16-05-2025
Co Down train carriage makes final journey
The carriage, known as former CIÉ Steam Heating Van No. 3189, arrived in Downpatrick in 2007, where it became a guard's van, generator vehicle and storage facility, before being retired at the end of 2019 Lapland Express Season.
Retired during the Covid pandemic, and later damaged by flooding, the carriage was found to require over £100,000 worth of restoration work.
The railway museum — the only full-size heritage railway on the island of Ireland — had been closed to the public for almost a year from October 2023 to October 2024 due to extensive flooding in the Downpatrick area.
Given its advanced corrosion and limited operational use, the steam heating van was not considered of significant enough rarity or historical importance to warrant major fundraising for restoration.
Robert Gardiner, chairman of the DCDR says he 'desperately tried to find a home for it', but efforts to sell the carriage proved unsuccessful.
'There were a few expressions of interest, but nothing firm,' he said.
"As much as I'd have loved to restore our only Mk1, it realistically would have been a complete money pit – and we have much more pressing needs at the railway.'
Today the van was cut in half and loaded onto lorries for its final trip to County Antrim, with spare parts kept by the DCDR for potential reuse.
The Downpatrick & County Down Railway, the only full-size heritage railway on the island of Ireland, operates on part of the former Belfast & County Down Railway route, which closed to passenger traffic in 1950.
Previously the Railway had partnered with Belfast Shipbuilders Harland & Wolff to help restore a Victorian railway carriage.
