Downpatrick & County Down Railway

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The logo of the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway, inspired by traditional heraldic railway emblems, featuring a monogram based on a BCDR original and shamrock reflecting the town's connection to St. Patrick.

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.

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.

1 History
2 Operations and Rolling Stock
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Local architect Gerry Cochrane was inspired to start the scheme after talking a walk along the route of the line, and by 1982 had gained support to rebuild part of the line as a heritage steam railway from the local council. Lord Dunleath, who's father (the 3rd Baron Dunleath) had purchased the railway trackbed adjacent to his estate after the closure of the B&CDR in Downpatrick, gave the newly formed society a package of land on which to build the line and station for a peppercorn rent. This was on the approaches to the old Downpatrick station, which had been demolished in the 1970s. Work started on rebuilding the railway in 1985, with passenger trains finally running in the town again in December 1987. Track has been relayed on nearly 6 km (4 mi) of Belfast and County Down Railway trackbed, and a 1.6 km (1 mi) 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.

The Downpatrick & County Down Railway was the subject of a BBC1 Northern Ireland 40-minute documentary, "Raising Steam", which was broadcast on Monday 14th January, 2008.[1]

[edit] Operations and Rolling Stock

Approximately 5 km (3 mi) of Irish standard gauge (1600 mm / 5 ft 3 ins) track are open as of 2005, along which one Orenstein and Koppel steam locomotive and some early 1960s 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 1987.

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. 1875-built 0-6-0 tank engine, GSWR No90, which was delivered to Downpatrick in October 2007 after overhaul at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland's workshops in Whitehead, Co Antrim, is Ireland's oldest operational steam engine.