A good turnout for a turnout
A good turnout for a good turnout…? Groan, sorry! On Saturday it was all hands on deck for our volunteers, as they set to work on the completion of our last major permanent way task before the Lapland Express Santa Trains start, with the loco yard turnout being finished to a high standard and still […]
Permanent Way Update: November 2025
We may have been bracing ourselves for possible flooding at the weekend again, but the work goes on for our track volunteers. A minor project this Autumn (well, minor by our standards) was the replacement of life-expired timbers in a turnout in the locomotive yard, in this case the one which provides access to the […]
Weather woes
It was a tense weekend for all of us at the railway, with rising floodwaters lapping at our tracks and seeping into our station yard again. Memories of 2023’s devastation are still raw, indeed we are still trying to build back from some aspects of that event just over two years ago. Following sustained heavy […]
DCDR receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2025
We are honoured to announce that the Downpatrick and County Down Railway has been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2025 – the MBE for volunteer organisations and highest honour for volunteer groups in the UK. You may notice some familiar faces in the video below… In our 40th anniversary year, this award recognises […]
A switch in time
We got a bit of a helping hiab this week. A huge thank you to our friends at RIVVAL in Carrickmacross, just across the border in County Monaghan, who donated this pair of brand-new, never-used switches (part of the points that switch a train from one railway track to another). They had been set up […]
Maghera Shed Roof Replacement – Expression of Interest
The Downpatrick and County Down Railway Society seeks Expressions of Interest from suitable contractors for the replacement roof on our Maghera Engine Shed. To request the relevant project specification and tendering documentation please email: j.noble@downrail.co.uk. Closing date for Expressions of Interest is 5pm on Friday 21st November 2025. Registered office: The Railway Station, Market Street, […]
Sweeps, digs and sparks
Our volunteers were hard at work on Saturday with on less glamorous side of running a railway – preparing for our next public trains at Halloween. This involved sweeping up leaves, digging a grave and fixing electrical sockets. A special train using loco 124 was taken to Inch to transport our work gang, who spent […]
DCDR attend South Dublin Model Railway Club 50th Anniversary Exhibition
We had a wonderful time at the South Dublin Model Railway Club’s 50th Anniversary exhibition in Blackrock College, Dublin, over the past three days – it was a great opportunity to meet many of our supporters from the Dublin area. Thank you to everyone who supported our stall and for all the chats. There was […]
80 Class restoration update: headlamp repairs
So you thought all the rust had been banished from 80 Class 69? Think again. Recently, we took a look at what will hopefully be the last remaining horror story on this 80 class power car: the headlamp housing. It’s probably fair to say this hasn’t seen the light of day since it was assembled […]
The pane of replacing a window
We’ve finally sorted a right pane for our visitors. If you’ve been on one of our sold-out trains, you might have noticed one niggle with the experience: a certain window in our 450 railcar through which you could see… absolutely nothing. That’s because these railcars use a double-glazed window system, and the seal between the […]