On 4th August 2024 the four miles of railway line in Belfast commonly known as the ‘Central Line’ will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. The fact that it's still a functioning line, and an integral part of the railway infrastructure in Belfast today, is a testimony to a line that just refused to go away. This article will trace the history of the line: it will cover its origins, the particular and crucial role of the Belfast Central Railway Company, its running as part of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland), its near abandonment in the 1960s, its rebirth in the mid-1970s and its expanded and crucial role today. It will also provide some insights into the difficulties small railway companies had during their early years and why the shortlived Belfast Central Railway Company earned the epiphet of a ‘fighting railway’.
Background 1858-1862
In many ways this story actually starts in Dublin, where in the early 1860s there were ideas being floated to somehow join the then five separate railway termini situated on the outskirts of the city to the north, south, east and west. One such idea became a proposal submitted to Parliament in 1861 – the Dublin Metropolitan Railway which envisaged as part of its scheme a central station forming a junction between the lines. Although the proposal was rejected, it would appear, as will become evident later, that it had not gone unnoticed in Belfast…
Belfast in 1862 was fast becoming an industrial powerhouse – it was the largest industrial town in Ireland and already in the 1860s it contained the building blocks of its future prosperity, a fast-growing linen industry, shipbuilding (Harland and Wolff, builders of the ill-fated Titanic, were established in 1861) and engineering. It had a large and growing port – in fact the port was really the basis for Belfast's prosperity. None of the raw materials of industry, particularly coal and iron ore were available locally – they had to be imported – coal especially to fire the steam engines of the new mills and iron for the engineering and shipbuilding industries. And while raw cotton was imported initially, later, when the linen industry developed, both cotton and linen goods were being exported.
Belfast railways in 1862
Initially it was the need to have better access to the small towns to the south, north and east of Belfast which prompted the first interest in railways and by the early 1860s Belfast had the termini for three separate railway companies. Although at first their main function was to carry passengers, as the town industrialised and the demand for goods like coal and iron in the surrounding towns grew, more emphasis was placed on carrying goods.
In the south of the town was Great Victoria station, the terminus of the Ulster Railway (from 1875 part of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland)). This railway, the first in Belfast, was opened in 1837 between Belfast and Lisburn. Further extensions and links with other railways continued and through the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway, Dublin was reached in 1853. In North Belfast there was the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway with its
