Saturday 22nd November saw more progress on steam engine No. 90, thanks to a delegation of our Munster-based members who made a journey of biblical proportions from just to get to Downpatrick for a day’s labour.
Alex, Cathal, and Shane made the journey up from Cork and were rewarded with an afternoon of crawling around underneath 90 removing vacuum pipes and brake gear. This work is essential as it removes fixed connections around the boiler and firebox, which means we’re now one step closer to summoning a hi-ab and sending the boiler away for overhaul next year.
Whilst Cathal and Shane were up top dismantling (supported DCDR regular volunteer Aaron, who likes steam locomotives way more than he lets on), Alex and Morgan were down in the pit building up the supports to drop the ash pan. After carting over 28 heavy timber blocks from the loco yard, they carefully stacked them beneath the loco to create a support structure that will take the weight of the heavy ash pan when it is disconnected from the loco.
As if that wasn’t enough, before they could lay hands on their beloved Cork steam locomotive, we pressed them into hard labour clearing up the remains of the Halloween decorations from Inch Abbey – but as a reward they were treated to cab rides in diesel loco 124.
A huge thanks to the determined trio of Munster supporters for travelling all this way to help out. Their efforts meant that steam loco and clear-up work could make progress, while our regular volunteers could crack on with high-priority Christmas prep and permanent way tasks.
With our volunteers coming from as far away as Dublin, Cork, Meath, Antrim, and Derry/Londonderry, we’re extremely proud that our shared railway heritage is bringing people together from both sides of the Irish border. As our Cork members have demonstrated, nobody on the island of Ireland can say that they live too far away to volunteer with us!
Interested in volunteering? Find out more here.
