Downpatrick & County Down Railway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Downpatrick & County Down Railway is a heritage railway in County Down, Northern Ireland. The project is based at Downpatrick, on part of the former route of the Belfast & County Down Railway. Approximately three miles of Irish standard gauge (1600 mm or 5 ft 3 ins) track are open as of 2005, along which one Orenstein and Koppel steam locomotive and some early 1960's era diesel locomotives (three CIE G611 Class and two CIE E421 Class) are run, drawing preserved rolling stock, including no. 836, a carriage built for the Great Southern and Western Railway in 1902. The DCDR has also introduced back into service 1896-built BCDR No 148, the first Belfast and County Down Railway coach to be restored by the railway and the oldest operational passenger carrying railway vehicle in Ireland. After withdrawal from traffic in the mid 1950s, 148 did duty as a henhouse until rescued by the DCDR in the 1990s.

The railway also operates one of the prototype BR-Leyland Railbuses, RB3, which was modified in the early 1980s to run on Irish metals and was used for a period by Northern Ireland Railways. The railway has also been donated by Irish Rail, Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway Railcar B, built in 1948. This railcar is in poor condition and it wil be some time before the DCDR can return it to operational condition. A second O&K steam locomotive is also under restoration, as is 1875-built locomotive no. 90, which once operating will be Ireland's oldest operational steam engine.

The railway, which has a triangular layout, connects two local tourist attractions, Inch Abbey to the north, and a locally famous Viking site (King Magnus' Grave) to the south, and will eventually reach an 18th century corn mill to the south.

Work started on rebuilding the railway in 1985, with trains finally running in the town again in December 1987. Track has been relayed on nearly 4 miles of Belfast and County Down Railway trackbed, and a one mile extension south to the hamlet of Ballydugan has been proposed.

The railway began life as the Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway, as the original intention was to extend the railway to this fishing port on the south coast of County Down. This name was dropped in 1996 following the abandonment of this proposal and the railway was renamed the Downpatrick Railway Museum until 2005 when the new name, Downpatrick & County Down Railway was adopted following the opening of the Inch Abbey extension.