DONEGAL DESCENDANT GIVES £18,000 TO DRUMBOE APPEAL
Restoration of County Donegal Railway 2-6-4T boosted by funds sent from Thailand.
Plans to restore County Donegal Railway 2-6-4T No. 5 Drumboe have been boosted by an £18,000 donation from a descendant of the CDR’s general manager.
Graham Henry Forbes, who lives in Thailand, is the grandson of Henry Forbes, general manager of the CDR from 1910 to 1943.
His donation of €20,000 should enable work to resume on a cosmetic makeover for the locomotive, which is in store at the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s Whitehead base.
The sum represents one third of the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre’s €60,000 appeal to complete the work on Drumboe at Whitehead and return it to Donegal Town for display – with the hope that it could later be restored to working order (SR491).
Mr Forbes said: “My grandfather would have been so proud of the attempts to bring life back into the Donegal Railway.
“Being of a prudent nature, he would have been enormously pleased that what is left of the railway is run by volunteers and a local charity!”
He added that, if the railway could get back up and running, it would be a major asset to tourism in Donegal.
Niall McCaughan, manager of Donegal Railway Heritage Centre, said: “We are delighted by the generous donation that Graham has made in honour of his grandfather, who played an important part in the history of the Donegal Railways.
“Another generation of the Forbes family is making a major impact on the Donegal Railways, and we are gratified that Graham can see the potential for such a tourist attraction.”
The centre has also taken delivery of an historic CDR wagon which has been transported by road back from Whitehead to Donegal Town.
The wagon, No. 30, was one of 40 vans built for the West Donegal Railway in 1881 by the Oldbury Carriage Company. After the CDR’s closure in 1959, it ended up in agricultural use near Ballybofey before being saved by North West of Ireland Railway Society member Ken Ewing, who stored it near Convoy for many years.
Mark McDaid, the centre’s project manager, said: “These were the first 3ft gauge goods wagons built for the Donegal railways. They were general merchandise vehicles and their dimensions became a standard for Donegal wagons.
“Many were rebuilt by the GNR(I) at Dundalk in the 1930s and were adapted to carry livestock if required. They also gained a corrugated iron roof for the Donegal weather.”