GSWR 90

According to the website’s admin it went offline as their card expired. Should be back online over the next few days

Underneath power car 90

Thank you! It's very much appreciated!

Always and never are words that you must always remember never to use! It's not a case of 186 never steaming again, it just likely won't steam again for the foreseeable future as far as we are aware. Maybe eventually 93 in Cultra would be a nice size for Downpatrick or Maam Cross

Many thanks to everyone for your support, whether you’re donating money, spreading our message, or even just liking our posts. It really means a lot to us all. This October was the wettest on record for County Down, with this year seeing almost twice the average rainfall for that month – this raised the water table in the Downpatrick area, meaning that the heavy rain at the end of the month had nowhere to go apart from above the ground’s surface. In the 40 years that DCDR has been here, we’ve never seen any flooding even remotely close to this. This map from 1729 shows Downpatrick before the land drainage in the area and construction of a tidal barrier in the mid-18th century. Before this, what is now the River Quoile was once part of Strangford Lough. Our station is just south of where the cathedral is (Down Cathedral, which still stands and where St Patrick is buried) on this map; the station’s approximate location has been marked with a red X. The railway runs through several drumlins (small hills created during the last ice age which are common in County Down) which were islands before the land reclamation, and were briefly islands again during the flood. It’s interesting to note that some of the drumlins/islands still retain their original names today, even though they haven’t been surrounded by water for a long time, eg Horse Island, Hog Island, Inch Abbey (Mainistir na hInse = Abbey of the Island). Also interesting to see Plague Island mentioned – I assume it’s named in reference to St Nicholas’ leprosy hospital, which was established in the medieval period very close to where our railway station is today.

Hard to believe that the end of December will make 10 years since 186 was last in steam! Where does the time go? I would be very surprised if DCDR were to turn down any 5’3” loco offered to it, regardless of what size it is or what state it’s in, without thinking very long and very hard about it first!

It’s worth mentioning that the storm that caused the flood did quite a lot of damage to the loco shed’s roof. So there won’t be any work on No 90 or any of the other steam locos until the roof is repaired. You can donate to the flood recovery fund here. On a slightly less depressing note, I am working on a few projects to raise money for 90’s overhaul, but given how preoccupied everyone at DCDR is with the flood recovery it’ll be a good few months before it’s all ready.

Another one, this time from the Railway Magazine c.1900, featuring No. 91. Also a photo of it after rebuilding.

The Locomotive Magazine featured GSWR 90 (simply designated as “C” at the time) in its 16/5/1903 issue, complete with a photo of the loco in its original condition – this is the only photo of it like this that I’ve ever seen. I’m 99% sure it’s 90, as the carriage portion on this railmotor is very different than that on No 91, and even more different than that on No 92. The article reads: “Our first illustration needs little description, beyond the fact that the combination engine and carriage here shown was, until quite recently, running on the Gortatlea and Castleisland Railway of the GSWR of Ireland, whence within the last few years it has been transferred to the Fermoy and Mitchelstown branch of the same company. The engine is of small dimensions throughout, having cylinders only 10 in diameter with a stroke of 18 inches, 3 ft 6 in coupled wheels, a total heating surface of 362 sq ft, and a weight in roadworthy condition of 23t 7cwts. While in service in Kerry, the carriage on the engine frame was, curiously enough, not used for carrying passengers.”

The Downpatrick & County Down Railway is facing its biggest ever crisis. The recent flooding saw substantial damage to our rolling stock and infrastructure, which is estimated to cost at least £250,000 (approx €290,000). It’s a long road ahead, but with YOUR support, we can recover. With YOUR help, our fantastic community of supporters, you can help us rebuild and restore the Downpatrick and County Down Railway, Ireland’s only standard gauge heritage railway, back to its former glory. Your donation, no matter the size, will make a significant impact. It will contribute to repairing the damage, and ensuring that our beloved railway remains a source of pride for people across Ireland, the UK, and beyond for many generations to come. You can donate to the appeal by following this link.

Following preliminary examinations by our loss assessors, it seems that the floods have caused, at the very least, £250,000 (approx €290,000) worth of damage to infrastructure, machinery, etc. That doesn't include loss of earnings or damage to our locomotives and carriages, which we are currently looking into. We're still in the process of setting up a fundraiser, but if you want to support DCDR in the meantime you can buy some Christmas cards from our eBay shop or you can buy a GSWR 90 badge from the Táilte Tours website. Thanks.

Time to start un-wrecking the place. Things are very bad, but it’s important to stay positive – like I said before, at least the water didn’t get into any carriage bodies or diesel engine rooms. 458 seems to have made a lucky escape, everything else not so much. On top of everything else, the place is filled with condensation, so the electricity is slowly getting worse. We’ve had the green light from our insurer to do a fundraiser, so we should be getting started with that over the next weeks or so. I was hoping that we’d start 90’s fundraiser about now, but sin an saol!

Thank you very much for your donations. It’s really been heartwarming to see the amount of support that we’ve been given from both the local community in County Down and the railway enthusiast community across Ireland, the UK, and beyond. We will hopefully start a fundraising appeal over the next week or so, following discussions with our insurers.

Well, as far as I can see we won’t need to scrap any rolling stock. But it’s important to bear a few things in mind. For a lot of the spares that we have, they stopped making them 30+ years ago (particularly railcar parts), and a lot of the track machinery will cost a fortune to replace. For the diesel locos, we don’t have the facilities to simply lift them up to take a look at the condition of the bogies or replace a traction motor. And we only have 4-5 people who work on our diesel locos regularly. When everything settles down and we have everything assessed, we will need people + money to sort this out.

FLOODING UPDATE Since I last posted, a few of us have gone on site to make a preliminary assessment of the damage. Apart from the station building, all of the buildings/sheds have had at least some water in them, ranging from a max of about 5 foot in parts of the Workshop to about 18 inches in the Maghera Shed. Containers for track equipment and railcar spares were also under about 3 foot of water as well. This means that the water level has gone above the axleboxes of a lot of our rolling stock, and that the traction motors are wet on most of our diesel-electric locos and railcars. The Diesel Gala in January has been cancelled, but we’re looking into different formats for our Christmas trains. If you’re interested in supporting us, you can become a member of DCDR at https://www.downrail.co.uk/get-involved/become-a-member/ The red line on 836 shows approx where the water went up to in the Carriage Gallery.

Worth bearing in mind that the frames, wheelsets, dome, and cab front are all original!

Important to remember that there is a ‘hump’ between Market Street and the railway – so even though the Street is dry the railway is still very wet, although the water levels have gone down by about 2 foot or so

I went out round the back of the yard today (closest I can get) and took a look. Water has dropped by maybe an inch – mercifully it’s stayed below station/carriage body/engine room level.

Worth clarifying then – only independent branch line!

Unfortunately Downpatrick has been severely affected by flooding over the past three days. The railway and many businesses are under several feet of water. We won’t know the full extent of the damage until we can get on site, hopefully in a few days time. We’ve never seen anything close to this level of flooding in the 40 years that the railway has been there. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves! https://www.downrail.co.uk/flood/

The 90 badge is now on sale on Táilte Tours’ website! https://www.tailtetours.com/product-page/gswr-no-90-tank-engine-enamel-badge It’s worth emphasising that for every one of these badges sold, €10 will go towards 90’s restoration. That’s basically the same as donating €10 and getting a free badge!

As this is a modelling forum, it’s worth mentioning that I was very impressed by these skilfully-built models of 90 and Guinness that I saw at the weekend!

If you saw our stand at the Dublin Model Show at the weekend, you’ll know that Táilte Tours have kindly donated a limited run of enamel badges of No 90 to DCDR. These were designed by one of our volunteers and they represent the loco in the GSWR livery that it currently carries at Downpatrick. These will be available at Mark’s Models in Dublin and on Táilte Tours’ website for €10, with all money going towards 90’s restoration. I’ll post the link here when it’s online. A former Westrail volunteer has also donated these original Westrail button badges which were made to celebrate 90’s launch after its restoration in 1990. These will also be available on TT’s website in the coming days.

The Downpatrick & County Down Railway will have a stand in Room F, next to Táilte Tours and near Chris Dryer and Irish Railway Models. We'll be selling Irish railway books, DCDR memorabilia, memberships, and a few models (as well as a small surprise if it arrives in time!) All funds raised will go to DCDR for the restoration and maintenance of our rolling stock and track. Cash and card accepted!

If I had to guess I'd say the sugar loco is at Mallow. The Mallow locos had large painted numbers on the tanks like the one in the photo, but of course they swapped them around between factories.