Any hope for the West Clare?

[Jamie Davis]

Hello all. I found myself in Moyasta at the site of the West Clare heritage Railway. The site is in a very poor state, as weeds take over the platform and rolling stock rots away in the rain.  It’s such a shame how the site has fallen into disarray. Is there any way it could be restarted or a group could be formed to help tidy the place up? I’m sure that if it was advertised properly and tidied up a bit, it would do well with tourists  and the likes in the area. Does Jackie Wheelan still own the site and rolling stock? I wouldn’t mind donating a few quid towards the project. I’d love to do some work there too if only I had accommodation near the site. I also visited the ex CIE loco off the the other side of the road, which is in a deplorable state. I can’t see that thing ever running again unfortunately. What’s the plan for that? 
 

Photos of my visit attached below, thanks for reading.

[Celtic_transport]

28 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

Hello all. I found myself in Moyasta at the site of the West Clare heritage Railway. The site is in a very poor state, as weeds take over the platform and rolling stock rots away in the rain.  It’s such a shame how the site has fallen into disarray. Is there any way it could be restarted or a group could be formed to help tidy the place up? I’m sure that if it was advertised properly and tidied up a bit, it would do well with tourists  and the likes in the area. Does Jackie Wheelan still own the site and rolling stock? I wouldn’t mind donating a few quid towards the project. I’d love to do some work there too if only I had accommodation near the site. I also visited the ex CIE loco off the the other side of the road, which is in a deplorable state. I can’t see that thing ever running again unfortunately. What’s the plan for that? 
 

Photos of my visit attached below, thanks for reading.

Last time I was there was pre covid and even then it was still a bit dilapidated. Its a shame as there is a lovely collection of stock and its an interesting site being a former junction. Unfortunately it has its downfalls being in a rural location not close to any major towns or cities. It would be lovely to see it tidied up and i would definitely throw a few quid towards it as well as a helping hand, but at the very least if it is never to reopen the rolling stock should be saved, especially slieve callan so we dont have a tralee & dingle 5t situation happen again. Not 100% sure what is the A class locos fate, hopefully it is saved for static display at least, since there isnt many left.

[Horsetan]

I had understood that Jackie Whelan hadn't been in the best of health in recent years. The West Clare is basically him - he put in a lot of the funds from his own pocket to get it off the ground and get something running, notwithstanding general apathy.

I don't know if Jackie owns Slieve Callan directly or if it's an asset of the railway or Clare County Council, but he was instrumental in having it restored to steam in the first place. The boiler certificate will have expired by now, so the cost of overhaul is not going to be cheap.

[Celtic_transport]

2 hours ago, Horsetan said:

I had understood that Jackie Whelan hadn't been in the best of health in recent years. The West Clare is basically him - he put in a lot of the funds from his own pocket to get it off the ground and get something running, notwithstanding general apathy.

I don't know if Jackie owns Slieve Callan directly or if it's an asset of the railway or Clare County Council, but he was instrumental in having it restored to steam in the first place. The boiler certificate will have expired by now, so the cost of overhaul is not going to be cheap.

At least unlike 5T Slieve Callan is still in one piece, and has been dry stored. Be expensive for sure but not a waste of money by any means

[Westcorkrailway]

From what I’ve heard - and this might be all wrong, most things will end up scrapped, 5C is currently for sale (not that you’ll find a listing for it anywhere!). 

[cheesy_peas]

2 hours ago, Horsetan said:

 

I don't know if Jackie owns Slieve Callan directly or if it's an asset of the railway or Clare County Council, but he was instrumental in having it restored to steam in the first place. The boiler certificate will have expired by now, so the cost of overhaul is not going to be cheap.

I have a feeling it's neither. It was owned by CIE/Irish Rail when plinthed, I'd say it may be on long term loan to JW or WCR Co. Nua.

Edited April 6 by cheesy_peas

[cheesy_peas]

3 hours ago, Celtic_transport said:

Last time I was there was pre covid and even then it was still a bit dilapidated. Its a shame as there is a lovely collection of stock and its an interesting site being a former junction. Unfortunately it has its downfalls being in a rural location not close to any major towns or cities. It would be lovely to see it tidied up and i would definitely throw a few quid towards it as well as a helping hand, but at the very least if it is never to reopen the rolling stock should be saved, especially slieve callan so we dont have a tralee & dingle 5t situation happen again. Not 100% sure what is the A class locos fate, hopefully it is saved for static display at least, since there isnt many left.

The A class is only held together with many coats of paint.

[Celtic_transport]

15 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

From what I’ve heard - and this might be all wrong, most things will end up scrapped, 5C is currently for sale (not that you’ll find a listing for it anywhere!). 

Shame if thats true, some good stock that Im sure our numerous 3ft gauge railways would take. I presume if theirs no listing its a brown envelope job?

5 minutes ago, cheesy_peas said:

The A class is only held together with many coats of paint.

Unfortunately, I do agree that it probably cant be saved, if if is if would be a very expensive project 

[Westcorkrailway]

49 minutes ago, cheesy_peas said:

The A class is only held together with many coats of paint.

Well they sandblasted it down to the metal and it still rusted which probobly ain’t a great sign. 2025 saw the scrap of one Metro-Vic in C227. 2026 may well see another! 

[GSWR 90]

You will be pleased to hear that a burgeoning campaign group has recently been set up on Facebook to bring the West Clare back to life. No doubt they are only a handful of “likes” away from getting the railway running again. Services are expected to resume in the coming weeks 

[Jamie Davis]

2 minutes ago, GSWR 90 said:

You will be pleased to hear that a burgeoning campaign group has recently been set up on Facebook to bring the West Clare back to life. No doubt they are only a handful of “likes” away from getting the railway running again. Services are expected to resume in the coming weeks 

Could I get a link to this Facebook page please? Is that true that they expect that they could resume services in the coming weeks? That would be amazing! I would be happy to send them a couple quid in support. I would love to give a hand in person only for the fact that I live in Meath.

[Branchline121]

2 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

Could I get a link to this Facebook page please? Is that true that they expect that they could resume services in the coming weeks? That would be amazing! I would be happy to send them a couple quid in support. I would love to give a hand in person only for the fact that I live in Meath.

Not to be the bringer of bad news, but I think @GSWR 90’s comment was tongue-in-cheek. It would be nice for Moyasta to return but I think it’s too rural and too niche to really be sustainable. Realistically the best outcome would be that 5C is sent to Dromod or put on display somewhere secure.

[GSWR 90]

8 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

Could I get a link to this Facebook page please? Is that true that they expect that they could resume services in the coming weeks? That would be amazing! I would be happy to send them a couple quid in support. I would love to give a hand in person only for the fact that I live in Meath.

Unfortunately I’m being sarcastic. The West Clare is a lost cause, and even if it wasn’t, it would need a bit more than a few vague Facebook posts with a “call for support” for someone to do something 

Edited April 7 by GSWR 90

[Jamie Davis]

1 minute ago, GSWR 90 said:

Unfortunately I’m being sarcastic. The West Clare is a lost cause, and even if it weren’t, it would need a bit more than a few vague Facebook posts “calling on” someone to do something 

Wonderful.

 

[GSWR 90]

4 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

Wonderful.

 

Don’t shoot the messenger! Unfortunately preserved railways are expensive, time-consuming, and very difficult to run. The poster didn’t even attempt to contact the owner of the railway, which would be a very very basic starting point

[Jamie Davis]

2 minutes ago, GSWR 90 said:

Don’t shoot the messenger! Unfortunately preserved railways are expensive, time-consuming, and very difficult to run. The poster didn’t even attempt to contact the owner of the railway, which would be a very very basic starting point

On the topic of contacting the owner, how would you go about doing that? I emailed the account that used to be on the website and got no reply. If worst comes to pass and the assets at Moyasta are to be sold off, there are a couple items I seen that I would be interested in taking.

[Celtic_transport]

7 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

On the topic of contacting the owner, how would you go about doing that? I emailed the account that used to be on the website and got no reply. If worst comes to pass and the assets at Moyasta are to be sold off, there are a couple items I seen that I would be interested in taking.

I too tried to contact the owner a year or two ago, no response. Cant do much more if you dont get an answer from them @GSWR 90

[GSWR 90]

Agreed, there is not much anyone can do unless they have extremely deep pockets – hence my sarcasm in my first post. If I had to guess, he’s maybe not replying because he’s not interested in spending his time answering emails from random strangers. Again, not much anyone can do

Edited April 7 by GSWR 90

[cheesy_peas]

27 minutes ago, Branchline121 said:

Not to be the bringer of bad news, but I think @GSWR 90’s comment was tongue-in-cheek. It would be nice for Moyasta to return but I think it’s too rural and too niche to really be sustainable. Realistically the best outcome would be that 5C is sent to Dromod or put on display somewhere secure.

If the moribund Tralee Blennerville is the way it is, and it located in a large town, connected to public transport, at a gateway to a major tourist area, I would be inclined to agree there is 0% hope for a railway in the actual middle of nowhere, esp without even a small committed group driving the thing.

[GSWR 90]

10 minutes ago, cheesy_peas said:

If the moribund Tralee Blennerville is the way it is, and it located in a large town, connected to public transport, at a gateway to a major tourist area, I would be inclined to agree there is 0% hope for a railway in the actual middle of nowhere, esp without even a small committed group driving the thing.

Agreed. If Downpatrick/the RPSI/Dromod/Stradbally/Fintown/Donegal/etc. had €1 for every time someone said “Somebody should do something”, they’d all be millionaires. If people want to make a difference and contribute to railway preservation in our country, they should donate to, or volunteer with, those groups.

[Jamie Davis]

11 minutes ago, GSWR 90 said:

Agreed. If Downpatrick/the RPSI/Dromod/Stradbally/Fintown/Donegal/etc. had €1 for every time someone said “Somebody should do something”, they’d all be millionaires. If people want to make a difference and contribute to railway preservation in our country, they should donate to, or volunteer with, those groups.

That’s just the thing. I would happily donate to the cause and give a helping hand to the WCR if only for that fact that there are no resources set up to aid or for that matter, no advertising whatsoever. Social media does wonders for things like these. I feel that when the people running these groups are all old heads who like to do things old fashioned ways (which is also fine by the way!), they never quite reach their full potential. For example, if the likes of the crowd at Dromod took to the likes of TikTok or instagram to advertise their museum and the steam services, they would draw of plenty more families and enthusiasts then they already do. I myself know plenty of younger people who are interested and involved in other vintage and heritage groups who would enjoy working with the steam locos. It’s just that they don’t know these places exist. I myself didn’t even know Ireland had a 3 foot gauge system up until two or so year ago.

[GSWR 90]

31 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

That’s just the thing. I would happily donate to the cause and give a helping hand to the WCR if only for that fact that there are no resources set up to aid or for that matter, no advertising whatsoever. Social media does wonders for things like these. I feel that when the people running these groups are all old heads who like to do things old fashioned ways (which is also fine by the way!), they never quite reach their full potential. For example, if the likes of the crowd at Dromod took to the likes of TikTok or instagram to advertise their museum and the steam services, they would draw of plenty more families and enthusiasts then they already do. I myself know plenty of younger people who are interested and involved in other vintage and heritage groups who would enjoy working with the steam locos. It’s just that they don’t know these places exist. I myself didn’t even know Ireland had a 3 foot gauge system up until two or so year ago.

This is the point that I’m making. The railway has been closed since 2019, and it’s pretty clear that the owner is no longer interested in running it. Why are you interested in donating to a railway that will never run again, but not to one of several other perfectly good railway groups?

It’s easy to say “someone at Dromod should run a tiktok”, but running a railway during the week is hard work when it’s on top of a day job, family life, social life, and other obligations, and when it’s compounded by limited volunteer numbers. Heritage railways are not always run by “old heads” – Dromod has a healthy amount of young enthusiastic volunteers, but they simply don’t have the time to spend ages every week making a perfectly-curated TikTok account on top of their other responsibilities. Perhaps you could start volunteering with Dromod and offer to run their tiktok yourself? You said that you’d happily volunteer at Moyasta, which is four hours away from Meath, compared to Dromod, which is only an hour and a half away – even then, I’m sure if you asked them to send you videos you could generally do it remotely. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from railway preservation, it’s that you have to be the change you want to be!

[Jamie Davis]

1 minute ago, GSWR 90 said:

This is the point that I’m making. The railway has been closed since 2019, and it’s pretty clear that the owner is no longer interested in running it. Why are you interested in donating to a railway that will never run again, but not to one of several other perfectly good railway groups?

It’s easy to say “someone at Dromod should run a tiktok”, but running a railway during the week is hard work when it’s on top of a day job, family life, social life, and other obligations, and when it’s compounded by limited volunteer numbers. Heritage railways are not always run by “old heads” – Dromod has a healthy amount of young enthusiastic volunteers, but they simply don’t have the time to spend ages every week making a perfectly-curated TikTok account on top of their other responsibilities. Perhaps you could start volunteering with Dromod and offer to run their tiktok yourself? You said that you’d happily volunteer at Moyasta, which is four hours away from Meath, compared to Dromod, which is only an hour and a half away – even then, I’m sure if you asked them to send you videos you could generally do it remotely. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from railway preservation, it’s that you have to be the change you want to be!

I would volunteer at Dromad in a heartbeat, if not for the fact that I have no practical way of getting up to Leitrim for a day of work as I am too young to drive. I do plan on helping out there in the future, don't worry! I would hate to think of myself as one of the people who will forever sit recommend that someone else should do X,Y and Z. I already have prior experience in heritage and vintage works, restoring vintage stationary engines, cars and tractors. Just have to get some experience with steam traction in. In regard to your query as to why I would support the WCR even though it has a low chance of succeeding, I just hate to see such a brilliant piece of our history sit and rot away in the rain! I was down in Moyasta just the other day, and the whole place is in a desperate state, when only just a few years ago it was almost pristine (Judging by photos I've seen). Most of the resources are there, yet no one wants to do anything about it. I would hate for it to turn into a Tralee situation again. 

I forgot to mention, when I was at the site the other day, there was some fairly fresh looking plant machinery (a dumper, excavator and road roller) in the car park, which looked like it had been resurfaced with fresh stone. Is there something going on down there, or is the machinery just being stored there?

[LNERW1]

36 minutes ago, Jamie Davis said:

I would volunteer at Dromad in a heartbeat, if not for the fact that I have no practical way of getting up to Leitrim for a day of work as I am too young to drive

You don't need to be there day in day out. As long as you're over 16 you can volunteer on your own and if you're 13-16 you can volunteer in some roles if there's a parent or guardian on site. And if it's easier for you to get to Stradbally we'd be happy to take you! Everywhere is in need of volunteers, and basically every railway in Ireland is small enough that you'll get to do the fun stuff fairly quickly. If you have a question about volunteering somewhere drop me a PM, as a quite young heritage railway volunteer i might have some useful experience.

[Westcorkrailway]

Dromod, maam cross and Downpatrick all have regular volunteers from Cork, I know the lads going to maam are regularly making a 4-5 hour journey each way out of there own pocket! It’s mad - but ince you catch the bug it seems hard to let go. 
 

I will admit though - having access to trasnport is key. Without car pooling or access to a car, it’s very difficult. 

[Jamie Davis]

44 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

Dromod, maam cross and Downpatrick all have regular volunteers from Cork, I know the lads going to maam are regularly making a 4-5 hour journey each way out of there own pocket! It’s mad - but ince you catch the bug it seems hard to let go. 
 

I will admit though - having access to trasnport is key. Without car pooling or access to a car, it’s very difficult. 

Yeah, once I get my 1991 VW Jetta on the road again I’ll definitely be volunteering with Dromod or Stradbally. I’m the meantime, I don’t think I’ll be making the trip in my old tractor… 30km/ph flat out and a 90km trip is wishful thinking… Although I could look into getting the train from Mullingar to Dromod..?

[Westcorkrailway]

I would say Mullingar-Dromod would be a good option. A good shot of people get off at Mullingar. Dromods Cork Volunteer takes the train up and back as he does not have a car either 

I’ve often had to make the odd trip on the tractor, not to much shame in that! 

[derek]

23 hours ago, Jamie Davis said:

 as I am too young to drive. 

 

21 hours ago, Jamie Davis said:

, once I get my 1991 VW Jetta on the road again I’ll definitely be volunteering with Dromod or Stradbally. 

Which is it @Jamie Davis?