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Welcome to the Transport Galleries

Irish Railway Galleries

Dunluce Castle Ireland’s first railway, linking Dublin and Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), opened on 17th December 1834. Over the following ninety years the rail network spread throughout Ireland, eventually totalling 3,442 route miles so that by the 1920s it was estimated that nowhere in Ireland was more than ten miles from a railway. Railways had a profound effect on Irish life. Gradually towns abandoned local time and clocks were set first to Dublin Mean Time (25 minutes behind GMT) and later to Greenwich Mean Time. Railways facilitated both import and export, they delivered all manner of goods throughout the country and provided an efficient means for more distant parts to export their products the national and world markets. Railways can even be credited with the growing popularity, in the latter part of the 19th century, of going on honeymoon.

Locomotive No.800 `Maedb` The Collection, housed in a spectacular purpose-built gallery reminiscent of the great Victorian railway stations, includes locomotives and rolling stock from all over Ireland. The largest vehicle in the collection in the locomotive Maedhbh (Maeve), one of a class of three which were the largest locomotives to be built or operate in Ireland, used to pull the Dublin to Cork Express. One of the smallest vehicles is a two-man track inspection cycle, used daily to check the condition of the track. The various narrow-gauge railways are represented by a fine collection of locomotives and carriages from the County Donegal Railway and Cavan Leitrim & Roscommon Railway.

Road Transport Galleries

The Bicycle
Bicycle Gallery There are more bicycles in the world than any other form of transport, possibly more than all other forms of transport added together. From the humble beginnings of the Denis Johnson ‘Hobby-Horse’ of 1818 to the modern racing, mountain and hybrid cycles, the bicycle has succeeded quite simply because its design allows the human body to operate it with the least stress. It is the most efficient form of human-powered transport ever devised.

The exhibition not only shows the museum’s fine collection of bicycles but also looks at the social effects of the bicycle: from being the plaything of the rich in the 1820s to being the poor man’s transport a hundred years later; from the early days of cycling sport to the Tour de France. Special sections look at the invention by Samuel Boyd Dunlop, a Belfast veterinary doctor, of the pneumatic tyre, and the careers of Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly, Ireland’s most successful cycling sportsmen.

Motorcycles
With the development of the safety bicycle and the internal combustion engine in the 1890s it was probably inevitable that the two should be put together. The first motorcycles appeared in the 1890s. The exhibition follows the development of Ulster’s love affair with the motorcycle, with some emphasis on the successful careers of motorcycle sportsmen. Special sections look at ‘biker art’ - the decoration of biker leathers and helmets, and of the bikers themselves.

Road Transport
Belfast Horse Tram A recreated cobbled street provides an authentic setting for a fine collection of trams that once trundled along the streets of Belfast. Early horse-drawn trams were replaced in the early years of the 20th century by electric trams, which provided public transport throughout the city until the 1960s. Commercial vehicles and fire engines, very early motor cars are featured. A special section details the Giant’s Causeway Tram, the world’s first hydro-electric powered tramway.

The Motor Car
Life in the 1960s If the 19th century was the age of horse transport, the 20th century was the age of the motor car. Styles changed, engineering developed and comfort levels for driver and passengers improved - from the old T Ford to the sleek elegance of the Belfast-built De Lorean, from the comic antics of Laurel and Hardy to "Back to the Future".

General Transport Galleries

Archaic Transport
Slide car for turf The earliest form of transport, and one still with us today, was simply a person carrying a load. Sliding vehicles followed and later all manner of wheeled vehicles. This exhibition looks at the development of transport from its earliest origins, through local survivals of vehicles which pre-date the wheel, through to that uniquely Irish vehicle, the Jaunting Car.

Carriages and Coaches
From the relatively humble accommodation of a caravan of the Travelling People to the grace and elegance of the Dress Chariot, from the simplicity of the horse-drawn lorry to the complexity of the Stage Coach, from the openness of the gig or the Victoria to the enclosed privacy of the Brougham. Not only do the vehicles in this exhibition illustrate the various means of transport, they also illustrate the supreme art of the coach-builder.

The Flight Experience
Flight Experience Gallery In December 1903, two Ohio brothers finally realised one of man’s oldest dreams. At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered flight. Although that first flight covered less distance than the wingspan of a jumbo jet it began a transport revolution which is still continuing today.

Six years later, Harry Ferguson, more famous for his invention of the integrated tractor hydraulic system, made the first flight in Ireland in a plane he built himself.

The exhibition features a full-scale replica of Harry Ferguson’s 1909 aircraft and the Shorts SC1, the Belfast-built first vertical-take and landing aircraft [VTOL] in the world. Sections look at the history of flight from the ancient Greek legend of Icarus to bizarre medieval attempts, from the Montgolfier brothers’ successful balloon flights and the works of such pioneers as Sir George Cayley and Otto Lilienthal.

Interactive CD-ROM technology guides the visitor through the history of flight. Interactive s illustrate the scientific principles of flight and aircraft control.

In 1908, three brothers Eustace, Horace and Oswald Short established a company to build aircraft, and the following year secured the UK manufacturing rights and an order to build six Wright Flyer aircraft. Since 1936 the Short Brothers company has been based in Belfast and that 1909 order justifies their claim to be the world’s oldest aircraft manufacturing company. Now part of ardier Aerospace, the company generously collaborated with the Museum in mounting this exhibition.

Titanic
Titanic Leaving Belfast The RMS Titanic is unquestionably one of the most famous ships in history, and the story of her fatal maiden voyage one of the great epic tales of the twentieth century. Even before she slid down the slipway at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast on 31st May 1911, she was making the news.

She was, with her virtually identical sister-ship Olympic, the world’s largest ship, offering her passengers unparalleled luxury and elegance. When some sections of the press described her as ‘unsinkable’ neither the owners or the builders were stupid enough to argue the point, although neither ever made the claim themselves. On 2nd April 1912 the great ship sailed from Belfast to begin her working life. Her maiden voyage to New York began eight days later when she sailed from Southampton bound for Cherbourg, Queenstown (Cobh) and on to New York. Four days after sailing she hit an iceberg and in the early hours of 15th April 1912 sank with the loss of over 1500 lives. Ever since the disaster has captured and held the public’s imagination and fascination.

ULSTER FOLK & TRANSPORT MUSEUM

Tour The Transport Museum