Downpatrick & County Down Railway

Some shunting fun to start our Saturday.

Special indeed but not entirely unique to this island, parts of Australia and Brazil use it too. :)

For this week's #Throwback we have a rare colour photo of our own O&K No. 3 at Mallow sugar factory, sent in by our follower Billy Maher.

Permanent Way volunteers go back to school - Downpatrick and County Down Railway Several of our permanent way volunteers attended the RailSTAR-IOSH Safe Working on the Railway course in Ballymena this week.

www.downrail.co.uk/2026/01/perm...

Starry starry night...

Focusing on essential safety practices in the railway environment, this course was attended by Permanent Way workers from all across Northern Ireland. Whether mainline or heritage, safety is the number one priority for all rail organisations.

It was back to school for our Permanent Way team yesterday. Several of our volunteers attended the RailSTAR-IOSH Safe Working on the Railway course which was held in Ballymena.

This revealed some areas needing a bit more filling and sanding, but nothing major and the repairs look very well.

If you fancy helping out on a project like this we would love to hear from you, drop us a message today.

www.downrail.co.uk/join/volunte...

Don't worry, we're not repainting the 80 class into DART livery (although 69 did spend time on the Greystones-Bray DART feeder shuttle). This is zinc-phosphate primer - the first time we've used this paint that most heritage railways use.

The recently repaired and isoponed areas have now received a coat of light green.

With the weather warming up (a little), Robert has taken the opportunity to recommence work on our 80 class power car 69. The lower temperatures over the Christmas break had precluded the use of paints and fillers.

If you would like to get involved with 1918’s restoration, we’d love to hear from you. Find out more at www.downrail.co.uk/join/volunte...

Also integral to any good job is, of course, tidying up at the end of the day. Which therefore never happens. So we were shocked to see the team made sure that no mess was left behind in their wake.

What is fascinating to our carriage buffs is finally seeing how these “laminate” carriages were constructed. A series of plywood hoops run from the floor, right across the roof and back down the other side. Designed for a short 15 year working life, they’re still standing 70 years later.

Dismantling is a key stage for any thorough carriage restoration, and also a great learning tool for our newest recruits to learn about woodwork and how a carriage is put together. The team have made great progress in just a few weeks, we’re not even finished January yet.

Last Saturday saw our hardy volunteers continue preparing carriage 1918 for its restoration. Having dealt with the old bar area the previous week, this time our novice gang turned their attention to removing panelling from the guard’s compartment.

All in an afternoon: AGMs, bananas and fast food - Downpatrick and County Down Railway We held our Annual General Meeting in The Saint Patrick Centre  on Saturday. This included all the usual business of reports.

Our AGM took place last Saturday. www.downrail.co.uk/2026/01/agm-...

New Year, new project - Downpatrick and County Down Railway Our volunteer carriage team has turned its attention to its next restoration project: CIÉ 'laminate' carriage 1918.

Our next restoration project is 1950s-vintage CIÉ carriage 1918, built in Inchicore Works, #Dublin, and one of the first carriages to be preserved by our railway.
www.downrail.co.uk/2026/01/new-...

Huge thanks to the OTT team, we are extremely grateful.

Last year we were very grateful to welcome Babcock Rail down to upgrade the centre of one of our farm crossings and last week we followed this work up by welcoming the team from On Track Technicians Ltd down to bring the rest of the crossing up to standard.

It's #TrackTuesday time and boy have we got an update for you... We've been quietly working away in the background with our "Big Proper Rail Industry" supporters to help improve some of the infrastructure on our site.

So today is #BlueMonday. Well, there's nothing like a bit of steam to beat the blues so here's an archive picture of 3BG "Guinness" in action at our railway in the early 1990s.

Photo from the late Mike Collins Collection.

Do you want to help repair one of the most historic steam engines on the island of Ireland? Send us a message to find out about volunteering.

90 has a particularly large “hopper” type ashpan, which adds another layer of difficulty to an already-awkward task. We therefore sent in some of our strongest volunteers for this job – although, judging from the broken spanner, perhaps they were a bit too strong…

The ashpan sits beneath the fire and, as the name suggests, it catches ash to prevent it from falling onto the track.

Our volunteers continue to dismantle No. 90 in preparation for its boiler being removed. This week we’ve been trying to take apart its ashpan, but years of rust and awkward nut diameters have made this a very difficult process.

New Year, new project - Downpatrick and County Down Railway Our volunteer carriage team has turned its attention to its next restoration project: CIÉ 'laminate' carriage 1918.

www.downrail.co.uk/2026/01/new-...

For this #ThrowbackThursday we’re heading to March, 1967 for a photo of B124 hauling an unfitted freight train at Dungarvan.

Many thanks to Ernie’s Railway Archive for allowing us to use this photo.

First Aid Check-Up - Downpatrick and County Down Railway Our volunteer Tony called in to conduct their regular First Aid inspection. This is essential in the safe running of our heritage railway.

www.downrail.co.uk/2026/01/firs...

The lights of winter: a different view of the Lapland Express - Downpatrick and County Down Railway Lev Pavliuk took his drone to the skies over Downpatrick on the last weekend of our Lapland Express Santa trains.

www.downrail.co.uk/2025/12/lapl...