Photo: Santa poses with some customers before boarding 1918TL
to complete his trip from the North Pole to his grotto at the Loop platform.

After a very successful three operating weekends, with over 1,600 people visiting Santa by steam train this year, the man in the red suit has asked to remind everyone to complete their booking form for his visit to everyone's home this December 24th.

If you forgot to give him the completed application form on the previous three weekends, there's still time to print one off and post it to him before the weekend is out.

Click HERE for an Application Form

Please note that this article is meant as a bit of harmless fun, and the DRM will laugh heartily at anyone who complains that Santa didn't arrive at their house despite filling out the form. We know that this must have arisen because you've been *really* bad!!!

Photo: Salvaged Mk2d seats loaded into a van at Inchicore.
The seat were salvaged from Irish Rail carriage No. 5207 (pictured behind the van).

On Saturday, 20th November, a team from Downpatrick Railway Museum descended on Irish Rail's Inchicore Works in Dublin to salvage some tubular seats from a soon-to-be scrapped Mk2D for the DRM's ex-CIE Buffet No. 2419.

When 2419 was purchased in the late 1980s, it was not possible to acquire an entire supply of railway seats for the vehicle. Since then, passengers have been sitting on a mixture of proper railway seats and domestic seats!

Opportunity to put this right came when Colin Holliday found out that IE's fleet of Mk2Ds, which were fitted with tubular seats similar to those fitted to CIE Buffet carriages in their later life, were soon to meet the cutter's torch.

A team consisting of John Reilley, Norman Bodel, Mike Collins, Robert Gardiner, Neil Hamilton, Colin Holliday and John Beaumont arrived early morning in Dublin and spent the day stripping carriage No. 5207 and then transporting the seats back to Downpatrick.

Apart from shampooing the upholstery and repainting the frames, very little work is needed to get the seats into a usuable condition, and it hope to have the Buffet Coach refitted with these for St. Patrick's Day.

Our thanks go to Gregg Ryan, Heritage Officer of Irish Rail, for his help in acquiring these seats.

For nearly twenty years there have been two organisations responsible for running the Downpatrick Railway Museum, but a proposal was presented to both organisations that the membership of both groups should merge, and that members of the DRS should become members of the D&AR Co Ltd.

The reason for the existence for two organisations goes back to the time when there were two groups vying to restore separate parts of the BCDR network - the organisation that was to become the Downpatrick Railway Museum, and another that proposed to rebuild the Ballynahinch branch. Company status provided protection against any possible takeover by the other group - a valid concern at the time for a small group.

After the D&AR company was set up, the Downpatrick Railway Society was established as a supporter's association, much like Friends of Cultra, etc., to help fundraise and to organise social events for the volunteers.

Twenty years later, however, this threat no longer exists and in order to create a democratically elected management structure - with museum directors elected from the membership - the two groups decided that the time was right to merge.

The DRS membership voted unanimously to dissolve the Downpatrick Railway Society and the current, fully paid-up members of the Society automatically became members of the D&AR Co. Ltd., with membership renewed every year by subscription.

At the same time, the old Management Committee of the Downpatrick Railway Museum, whose posts were filled by appointment following invitation, was also disbanded and a new Board of Directors elected.

The new management structure is broadly similar to that in use by most heritage railways in the UK and Ireland, with a single tier of authority - accountable to the membership - and is elected in the same manner on an annual basis, with the following posts filled as follows:

Chairman: Michael Collins
Company Secretary: Raymond Dougan
Commercial Manager/Vice Chairman: George Legge
Financial Controller: John Beaumont
Marketing Manager: Robert Gardiner
Carriage & Wagon Manager: Normal Bodel
Locomotive Superintendent: Walter Burke
Signals & Telegraph Manager: Herbie Bodel
Operations Manager: John Reilley
Station Manager: Neil Hamilton
Permanent Way Inspector: Gerry Cochrane

Two posts are also reserved for Down District Council's representatives Jack McIlheron and Anne Trainor.

The new management structure's membership is made up of roughly 50/50 from the old Company management and the Society Committee and two of the new Directors are aged 25 yrs old or below! Certainly, no-one can now call the railway an "old men's club".

If you want to join and have a say in how the railway is run, then it couldn't be simpler - membership forms are available to download here. Annual subscription rates are currently £15 for adults, £25 family and £10 unwaged.

Today, the Downpatrick Railway Society no longer exists, and the new board of the Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway Co. Ltd. is likely to soon vote on a proposal to change the company name, dropping "Ardglass" as well as "Company", and to replace it with "Society" reflecting the inclusive changes that have occurred. The current favourite new name for the Downpatrick scheme is the "Downpatrick & County Down Railway Society Ltd.", which won 52% of the popular vote in a recent poll of the membership.

Bumper Halloween Ghost Trains
Thursday, 4th November, 2004

Photo: A member of staff before dressing up for Halloween

Nearly 700 people came down to the railway to be scared silly by the "Halloween Ghost Trains!" Passenger figures for the spook-tacular event showed that 330 adults and 350 children travelled to the Forbidden Platform (aka the Loop Platform) on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st October.

These passenger figures are three times over what we carried last year and twice as many as 2002, and so popular was the event that Ticket Office staff ran out of tickets on Sunday!!! How can you run out of tickets?? In nearly twenty years of operations we've never run out of tickets before - we had to use blanks! Merlin was also having to constantly conjure up more sacks of presents than anticipated to cope with demand.

The Halloween Ghost Trains were featured on BBC Northern Ireland's Newsline 6.30, the regional news programme, on Friday 29th October.

Also, Merlin has told us that on Sunday he materialised in the Grotto at 1.30 and didn't leave until 6pm - well after 5pm when the trains were supposed to stop - packed trains kept coming for another hour! Merlin also says that not once did he get the chance to leave and see *any* of the trains, as the families were queued up outside, and so couldn't leave the Grotto for a single minute to have a peek!

Inch Abbey Line Preview
Sunday, 12th September, 2004

The first official passenger carrying train arrived at the Inch Abbey terminus on Saturday 11th September. It had been hoped to open this line earlier in the summer, but this proved not to be possible. Because the run-round loop is not yet complete at Inch, the train was topped and tailed by steam engine O&K 3 and diesel G613. As the line is not suitable for the operation of the Hallowe'en or Santa rides, which require the use of the Loop platform, the line will not be used for public train rides again until St. Patrick's Day 2005 and the opportunity will be taken over the winter to carry out the tidying-up jobs whic still need to be done at Inch. The photo shows the crew of the first train posing after its arrival at Inch.

New coach arrives at Downpatrick
Sunday, 20th June, 2004

1287, a 1915-built tri-composite coach, latterly converted to an all-third, originally owned by the GSWR arrived from Whitehead on Sunday 20th June 2004. At the RPSI's headquarters, it had been used for many years as a dormitory coach. However, at Downpatrick it is intended to restore it to full running order as a match for our restored GSWR 3rd Open, No. 836, and 1st/Brake, No. 69.

Reopening of Railway Museum's Station Building
Saturday, 13th September, 2003

Photo: Guests at the reopening of the DRM's station. From left to right: Walter Love, Down District Council Chairman Peter Craig, DRM Officials Walter Burke and Gerry Cochrane.

Downpatrick Railway Museum reopened the station doors on Saturday, 13th September following reconstruction work after the devastating arson attack on Boxing Day 2002 that gutted the entire building. The ceremony was conducted by local celebrity Walter Love (seen here right, in front of the O&K's chimney), and free train travel all day saw the building returned to use after nine months of reconstruction work.

The fire was started when burglars broke into the lower floor of the station and, according to fire investigation officers, started the fire in the railway shop which then spread into the rest of the station and out onto the platform where it destroyed an historic 1920s coach. General Manager, Edwin Gray, stated that following the malicious blaze the volunteers' put all their effort into getting the station back into public use. "At first everyone felt incredibly numb, no-one could quite believe that it had happened". He continued, "However, the next day everyone banded together and resolved to put back what we had. We were not going to be put out of business or discouraged from our preservation work by a small group of hooligans." Mr. Gray went on to say, "Over the last few months we have seen the station rise phoenix-like from a burnt-out husk. It is heartening for all of our volunteers to see us back on our feet. We are totally indebted to the local PSNI who spotted the fire for their vigilance on Boxing Day morning and for the professionalism of the local Fire Brigade for undoubtedly saving the railway station from being totally destroyed."

Unfortunately, no person has as yet been caught for this crime. Downpatrick police are still requesting that anyone who has information regarding the fire bombing of the station, no matter how trivial it may seem, to contact detectives at Downpatrick PSNI station or through the Crimestoppers number at 0800 555 111.

Inch Abbey and Ballydugan Extensions

Photo: New platform at Inch Abbey nears completion, pictured with G611

Inch Abbey: Work progressed well over the summer of 2003 and the line has now reached the Inch Abbey station site. The run round loop is almost completed as is the platform. It is hoped that this station will be open for business in the summer of 2004.)

Ballydugan: Trackwork has reached the present southern boundry of our property. A temporary siding has been installed there for the storage of underframes and bogies for which we have no immediate use. This will allow the completion of the third leg of the triangle at Downpatrick Loop where until the putting in place of the new storage siding, those redundant items were stored.

Runestone erected at Magnus' Grave
Saturday 1st March 2003

Photo: The Viking Rune Stone at King Magnus's Grave

A Runestone erected close to the burial mound of King Magnus Barefoot (or Barelegs) was unveiled at a special ceremony on Saturday 1st March 2003. Special trains brought guests to King Magnus' Halt for the ceremony. The burial mound can only be accessed easily from the railway, which several years ago constructed a new halt beside the site for this purpose.

In addition to members of the public and the press, special guests included representatives from Down District Council and Viking historical groups. Some members of the Viking historical groups were dressed in Viking period clothes and armed with authentic Viking weapons. Members of these groups are often hired by film companies to appear as extras, particularly in battle scenes.

The Runestone is about 6 feet high and inscribed in Nordic runes with the king's name and the date of his death, which took place 900 years ago on St. Bartholomew's Day in August 1103. There were further ceremonies in August 2003 to mark the actual date of Magnus' death.