Heritage Railways in the Republic of Ireland

[Mol_PMB]

It’s worth noting though that the ‘running costs’ of a large old building can be very high, especially if it’s past its best and you’re trying to keep the internal environment suitable for the conservation of historic artefacts (e.g. moderately stable temperature and humidity)
Most museums don’t make money, even NRM York has become more of a food court than a museum in an attempt to cover its costs. 
To achieve an income with any hope of covering the costs you would need the museum to be open most days. A few special events per year won’t cut it. 

[Galteemore]

Yes, TFL manage it as effectively a store for big items. Museum money, if money there is, comes from the main show in Covent Garden. I did have a look at visitor figures from Bord Failte. A fair comparison of how much interest there is in railways might be to take two sites which are geographically contiguous. One railway related, one not. So here goes: two attractions a 4 minutes walk apart. 

Donegal Castle 63072

Donegal Railway Heritage Centre 7000

Now we can cavil over stats but that’s got to be interesting….the Donegal museum is a very slick and attractive operation but even that struggles. 
 

Most attractive thing in the country is apparently Phoenix Park visitor centre with 1.9m recorded.
 
I also had a look at the UK. Biggest heritage railway is NYMR which pulls in about 350,000 punters a year. Even so, that makes it rank about 150th on list of top UK attractions. 

Edited 6 hours ago by Galteemore

[David Holman]

It was my birthday yesterday & my wife organised a day out for me on the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. Considering it was a Wednesday in term time, there were reasonable numbers of visitors & an hourly train service to Dungeness. OK the Romney is 15" gauge, but is very much run like a real railway. Indeed, at Romney itself, I doubt there are many preserved lines in the whole of the country with that amount of track and points, to say nothing of the multi platform station with its overall roof. 

 There were four trains and five locos in action to operate the service, while a day rover ticket was about £27.00

 Our loco, Northern Chief, is 100 years old this year!

 Not sure what this has to do with preserved railways in Ireland, other than with half a dozen other preserved lines within an hours drive, it shows how lucky we are this side of the water. We had a lovely day out, so long may they prosper!

 

[Galteemore]

Fab. Love the RHDR. Although in this context of resourcing, I suppose the point is that it was built by two millionaire playboys and nearly shut down completely when they disappeared from the scene! It’s a fabulous set up. Main line in miniature 

Edited 4 hours ago by Galteemore

[Mol_PMB]

That is a good example of the challenge. It doesn’t just need a vast amount of money and commitment to create in the first place, it also needs an ongoing commitment from many other people to keep it going long term. 
 

[StevieB]

I believe I read recently that the RHDR needs to spend a considerable sum of money to ensure its long term future. It is truly a mainline in miniature.

Stephen