Ulster Transport Museum, June 2019
As a frequent visitor to the excellent Ulster Folk Museum, which is situated directly across the bridge on the Belfast-Bangor road, I was unsure of what to anticipate from my visit to the Ulster Transport Museum.
One thing that struck me about it is electric trams. They started out in the 1890s as horse-drawn carriages, and tram no. 249 in particular was converted to an electric tram in 1905. That was 120 years ago, nine years before the First World War broke out.
It is difficult to imagine Belfast City Centre having electric trams operating more than a century ago!
Considering them at the beginning of the 20th century, when the word “recycle” had not yet been coined, people were recycling and reusing everything, including metals and glass milk bottles! Here I was standing there, staring into the eco-sustainable “future” that occurred over 100 years ago!
Cue the “Back to the Future” car, the DMC DeLorean, which was also built in Dunmurry, just outside of Belfast; see the last photo.
The above is just one of the many fantastic things you see in the Ulster Transport Museum. Its wide variety of vehicles and other interesting objects; it is, without a doubt, one of Northern Ireland’s must-see museums. It is a short stroll to the Cultra train station, which is only about 250 metres away, if you are travelling by rail from Belfast or Bangor.
