The Ulster Transport Authority, which controlled the railways in Northern Ireland between 1948 and 1966, replaced steam haulage on passenger trains with diesel multiple units, but had only two diesel shunting locomotives, which meant a continued role for steam on freight work.
It absorbed the Belfast, Hollywood and Bangor Railway in 1884 and continued operating until it was nationalised in its centenary year into the Ulster Transport Authority as a result of the Ireland Act 1949.
The Northern Counties Committee came into existence on 1 July 1903 as the result of the Midland Railway taking over the BNCR.
At the 1923 Grouping the Committee became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS); with the nationalisation of the railways in Britain in 1948 the line passed to the British Transport Commission and in the following year, 1949, it was sold to the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) as a result of the Ireland Act 1949.
[6] The GNR straddled the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland (after 1921), and so was not incorporated in either the CIÉ or Ulster Transport Authority.
It was run as a joint board, independent of the CIÉ and UTA, until 30 September 1958 when it was dissolved and the remaining stock split equally between the two railways.
In 1945, the GSR became part of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), which amalgamated the railway, road transport and canal functions of the State.
CIÉ was nationalised in 1950 and settled on a policy of replacing steam with diesel locomotives, a process that was completed in 1962.
It was acquired by the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1900; by which time all but one of its locomotive fleet had been designed by Robinson.