The Northern Counties Committee

Northern Counties Committee

The Northern Counties Committee was a railway that served the north-east of Ireland. It was built to Irish gauge but later acquired a number of narrow gauge lines...

(NCC) Class X was a solitary diesel-hydraulic shunting (switcher) locomotive built by Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland....

 (H&W) for service in the NCC's yards and at Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

 docks. It was one of several pioneering designs of diesel locomotive produced by H&W under their Harlandic trademark during the 1930s and 1940s.

History

There was only one member of Class X, No.17. It was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and delivered to the NCC in 1936 under a lease arrangement; it was not actually taken into stock until 1941 when the NCC purchased it. No.17 had an 0-6-0 wheel arrangement and was powered by an eight-cylinder diesel engine developing 330 bhp at 1200 rpm.

Transmission was via a torque converter

Torque converter

In modern usage, a torque converter is generally a type of hydrodynamic fluid coupling that is used to transfer rotating power from a prime mover, such as an internal combustion engine or electric motor, to a rotating driven load...

 and a jackshaft

Jackshaft

A jackshaft is a device for turning the wheels of a locomotive. It is essentially an axle with no wheels. Each end of the jackshaft has a crank pin and a counterweight. The driving wheels are then connected by side rods. The name may come from a combination of "jack," a slang term for a locomotive,...

 final drive mounted ahead of the leading coupled wheels. In addition, there was a two-speed gearbox with ratios of 5.76:1 and 19.52:1 giving top speeds of 50 mi/h and 15 mi/h respectively in both forward and reverse. As delivered, it had its maker's trade name Harlandic on a plate just below the front headlight.

No.17 spent its career working out of the limelight on the Belfast Harbour Commissioners’ lines at Belfast and within the NCC's own yards. It survived Ulster Transport Authority

Ulster Transport Authority

The Ulster Transport Authority ran rail and bus transport in Northern Ireland from 1948 until 1966.-Formation and consolidation:The UTA was formed by the Transport Act 1948, which merged the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board and the Belfast and County Down Railway...

 (UTA) ownership and entered Northern Ireland Railways

Northern Ireland Railways

NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways and for a brief period of time, Ulster Transport Railways , is the railway operator in Northern Ireland...

stock in 1967 but saw little or no work before it was scrapped in mid-1970.

Livery

Under NCC ownership, No.17 was painted black with red bufferbeams. It had brass number plates with red backgrounds which bore a highly stylised "17" in the same manner as the NCC steam engines. The initials "NCC" were applied to the side panels in shaded gold serif capitals.

When the UTA took over, No.17 was repainted black with vermilion and yellow lining. The UTA roundel replaced the "NCC" on the side panels.