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Railway Preservation Society of Ireland

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The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) is a railway preservation group founded in 1964 and operating throughout Ireland. Mainline steam train railtours are operated from Dublin, while short train rides are operated up and down the platform at Whitehead, County Antrim, and as of 2023, the group sometimes operates mainline trains in Northern Ireland using hired-in NIR diesel trains from Belfast. The RPSI has bases in Dublin and Whitehead, with the latter having a museum.[1] The society owns heritage wagons, carriages, steam engines, diesel locomotives and metal-bodied carriages suitable for mainline use.

Railway Preservation Society of Ireland
AbbreviationRPSI
Formation1964
Location
Membership (2022)
ca. 1,000
Main organ
Five Foot Three
Websitewww.steamtrainsireland.com

Bases

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The society has developed several bases over time, with Whitehead joined by Sallins, then Mullingar, and also Inchicore and Connolly in Dublin. As of 2019, three locations are in operation: Whitehead, Inchicore and Connolly.

Current operations

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Whitehead site and museum

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Whitehead, near Belfast, has a long history as an excursion station, and the RPSI developed a working steam and engineering depot there. This was added to by the development of a museum.[2]

The Whitehead Railway Museum opened without ceremony in early 2017,[2] after a 5-year project to expand the site from a depot to include a rebuilt Whitehouse Excursion station and the museum. The total cost was £3.1m from various funding sources.[2] The museum received 10,000 visitors in 2017, its first year, and 15,000 in 2018.[3] The museum hosts five galleries and it is possible for visitors to see various heritage steam and diesel locomotives and observe work on railway carriage restoration. Guides from the society are present.[3]

Inchicore, Dublin

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The RPSI has arrangements for storage of stock at Inchicore Works with maintenance also being carried out there.[2]

Connolly shed

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In 2015 the RPSI gained an arrangement with Iarnród Éireann to lease the locomotive shed just to the north of Connolly for the maintenance and storage of mainline diesel locomotives.[2]

Historic operations

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Mullingar

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The RPSI moved into the loco shed at Mullingar in 1974[4] and based steam locos 184 and 186 there. Carriages were also restored there. The base has since become derelict, with funding instead being channeled to Whitehead, including a board decision not to spend money on the green carriages based at Mullingar.[5] Generating Van 3173 was the last vehicle to be overhauled.[6]

Sallins

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Prior to Mullingar, Sallins Goods Shed was used as a base.[7]

Whitehead and Belfast

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The Society used to operate mainline steam trains from Whitehead and Belfast. Since 2023, these have ceased, as Northern Irish Railways are no longer training staff as steam drivers. This leaves Whitehead focused on short steam train rides up and down the platform there.[citation needed]

Rolling stock

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Steam locomotives

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GSWR steam locomotive No.186 on former GNR tracks, near Newry.

The Society possesses 9 steam locomotives (plus one more operated by them but owned by the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum), typically only a small number will be operational at any time:[8][a]

Passenger tender locomotives

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The RPSI has three Great Northern Railway of Ireland 4-4-0's within its fleet.[8] No. 131, a Q class, was built in 1901.[12] The others are S class no. 171 Slieve Gullion and V class No. 85 Merlin,[8] although the latter is owned by the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum and is on loan. These locomotives are suitable for longer distance main line work, but are speed restricted if they need to run tender-first in the event they cannot be turned.[citation needed]

Mixed large tank locomotive

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The RPSI's Northern Counties Committee (NCC) 2-6-4T, WT class No. 4 holds significant records. It worked the last steam passenger train on Northern Ireland Railways, and with No. 53 operated the last stone goods train on 22 October 1970. Acquired by the RPSI in June 1971 it then went on to work over most of the remaining Irish railway network.[13][a] They also own a SLNCR Lough class.

Goods tender locomotives

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The Society possesses three goods tender locomotives all of which are suitable for slower speed passenger workings. Two of these are from the 101 (J15) class, of which over 100 were built between 1866 and 1903 and which lasted until the end of the steam era on CIÉ in 1963.[14] The RPSI possesses two examples of these simple, reliable and robust engines, No. 184 with a saturated boiler and round-shaped firebox, and No. 186 with a superheated boiler and squarer Belpaire firebox.[14] No. 461, a 2-6-0 DSER 15 and 16 Class heavy goods locomotive, is the only Dublin and South Eastern Railway example that has been preserved.[15]

Shunting locomotives

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Shunting locomotives are useful and economical for shunting and short passenger work within Whitehead yard. These include the 0-6-0ST .3 'R.H. Smyth', affectionally known as Harvey, which has also been used to pull ballast hoppers for NIR.[16] There is also No3BG "Guinness", a Hudswell Clarke engine presented by Guinness to the Society in 1965.[17]


Diesel and other locomotives

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134 at Inchicore Works

The RPSI has indicated it has a strategy to create a mainline heritage diesel fleet.[18] It has acquired four c. 65t 1,000 horsepower (750 kW) General Motors Bo-Bos; CIÉ 121 Class number 134 and CIÉ 141 Class numbers 141, 142 and 175.[8][19]

The RPSI used to own two NIR 101 Class Hunslet diesels Numbered 101 and 102.[20] They scrapped 101 and 102 was transferred to the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum.[citation needed]

The RPSI also has some small diesel shunters, including a Ruston from Carlow sugar factory, a planet diesel from Irish Shell and a unilok diesel from the UTA.[21]

Carriages and other stock

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In the 2000s, with more rail stringent regulations, the RPSI was forced to acquire rakes of metal bodied carriages for mainline railtours.[22]

Freight wagons and other stock

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Whitehead has a collection of historic wagons, including a GNR brakevan named Ivan, restored by their award-winning Youth team, a Guinness van and NCC handcrane and a GSWR ballast hopper and an oil tanker from Irish Shell.

Operations

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Railtours

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The main work of the society is in securing and maintaining steam rolling stock, with a view to running rail tours and Mulligan, in "One Hundred and Fifty Years of Irish Railways" noted that the RPSI did "sterling work" in the area of organising of such rail tours around the island, following the end of steam as a regular means of service provision on UTA and CIÉ lines.[23]

Films

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The RPSI has been able to assist in the provision of suitable rolling stock for train-related scenes in films made on the island of Ireland.[23] The shooting of The First Great Train Robbery in 1978 was an early significant involvement in film making by the RPSI.[24]

Publication

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Five Foot Three is the RPSI's membership magazine. It is published annually[25]

Incidents

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On 7 November 2014, an RPSI train chartered by Web Summit blocked a level crossing in Midleton for over 25 minutes. The operation was referred to the Commission for Railway Regulation. The resulting investigation found that the Society had knowingly run a train that was too long for the station's platform and that it would block a level crossing, yet senior IR management overrode their internal safety department by allowing the train to run.[26][27][28]

On 7 July 2019, a serious incident occurred at Gorey when No.85 ran out of water and the fusible plug melted in the firebox. The Civil Defense had to cool down the boiler with hoses while the crew were evacuated from the cab and a rescue diesel summoned from Dublin. [29][30]

See also

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References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ RPSI 2021s.
  2. ^ a b c d e Hewitt 2017.
  3. ^ a b Newsroom 2019.
  4. ^ Morton, Robin (Spring 1979). "News from Council". Five Foot Three (23).
  5. ^ "RPSI News Letter". November 1996.
  6. ^ McKeown, Joe (April 2016). "Dublin Carriage Report". Five Foot Three (61).
  7. ^ Scott, Peter (Summer 1971). "Locomotive Report". Five Foot Three (11): 15.
  8. ^ a b c d RPSI 2021c.
  9. ^ Devereux 2019.
  10. ^ Boocock 2009, p. 87.
  11. ^ Mitchell 2021, p. 232.
  12. ^ Newsroom 2021.
  13. ^ Scott 2008, p. 142.
  14. ^ a b Boocock 2009, p. 19.
  15. ^ Boocock 2009, p. 38.
  16. ^ "No.3 "R.H. Smyth"". Railway Preservation Society of Ireland. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  17. ^ "No.3BG "GUINNESS"". Railway Preservation Society of Ireland. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
  18. ^ RPSI 2021f.
  19. ^ Hewitt 2017p.
  20. ^ "The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland". www.rpsi-online.org. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  21. ^ "Diesel Locomotives RPSI | Railway Preservation Society of Ireland".
  22. ^ BJ 2008, pp. 14–15.
  23. ^ a b Mulligan 1990, p. 179.
  24. ^ Newsroom 2018.
  25. ^ Five Foot Three Railway Preservation Society of Ireland
  26. ^ O'Brien 2016.
  27. ^ Wall 2016.
  28. ^ O'Regan 2016.
  29. ^ [1] A History - Sea Breeze
  30. ^ "Merlin Being Examined after failing on Dublin to Rosslare Run". Steam Railway. 26 July 2019.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b The RPSI was reported in 2019 to have begun work on a "new-build" locomotive project, choosing to commit to a Class W 2-6-0 in preference to a second 2-6-4T tank sister to No. 4.[9] The Class W were the NCC's top express passenger locomotives built c.1933 and were noted for excellent performance.[10] They were a parent design to the Class WT, which were essentially a tank variant.[11]

Sources

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Primary sources

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  Media related to Railway Preservation Society of Ireland at Wikimedia Commons

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