Ballymena R1

JIM REEVE'S 1541
How many remember the good old Flamingo Ballroom were one would dance the night away and who better to dance to than Jim Reeve's.
This was June 1963 and Jim Reeve's was topping the charts and to see him live was a dream come true especially for the two girls in the front of Jim. So Sammy Barr,who was the host at the Flamigo hired a piano tuner with a respected reputation to give the upright on the Flamingo's stage an overhaul the day before Jim was due to appear before a packed audience. Gentleman Jim was so delighted at the sound the piano produced that he went out of his way to thank Sammy publicly before his encore that famous night at the Flamingo. So pleasing to Reeves' ear was this instrument that Jim wanted to borrow it for the remainder of his tour, which included a hall at the end of the prom in Portstewart and St Columb's Hall in Londonderry, where the piano was great anyway and where the young priest was Father Daly, in later life Bishop Edward Daly.
His biggest performance of all that year of 1963 was in the Ulster Hall.

ROBINSON BROTHERS 4082
Standing outside this shop called Robinson Brothers which was in William Street next to Broughshane Street is William Swann with his hands on David and Sarah. Standing next to them is James with Tommy and behind them the man is unknown. Over to the right is a oval shaped sign advertising Van Hutton's Coco which came from Holland.

RAILWAY 4199
This narrow gauge train has just left Ballymena Staion on Larne line passing Kells, Ballyclare and on to Larne. The engines speed was between 35 & 60 MPH.
You can see the difference in the width of the train's track to normal track size.

RAILWAY 4198
This is Ballymena Railway station in 1936 is Engine No 82 is building up steam before linking up to the carriages.
If you are wondering why half the telephone bars are missing its the steam from the engine funnel.
The Engine's name is Dunananie Castle.

REIDe4075
The shop first belonged to Mr R.G. Reid who died in 1880. After that it belonged to John H. Denham who died in 1896. After his death, Mr Denham's widow went into partership with Andrew Tafts McFetridge. Andrew became the sole proprietor after the death of Mrs Denham in 1917. After Andrew's death in 1946, it was taken over by Archie McFetridge.If you look closely at the opening in the lace curtains of the second window from the left you will see someone looking out.

R.RAMSEY 4076
Standing outside his premises in Ballymena is Mr. Ramsey a keen business man with a friend. As you can see Mr. Ramsey was not only a publican and a butcher he also hired
out cars. The poster on the left of his window is advertising the Lyric theatre, one of the acts is called Colleen and another say Guilty ????. The poster behind Mr. Ramsey
is of a football match between Glentorn and Ballymena United.

ROBINSON 4204
Here on the corner of Queen Street in Ballymena is Norman Robinson's Shop, in this photo he is selling Easter cards along with Holiday cards, toys, newspapers and sweets. Although those with a Sweet Tooth stay away from the weighing scales outside. Norman seems to care more about advertising boards than people as this lady with her child squeezes through.

RAILWAY 4203
Would you belive this is Larne Hrbour in 1878 and this Narrow gauge train Number 4 is ready to leave with stops on the way and finishing in Ballymena. The second carriage has a lady waving away to someone on the station platform.

RAILWAY 4205
This Railway Station is in Ballymena in 1945 what a lovely station sadly like many others they were destroyed and so called modernized. On the left is the main line tracks while on the right we have the narrow gauge tracks, over the high embankment is Balmoral Avenue. On the left on the platform is a slanted table that has all the trains time tables on down you can see a trolley, a pile of boxes with a porter standing beside them. Behind him is another porter and on down two ladies probably heading towards the rest or waiting rooms before the next train comes in.

RAILWAY STREET 4206
It's wintertime here in Ballymena and the street you are looking down on is Railway Street locally known as Wild West street. (does anyone know the reason it was called this?).
If you turned to your left at the bottom of the street brings you to Railway Street Place where the McAteer's lived.
Here in Railway Street the Montgomery's, the Kernohan's lived and also a Mr Alan Campbell used to live at 104 Railway Cottages until he went home.

RAILWAY 4207
This is No 10 steam engine letting of steam as all the passengers have all gone having come from Londonderry to Ballymena. David Smyth remembers many a time he stopped here at Ballymena station with this very engine. David was a fireman then.and his father nickname "Gunboat" Smyth was the driver and his Grandfather George Symth worked on the platform.and they lived in Princes Street. Sometimes his Grandfather would lie down between the tracks on his back and the driver would slowly drive the engine over him. At the same time you could hear the ding,ding, ding as he hit each wheel with a hammer to check if any of the wheels were cracked or damaged. He slowly did the whole train like this untill once he was clear the train kept on going on its way to Londonderry or Belfast. his grandson who was between 3 - 5 years old watched in horror as the train go over him, that it scared the living daylights out of him, this was in 1960 - 1962, The grandfather George lived at the top of Clarence Street near the tennis courts. No Health and Safety back then now they walk alongside the train.

RAILWAY 4208
Standing idle at Ballymena Railway Station is engine No 73 Acording to Luke Ed Kate:
This looks like a 4-4-0, which would mean it's a U2 class. NCC73 engine primarily worked out of Belfast, but was later assigned to work out of Larne. This engine was built at the Derby works in 1922 and witdrawn from service in 1956. No73 was not assigned a castle name; the names assigned were as follows :- 71 Glenarm Castle; 74 Dunluce Castle; 75 Antrim Castle; 76 Olderfleet Castle; 78 Chichester Castle; 79 Kenbane Castle; 80 Dunseverick Castle; 81 Carrickfergus Castle; 82 Dunanny Castle; 83 Carra Castle; 84 Lissanoure Castle & 87 was called Queen Alexandra.