built by British Rail
Engineering Ltd in the spring of 1970 for the new NIR Enterprise set which
came into service on 4 July of that year, using the then new Hunslet diesel
electric locomotives 101-103, of which the RPSI now owns 101
and 102.
Final fitting-out of 547 was undertaken
at Belfast York Road Works, unlike the other 7 coaches delivered at the
same time, which were completed at Queen’s Quay – involving road transport
across Belfast as the Belfast Central Railway was closed from 1965 to 1976.
No. 547 is a BR Mark 2b coach, with an
integral steel body running on B4 bogies. It was one of only three
NIR coaches which were allocated fleet numbers in the former UTA series
– a later NIR Dining Car No. 546 and a conversion of standard class coach
No. 821 to miniature buffet car No. 548 being the other two.
It was originally painted in the new NIR
livery launched in July 1970 – lower panels in “Caribbean Blue” and upper
panels in “Morocco Red” separated by a thin light grey waist band.
In July 1978 it appeared with the rest
of the NIR Enterprise train in silver/grey and light blue. This livery
was slightly modified in the mid-80’s by the addition of a white band between
the grey and the blue.
The Hunslet locomotives were replaced on
the Enterprise service from 2 February 1981 by General Motors locomotives
111 and 112, later joined by 113. This required the conversion of
the Enterprise coaches from the original (ex-UTA) Westinghouse 3-pipe to
UIC 2-pipe air-braking system.
NIR set up separate business sectors in
1987, and the Enterprise services came under the auspices of InterCity,
which introduced a further new livery of light grey and Prussian Blue,
separated by a thin waste-band of white/black/white/yellow. Catering
vehicles (such as 547) were also identified by a thin red stripe just below
roof level. 547 remained in this final livery until withdrawal in
1997 following the introduction of the new French-built De Dietrich trains.
With a fully-equipped kitchen and a 21
(later 23) seat tabled dining area, 547 was technically a Restaurant Car,
but in the marketing terminology of the time was usually referred
to as a Buffet Car.
Although built for the Belfast – Dublin
service, 547 did occasionally get further afield. For example, on
8 January 1982 a security closure of the Dublin line left NIR short of
rolling-stock for other routes, and the complete Enterprise train, hauled
by GM Locomotive No. 112 (appropriately named “Northern Counties”) operated
14.10 Belfast Central – Lisburn – Antrim – Coleraine - Londonderry and
the 17.15 return service from Derry, complete with No. 547 fully staffed
and offering a full meal service.
Again, on 12 June 1985, 547 formed part
of a combined NIR/CIÉ train working a special service for the Permanent
Way Institution from Portrush to Dublin, with breakfast served on departure
from Portrush.
BR Mark 2 catering vehicles were very rare
– out of over 2000 locomotive-hauled Mark 2 coaches built by BR, only 27
were catering vehicles, and only 15 of these (Pullman Coaches) were for
BR use – the others comprised 10 Restaurant Cars for CIÉ, NIR No.
547, and a conversion of Standard coach 5970 to an experimental Restaurant
Car to test the catering equipment for BR’s Advanced Passenger Train.
This coach was also subsequently acquired by NIR, becoming No. 546.
Interestingly, both NIR Mark 2 Restaurant Cars have now been preserved
– 547 by the RPSI, and 546 (now re-fitted with 4’ 8½” gauge bogies
and reverting to its original number of 5970) by Riviera Trains for special
charter trains in Britain.
In its new preservation role with the RPSI
547 has been repainted in the Society’s coaching-stock livery of Brunswick
Green with thin red and straw waist lining – the former UTA livery seen
on the last large-scale use of steam trains in public service in Northern
Ireland in the late 1960’s. |
