Lottery boost for Irish preservation group

IRISH MAIN line steam could resume in late summer, after the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland received a financial boost from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The society has been offered £167,300 from the Heritage Recovery Fund to cover items such as staff salaries, insurance costs, crew training and digital outputs.

RPSI chairman John McKegney said: “This grant is a real life-saver. The society hit the buffers when the pandemic struck. At a stroke we lost our two main income streams – our main line steam trains and our Whitehead Railway Museum.

“This funding will enable us to accelerate our plans to get up and running again, once we get the green light from the authorities.”

There was no main line steam activity north or south of the border in 2020, which represented a major financial hit for the RPSI.

It is reckoned to be the first year since 1833 that no steam locomotive had operated on the Irish railway network.

Lisa Adair, the RPSI general manager, confirmed that the objective was to be back on the main line “later this year”. Despite the restrictions, the RPSI has been keeping its operational steam engines in ticket by carrying out annual boiler tests on Nos. 85, 131 and 3BG.

CHARLES FRIEL LEFT Great Northern Railway (Ireland) ‘Q’ class 4-4-0 No. 131 at Greenisland with the 2.37pm Belfast Lanyon Place-Whitehead ‘Santa’ train on December 21 2019. The same trains, with the same engine, on the following day were the last Irish main line steam runs before lockdown.