27th January 2019
For those of you who like to plan ahead, we’ve confirmed our running days for 2019, and they are now all available to see on the Events Page of our website.
If you’re even more organised than that, you can even book tickets for most of our 2019 events now if you use our online ticket office. Bookings are now open for:
- St Patrick’s Day
- Easter Eggspress
- May Public Holidays
- Summer Steam trains, including the Bank Holiday weekend in August
- New Year Mince Pie trains
You can also add Footplate Experiences to any booking (except Halloween and Christmas trains) for the whole year, so you can pick the date closest to a loved one’s birthday right now, for that special treat. Or treat yourself!
Bookings for Halloween and Christmas are not yet available, as we haven’t received confirmation from Merlin the Wizard and Santa Claus yet. If you want to be sure not to miss out on those, then join our mailing list today.
There may be one or two extra events and special days that get added later in the year, so keep an eye on our website and Facebook page.
Gift Vouchers
By popular demand, we have also added gift vouchers to our ticketing system this year. You can purchase a gift voucher for any of our events all year – including Halloween and Christmas, as well as footplate rides, add your own special message and have it emailed directly to your recipient.
They can then use the gift code and apply it to their own order for tickets for events any time in 2019.
General gift vouchers can be purchased for our ‘regular’ events throughout the year (including the footplate experiences), and you can also purchase specific vouchers for the Easter Eggspress, Halloween Spooky Trains and Lapland Express right now as well.
All you need to do is choose the value of gift voucher you want to buy, fill in the name and email address of your recipient, and add your own message. Check out as usual and pay for the tickets, and your friend or loved one will receive a lovely surprise in their email!
If you need any help with this, then please contact us.
15th December 2018
Fed up with turkey and ham leftovers? Selection boxes all empty? Nothing to do after Christmas, knowing that the kids will be bored rigid before going back to school?
Well on Saturday 29th December the Downpatrick & County Down Railway is offering something a little bit different to keep the Holiday Blues away, with their New Year Diesel Specials.
You can pay for your tickets in advance online or pay on arrival at the station.
Railway chairman Robert Gardiner says, “Although Santa is gone, mums and dads everywhere are still looking for something to do with the kids instead of watching endless repeats on the television.”
“Downpatrick & County Down Railway is your guaranteed sanctuary from turkey sandwiches,” jokes Mr. Gardiner.
The locomotive gracing the rails will be ‘Baby GM’ 141 class locomotive No. 146, a Yankee engine built by General Motors in Illinois in 1962.
Mr Gardiner says “This American baby boomer is one of the last remaining examples of a class that saw service all over Ireland, including the famous ‘Derry Road’ line from Portadown to Dungannon, Omagh and Strabane, giving that line a short-lived taste of the future before its controversial and premature closure in 1965.
“We also offering Footplate Passes for £20 a trip on board this locomotive that typified Irish branch line trains for decades,” he adds.
Doors open at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway 12:30pm on Saturday, 29th December, and normal train fares apply at £7.00 adults, £5.00 children, and senior citizens/other concessions are £6.00.
With New Year just around the corner, it’s also the perfect time to make a New Year’s resolution, get active, and join Ireland’s only full-size heritage railway. With the appropriate training you could end up as a train driver or guard, or work on the platforms looking after the public. If that’s not your cup of tea, then you could try a hand at carriage restoration, or working on the tracks to repair and improve the railway.
If you want to volunteer, then check out the website or just go along and talk to any railway volunteer during your visit and they’ll point you in the right direction.
24th September 2018
The Downpatrick and County Down Railway was one of 17 local museums including that have been recognised at an awards ceremony for museums who have successfully maintained their Full Accreditation status.
The Accreditation Scheme is the UK standard for museums and sets nationally agreed standards for good practice and a baseline quality standard that helps guide museums to be the best they can be.
Group photo of local museum representatives and NIMC members, including staff and volunteers from museums awarded Full Accreditation in 2018.
Neil Hamilton, Curator at the Downpatrick and County Down Railway said “Accreditation is extremely important as it assures potential donors of artefacts that they will be conserved to universal bench marked standards and made available for future generations to appreciate.”
He added, “It is also a conspicuous high quality standard that all the volunteers have worked so hard to achieve and they should be extremely proud of their achievement.”
Tríona White Hamilton, Accreditation Adviser and Assessor at Northern Ireland Museums Council said “We are delighted that our local museums’ commitment to governance, collections care and visitor experience has ensured their maintenance of the Accreditation Standard. We hope that this will enable the continued development of these museums as valued resources for both visitors and the local community. Accreditation is a national standard which gives confidence to all stakeholders.”
Museums are required to submit their Accreditation return applications every 3 years to ensure they are continuing to maintain the standard.
The Awards ceremony was held on Tuesday 18th September at the Naughton Gallery at Queen’s University. It was attended by the local museum sector and NIMC members. Allison Cosgrove, Head of Museums and Libraries at Department of Communities and Sinéad McCartan, Director of Northern Ireland Museums Council presented the museums with their Accreditation certificates on the day.
Although Accreditation is a national standard, it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ model. The expectations vary for museums of different types, sizes and scopes. There are currently just under 1,800 museums participating in the scheme across the UK. In Northern Ireland there are 43 Accredited Museums; 20 Local Authority Museums; 13 Independent Museums; 7 National Trust museums; 3 National Museums.
31st August 2018
There’s still time to catch the train this weekend at the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway before the last summer train pulls out of the station.
The Railway is running its last trips to Inch Abbey this weekend, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th September, as part of the European Heritage Open Days, and in the spirit of Province-wide scheme there will be guided tours on request of the lesser seen parts of the railway site not normally accessible to the public, as well as the chance to sample the atmosphere of rail travel at its most traditional.
After this weekend the next time the train will be out will be for the Halloween Ghost Trains at the end of the October, so this will be the last opportunity people will have to let the train take the strain before it is infested with ghosts and ghouls at that spooky time of the year.
Railway chairman Robert Gardiner says that this year passengers are in for a real Victorian treat.
“As part of the spirit of the European Heritage Open Days, where you get access to lesser known parts of our heritage, we are running three beautifully restored Victorian and Edwardian carriages normally kept on display in our Carriage Gallery.
The BCDR Railmotor carriage (No. 72) will be in public service for the first time, along with BCDR composite carriage No. 148
The three railway carriages operating all have a special history, as well as a connection to the ill-fated liner – Titanic. Two come from the Belfast & County Down Railway, which used to operate between Belfast and Newcastle via Downpatrick, and the Great Southern & Western Railway – and all three have been restored from wrecks – two of which were found in fields being used as hen houses.
Mr Gardiner explains, “The Belfast & County Down Railway were neighbours and had a very close working relationship.
“Not only was Thomas Andrews’ father chairman of the Belfast & County Down Railway, but the busy commuter trains of the BCDR brought in thousands of shipyard workers everyday to work on Olympic and Titanic, as well as all the other ships,” he says.
He continues, “We have preserved some of those carriages and people will be able to get up close to see how shipyard workers would have travelled to Harland & Wolff, and sit in their seats.”
Mr Gardiner goes on to say, “The Titanic connection doesn’t end there, visitors will be able to board a 1902-vintage third-class carriage from the Great Southern & Western Railway, and see one of their engines, which served the port of Queenstown.
Ride in the cab of a G class diesel locomotive – free of charge!
“So not only do you get the experience of the shipyard worker, you will also be able to experience how an emigrant travelled to meet the doomed liner
“And as part of the European Heritage Open Days experience, we’re offering you the chance to travel in the cab of a diesel locomotive with the driver, for a short trip down our South Line, for a unique view of our railway. Places on this will be limited, so be sure to ask our volunteers when you arrive.”
And if this wasn’t enough of a draw, the recently arrived 80 Class “Thumper” railcar will be going on public display inside the DCDR’s Carriage Gallery for the first time, where visitors can see the internal work that has been ongoing to restore the vehicle to operational condition.
80 class power car No. 69 in the Carriage Gallery at DCDR
Mr. Gardiner says “A trip to the station is also much more than boarding the train, with our museum and Carriage Gallery visitor centre we bring the golden age of the railway vividly to life and you can find out what impact the railways had on people’s lives, through artefacts from the smallest such as a ticket in the upstairs exhibition, or the largest such as lovingly restored railway carriages in the Carriage Gallery and the stark contrast of the wrecks these vehicles once were when rescued.
For the younger train fans, children can enjoy their own “Kids’ Station” in the Gallery, and dress up as a train driver or guard, or can get to control a model railway layout.
From 1pm to 4pm, the steam train will run to Inch Abbey, and visitors can disembark and take a short walk up to Inch Abbey. These extensive remains are of a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1180 by John de Courcy, who led the 1177 Anglo-Norman invasion of East Ulster, and are the reputed site for where the story of St Patrick chasing the snakes out of Ireland was first recorded by the monks. And on Saturday 8th there is a guided walk of the ruins with Cistercian Brother Robert as he marks the Hours in the tranquil beauty of this serene Medieval abbey.
Behind the scenes tours of our workshop
Mr Gardiner continues “You can also visit the museum in the station building which looks at the impact that the railways had on people’s lives, through artefacts from tickets to signals, and a gift shop you can visit before you leave.”
Also open to the public is the lovingly restored Bundoran Junction signal cabin, now taking pride of place at Downpatrick Station rechristened ‘Downpatrick East’, where you can imagine yourself as the signalman controlling the trains and learning about the vital role signalling had on our railways – and is the only genuine vintage signal cabin that is also wheelchair accessible.
Refreshments are also served in the newly entered-service 1980s “Cafe Carriage” parked at Inch Abbey Station where you can wait to make the return journey to Downpatrick, which is fully accessible for wheelchair users.
Train fares, which are separate to free access to the station and museum, cost £7.00 adults, children £5.00, and £6.00 senior citizens, whilst a family ticket costs £20 and children aged three years old or below go free. Tickets provide all-day access to the steam trains, the museum, signal cabin and model railway. You can buy tickets on the day, or purchase in advance at our online ticket office.
