page_title: NIR Class 450
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: NIR Class 450 / History
caption_attribution_description: Hilden railway station Original description: Hilden Station Railcar approaching Hilden Station from Belfast
context_page_description: The Class 450 was a type of diesel multiple unit formerly used by Northern Ireland Railways. They were affectionately nicknamed 'Thumpers' and 'Castles' by rail enthusiasts.
context_section_description: In the mid 1980s, Northern Ireland Railways was in the process of upgrading its rolling stock. Having already purchased three new locomotives, it then proceeded to purchase replacements for its Class 70 diesel multiple units. A total of nine three car trains were constructed by British Rail Engineering Limited between 1985 and 1987 intended to supplement the existing Class 80 DMUs then in service. The trains were constructed using underframes of existing Mark 1 coaching stock, altered to 1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in) and new Mark 3 bodyshells. Because of this, they bore a strong resemblance to the British Rail Class 150, British Rail Class 210 (based on), British Rail Class 317, British Rail Class 318 and British Rail Class 455, as they use Mark 3 bodyshells.  These were combined with refurbished power units and traction motors from the withdrawn Class 70 units (there were only eight Class 70 units available to be salvaged, so the equipment for the ninth train came from a withdrawn Class 80 train, powercar 88 that was damaged at a collision at hilden.)
  The power cars of the Class 450 units were named after various Northern Irish castles. They entered service in a cream, orange, and red livery.
  On Thursday 9 March 1995, a 450 Class train was used to form a royal train when Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the Dargan Bridge, composed of two cars from 455 coupled to two cars from 459.
  The Class 450 operated on the same principle as the prototype Class 210 DMUs on the British network, in that they consisted of a single power car containing the traction and generating equipment (numbered 45x), an intermediate trailer car (numbered 79x) and a driving trailer (numbered 78x) as permanently formed 3 car sets. An additional "8" was added to the start of all the cars so that they could be used by Translink's computer system.
  In 2005, the entire fleet underwent an extensive refurbishment to bring them up to a similar standard to the newly introduced Class 3000 units, enabling them to remain in service for at least another 5 to 7 years. This took them up to the point where they became "life-expired."
  In 2011, the entire Class 450 fleet, together with the remaining Class 80 units, was listed by NI Railways for disposal.
caption: 458 at Hilden
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