The Midland page 5

"How beautifully it is painted! How many coats are there on it?" "Well, madam, there are seventeen." Seventeen! And here they are. The first coat is a mixture of three parts of gold-size and one of turpentine to neutralise the greasy matter in the teak wood. Then comes a coat of oil, lead-colour, well rubbed in, this being followed by a second coat of the same. Then comes a coat of filling; then the holes and uneven parts are made up with hard stopping of white lead, gold-size, and turpentine; then another coat of filling, pumiced off when hard; then another coat of filling pumiced off in the same way; then a fourth coat of filling, left for some time to harden before it is rubbed down. Next comes a coat of lead-colour which is stopped with the finishing colour touched over with the lead. This is sandpapered off and the preparatory colour put on. Now comes a coat of solid colour, followed by a coat of varnish colour, three parts varnish. Then this is flatted, and the lines are put in, and it is varnished, flatted, and lettered, and the coat of arms put on, varnished, flatted, varnished hard and varnished again - and there you are!

In 1903 The Midland added to its hopes and responsibilities by absorbing the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway, and in 1906 it joined with the Great Northern of Ireland in taking over the County of Donegal lines. Much of this property is of 5 ft. 3 in., the Irish national gauge, some of it is of 3-ft. gauge, and most of it extends over the north-east of Ireland, including all the favourite tourist resorts of the dry corner; and as vigorously as it can it is developing this Irish estate, which can be reached by Stranraer and Lame, though the main route is that to Belfast through Heysham.

Heysham communicates with Morecambe and Lancaster by an electric line of some interest, the first " single phase " railway in Britain. It is a natural port protected by two concrete breakwaters a mile and a half apart at the shore and approaching within 300 yards at the other end, so as to enclose an area of a hundred and fifty acres. Here everything of the best has been prepared for a large business in passengers and merchandise, mainly dairy produce and horses, cattle, etc., for which there are stables and lairs and stockyards and pens, and also paddocks for grazing and resting after the sea passage. Altogether a bold enterprise that may be mainly dependent on dredger work, although Hey sham Lake is said to have retained its contour ever since it was first surveyed. Coasting steamers and small craft are expected to make much use of the harbour, besides the four fine steamers that represent The Midland fleet, the Antrim and Donegal, and the two faster boats, the Londonderry and Manxman, the first of which is driven by Parsons turbines, the other having De Laval turbines. These not only run to Ireland but to the Isle of Man, like the other Midland boats, the Duchess of Devonshire, the Duchess of Buccleuch, and the City of Belfast, which, however, work from Barrow-in-Furness and not from Heysham.