The railway is currently closed to the public while we continue to recover from 2023’s floods

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Timeline – 2020s

An overview of the history of the Downpatrick and County Down Railway from our founding to the present day.
2020
Pandemic forces closure
Steam train with covid mask emoji

The railway closes to the public due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with all events cancelled and volunteering severely restricted.

2021
Derry Girls
Derry Girls

Derry Girls episode ‘Stranger on a Train’ is filmed, DCDR’s longest-ever and most complex filming contract.

Christmas trains resume
Santa, Mrs Claus and children on a train.

Christmas trains are running again with our new on board Santa experience, with Covid measures and distancing in place – our first public trains since 2019.

2022
Full reopening post-Covid
Two men and a diesel train.

The railway reopens fully to the public in the summer for the first time since Covid. Services are run by ‘Derry Girls’ star diesel railcar 458, with the steam locomotives out of service pending boiler inspections.

New permanent way vehicles arrive
New permanent way vehicles arrive

A busy two days sees three ballast hoppers and a plough van arrive from Iarnród Éireann, and a tamper and VMT track maintenance machine arrive from Translink.

2023
Disaster strikes
An aerial view of the severe flooding with submerged tracks and rolling stock.

At the end of a season of very successful year of steam and diesel trains and popular events, the railway and town are hit by devastating flooding, once more closing the railway to the public.

2024
HRA Young Volunteer of the Year award
Jonathan King of DCDR receives his HRA award from Lord Faulkner and Paul Lewin

Jonathan King wins the Heritage Railway Association’s ‘Young Volunteer of the Year’ award.

Railway reopens again
The happy volunteers and actors at the end of the Halloween weekend.

After nearly 12 months of hard work repairing tracks, rolling stock, complex insurance claims and government inspections, the railway finally reopens to the public at Halloween.