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THE Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s annual multi-day railtour in May will be the first for many years to include Northern Ireland destinations in the main itinerary, living up to its ‘international’ nickname.
The ‘Lough Foyle Railtour’ will run over three days on May 9-11, with the usual ‘fringe’ events starting two days before. The first of these is a steam-hauled positioning special from Whitehead to Dublin on May 7 (Thursday). It is expected to leave Lanyon Place in Belfast at around 09.55, arriving in Dublin Connolly at 14.20.
The now-traditional diesel railtour will run on the Friday, this year titled ‘The Ormond’ – after the ancient Irish kingdom and the associated baronies of County Tipperary.
The tour will begin at Dublin Connolly, heading first to Limerick then on to Nenagh, Ballybrophy and Thurles before returning to Dublin Connolly.
An Iarnród Éireann-Irish Rail 071 Class has been requested for this tour, which will be formed of the RPSI’s Cravens stock.
Saturday (May 9) sees the
Mk2s leave Dublin on the first leg of the main tour, taking the former GNR(I) main line north back to Belfast, then joining the surviving section of the Belfast & County Down Railway out to Bangor.
After a short layover at the coastal resort the train will return to Lanyon Place then proceed to Whitehead for the first overnight stop.
50th anniversary
The tour coincides with the
50th anniversary of the end of steam on Northern Ireland Railways (NIR), and appropriately Sunday’s leg will take the ‘Lough Foyle’ over the ex-NCC route from Belfast to Coleraine and on to Derry/Londonderry Waterside.
It is 17 years since a public steam special last arrived there. This was the RPSI’s ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ of September 28, 2003, but a shortage of suitable paths has meant repeat visits have been difficult to arrange.
Currently, an hourly NIR service operates in and out of Waterside Monday to Friday, which means the sections of the Coleraine to Waterside line either side of the passing loop at Bellarena are almost continually occupied.
Steam Dreams’‘Emerald Isle Express’ visited Waterside in
June 2016, but only worked one way, the passengers arriving from Sligo by bus.
However, a two-hourly
NIR service on Sundays will enable the RPSI tour to reach Derry/Londonderry, although limited time will be available for passengers to explore the historic city before the train retraces its steps and makes its way back to Whitehead for the second night.
On the Monday the tour returns to the Great Northern for the homeward leg back to Dublin. This will be steamhauled throughout, with the stock returning diesel-hauled to Belfast and Whitehead that evening.
This effectively concludes the main part of the ‘Lough Foyle Railtour’, although for those who have stayed on in Northern Ireland a heritage coach tour will operate from Belfast on Tuesday, May 12.
Three locomotives will work the tour over the course of the weekend, including ex-LMS/NCC ‘WT’ 2-6-4T No. 4, which together with classmate No. 53 brought the curtain down on Northern Ireland steam on May 2, 1970.
The other two locomotives will be the GNR(I) 4-4-0s –
‘V’ No. 85 Merlin and ‘Q’ No. 131.
Ticket prices
Tickets for the main three-day tour are priced at £195 for adults and £180 for children under 16. A non-member supplement of £25 applies.
Travel on May 7’s positioning run from Whitehead to Dublin costs £35, while the ‘Ormond’ diesel railtour is priced at £50.
A place on the heritage bus tour on the Tuesday is also priced at £35. Ticket prices are for travel only and do not include hotels.
For booking details visit: www.steamtrainsireland.com/ whats-on/56/lough-foyle
■ The May tour will not be the first ‘Lough Foyle Railtour’ to be run by the RPSI.
On September 1, 1979, the society’s GSWR ‘J15’ 0-6-0
No. 186 led a train by the same name from Whitehead to Derry/ Londonderry and back.
It was the loco’s first and only time visiting the historic city.