Successful season for Stradbally
Ireland’s longest‑ established narrow gauge preserved line, the Stradbally Woodland Railway in Co. Laois, is set to break new ground this year by operating Hallowe’en trains for the first time. The 0.5km long, 3ft‑gauge railway will run trains on October 30 and 31, over the Republic of Ireland’s Bank Holiday weekend. Star of the show will be the railway’s sole steam locomotive, Andrew Barclay 0‑4‑0WT No. 2, or LM44 in the Bord na Mona (Irish Peat Board) numbering sequence. Built in 1949 as W/No. 2264, the locomotive operated at Coolnamona peat bog in Co. Laois, originally fuelled by turf but later converted to coal‑burning. The railway’s manager, Sean Cain, said 2016 had been an exceptionally busy year for the railway, with numbers boosted during the spring by an Easter Rising re‑enactment. Mr Cain said: “We started our season slightly early with a special event in April to commemorate the first shots of the 1916 Rising, which took place on the nearby former Portlaoise‑Abbeyleix railway line at Colt Wood. “We carried 200 people on four special trains for this event, and each one was fully booked.” No. 2 is now housed in a new €140,000 (£118,000) 70ft long, two‑road engine shed, the construction of which was 75% grant‑funded by Laois Partnership Company. An extra 500ft of track had to be laid to connect it. Mr Cain said: “No. 2 is the only industrial 3ft gauge steam locomotive operating in Ireland today, and indeed one of just two Irish narrow gauge steam locomotives in ticket. “The locomotive has an interesting history ‑ it was withdrawn from service around 1953, just four years after it was built.” No. 2’s boiler is relatively new, having been built by Israel Newton at Matlock in Derbyshire in 2009. Its ten‑year overhaul in 2019 will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the railway in 1969.