Downpatrick and County Down Railway Society EHOD 2024 *CANCELLED*

About

** Cancelled **

Downpatrick and County Down Railway is the only full size heritage railway anywhere in Ireland, running trains through the County Down countryside.

For European Heritage open day 2024 we are offering free access to our station museum, workshop viewing area, carriage gallery and vintage signal cabin on Saturday 14th September, with behind the scenes tours of our restoration workshop and other areas of the railway. There are currently no running trains scheduled for EHOD 2024.    

In keeping with EHOD 2024 theme ‘Routes, Connections and Networks – links in our heritage’, we are connecting with Down County Museum and focusing on collections and information relating to evacuees and the Second World War. We will be working together to offer a walking trail between the two venues, complete with interactives and codes to solve. In our carriage galley children and adults will have the opportunity to re-live train journeys on beautifully restored carriages from the wartime period. Children can dress up as evacuees and enjoy a simple craft.

Down County Museum will be showcasing some of their handling collection related to the Second World War throughout the day, showing replicas, toys, and archives. They will have crafting opportunities to allow children to make and take home a souvenir of their visit and a chance to speak with some reenactors.    

Visitors will also be able to explore the station museum upstairs in the station building, which houses a fascinating collection of relics, telling the story of Irish Railways in general, and also a unique collection of Belfast & County Down Railway artefacts.    

The beautifully restored Bundoran Junction signal cabin will also be open, which takes pride of place at Downpatrick Station rechristened ‘Downpatrick East’, where you can imagine yourself as the signalman controlling the trains and learning about the vital role signalling had on our railways

** Cancelled **.