New Year, new project? With the 80 class project now its final stages, our carriage team volunteers has turned its attention to the next major restoration project. This is CIÉ ‘laminate’ carriage 1918. It is one of the of the very first carriages to arrive at our railway back in the late 1980s. 1918 hasn’t carried passengers for some time and is looking rather sorry for itself. We intend to change that, however.
The carriage awaits a space in the workshop (hopefully after the 80 class leaves). However, our volunteers are already working on the preliminary stage of its overhaul.
Recent weeks have focused on stripping the interior in readiness for its full overhaul. Apart from the obvious fixtures, such as lamps, tables and seats, we also had to remove a wooden bar structure that had been installed in 1918 many years ago, and is no longer needed. This will allow us to use the space to create a wheelchair accessible area. The double doors in this section are ideal for such use.
The overhaul will include a full roof replacement – the cause of all its ails.
Dating from 1957, this vehicle is one of only a few surviving ‘laminate’ carriages (so called because laminated wood was used in their construction). They are quite historic in being one of the last carriage designs to be completely constructed from scratch at Dublin’s Inchicore Works. Later carriages tended to be brought in as kits of parts for assembly there.
Fancy getting involved in its restoration? You don’t need to have a mechanical or engineering background, quite a few of our carriage department have office-based jobs. Check out our volunteering page for more information, we’d love to hear from you.
