JFK Arboretum Railway

[LNERW1]

Apparently the JFK Arboretum in Ballybrazil, Co. Wexford has a miniature railway?

Here it is shown on OpenStreetMap:

Here on Google Earth:

And here on RailMapOnline (overlaid on Google Maps)

And here's a link to the Miniature Railway World page on the line:

http://www.miniaturerailwayworld.co.uk/JFKennedy.html

This is all I can find on the railway, and given in the satellite view the line isn't very visible, at least compared to earlier years, OpenStreetMap and by extension RailMapOnline can be years out of date in some areas, and the Miniature Railway World page doesn't look like it's been updated since God was a boy, I was wondering if anyone knew whether the line is still going? I've never once even heard mention of it, I only found it because I noticed a small dot in a patch of Wexford when looking at RailMapOnline, and zoomed in to find it was a miniature line.

[Broithe]

[Galteemore]

Interesting. No recent TripAdvisor reviews mention the railway. A review in 2021 says ‘they got rid of the train’. Doubtless someone will know more. Something may have happened the loco or track work and OPW just decided it wasn’t worth sorting. Appropriate they had a US style loco but something with a NYC or Boston and Maine livery might have better suited JFKs New England connections than Santa Fe! 

[RobertRoche]

It is long gone from the Arboretum.

[Galteemore]

10 minutes ago, RobertRoche said:

It is long gone from the Arboretum.

Both trunk route and branch line gone then.

[Broithe]

10 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Both trunk route and branch line gone then.

I twigged early on that we might be barking up the wrong tree.

[Westcorkrailway]

Was there in about 2019 and it looked like it had long been abandoned by then. Thought accessing the stock was more then possible 

[LNERW1]

7 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Was there in about 2019 and it looked like it had long been abandoned by then. Thought accessing the stock was more then possible 

The track plan looks pretty simple, where is the stock stored?

[Westcorkrailway]

On 13/9/2025 at 8:27 PM, LNERW1 said:

The track plan looks pretty simple, where is the stock stored?

There at least was a shed kept on site. Shame I never took photos. If I remember correctly, there was 2 locos, all I could tell you about the 2nd loco is that it was nothing like the above pictured. It was like a simplex or Ruston machine. No idea if it’s still there. 

[Liam_Murph]

When I visited the park repeatedly with family up to 25-ish years ago, all the stock was stored in a glorified garden shed with doors at either end on the inner loop of the line. There was a little industrial locomotive (maybe 2ft gauge) in a separate shed where tractors and other maintenance machinery were kept closer to the main entrance to the park but I never saw more than a sliver of it. The railway was seldom in use though, just on bank holidays or specific weekends. A run on the train consisted of 2 circuits of the loop.