New railway gallery given an attractive new mural of station

New railway gallery given an attractive new mural of station

29 August 2012

A DOWNPATRICK Railway Museum volunteer has created a 1940s inspired mural back to the centre’s new Carriage Gallery.

David Briggs chose to recreate the Queens Quay station in Belfast as it was the headquarters of the old Belfast and County Down Railway on whose trackbed most of the Downpatrick and County Down Railway is based.

The new £700,000 Carriage Gallery opened in August telling the story of the development of railways in Northern Ireland from the 19th century to today.

While not a professional painter, David’s work, and its level of detail, has caught the attention of visitors.

He explained Downpatrick Railway volunteers John Wilson and Mike Collins approached him with the idea of doing something with the work shed doors.

“Their initial thinking was to paint each door as if it were a tunnel with a train disappearing through one and approaching through the other,” he said. “The arched workshed doors are typical of railway buildings of the time. Arches featured in bridges, doorways, and steelwork holding up station canopies, and it was the

latter which triggered the idea for what you see now, since I wanted to create

the illusion that the viewer was looking at the station concourse through two of these steel archways like the ones depicted on other platforms.

“I decided that the view would be from the country end of Platform 1 — the old Holywood rail motor platform — looking inwards under the stations grand glass canopy, and towards the station entrance.”

However, David’s research using his Irish railway books and the museum’s archive soon made him realise that no such view existed in the photographic records.

“I had to construct the view by studying the plans of the station layout and also photographs of the station that did exist, which were mostly looking in the opposite direction!” he said. “I had a few dim memories from childhood days of travelling through Queens Quay.”

The two finished doors, painted with acrylic paint, are each 4.7 metres high by 3.8 metres wide.

“Because of the scale of the job I had to repeatedly walk back along the platforms to view my work as it is very difficult to judge if

you are painting a straight line, and many times I went home at the end of the day with a sore neck and arms,” he said.

“There were times when I was working alone and I could almost hear the sounds and smell that distinctive smell of a big station in the steam era, it started to come to life and I hope, for those of you of a certain age who see it, it will rekindle fond memories of days long gone,” he said. “For younger viewers I hope you maybe inspired to produce a painting for yourselves.”