The aim of this web site is to promote interest in the history of the former Belfast & County Down Railway, and to allow railway enthusiasts and others to participate in the preservation of its history.

 It is also to promote the Trust's plans for the restoration of part of the system between Saintfield and Ballynahinch as a Heritage Railway that will truly depict as closely as possible the image, the aura, and the character of the Belfast & County Down Railway during its hundred years of operation through the drumlin countryside of County Down.

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What is the B.& C.D.R. Museum Trust?

        The Belfast & County Down Railway Museum Trust is a voluntary organisation that was established by a small group of railway enthusiasts in 1972, the primary aim being to preserve relics, artifacts, and photographic material relating to the railways of Ireland in general, and of the former Belfast & County Down Railway in particular. 

        The formation of the Trust was prompted by the loss in the early 1970's of a number of extensive collections of Irish railway archive materials which where not unfortunately protected in any way.   As a safeguard therefore, the Trust was registered through the Northern Ireland Legal system at the time of its formation, thereby giving a guarantee of security to the materials and artifacts within its collection.   The collection is overseen by a Board of Trustees who are charged with the responsibility of ensuring its continued preservation.  

        The day to day running of the Trust, is in the hands of a committee that is made up of members of the Trust who are elected at an A.G.M. each year.   This Committee also has a representative from the Board of Trustees, who acts as the 'Go Between', being the link between the Trustees and the membership. 

        Soon after its formation the Trust proposed the development of a Working Railway Museum using a portion of the track bed of the former Belfast & County Down Railway, and indeed was the first railway preservation organisation in Ireland to promote the idea of an operational railway museum.    The section of line chosen was that between Saintfield and Ballynahinch, which incorporated two miles of the former main line between Rowallane Gardens at Saintfield (The headquarters of the National Trust), and Ballynahinch Junction, and also the 3½ mile branch line from Ballynahinch Junction to Ballynahinch Town. 

        It is still the Trust’s intention, to relay the track between Saintfield and Ballynahinch using the standard Irish track gauge of 5' 3".   Towards achieving this objective the Trust has acquired a section of track bed at Cahard, on the Ballynahinch branch, and is currently in negotiations to acquire the remainder of the route.

2008 being the 150th Anniversary of the opening of the Ballynahinch line, the Trust is undertaking a major operation to have track laid before the end of the year.  

Full details of the Trust's proposed developments, and how you can help, can be found on other pages of the web site.   

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Join us in

'A 60^th  Anniversary Railway Rummage'

In 2007 the Trust initiated the concept of 'A Railway Rummage' when we appealed to anyone who was doing a bit of Spring Cleaning to have a good rummage through their drawers, cupboards, lofts and garages, and to consider letting us have any old items of railway interest that they may find in the process.

Amongst the valuable items that were given to us from that last appeal were such things as a uniform, collections of tickets, a B.& C.D.R. wagon plate, a copy of the timetable for the opening of the Ballynahinch branch in 1858, and quite a number of photographs.   Such was the response that some of the items have still to be catalogued.

We are now renewing this appeal in conjunction with the 60^th Anniversary of the closing of the railway, and a Press Release has been sent to all local newspapers, as well as radio and television stations.

The following are the types of things we are looking for

ALL KINDS OF IRISH RAILWAY MEMORABILIA,

OLD RAILWAY PHOTOGRAPHS,

BOOKS and MAGAZINES  etc.,

Indeed any items of railway interest, but particularly anything relating to the

Belfast & County Down Railway

or the County Down Section of the Ulster Transport Authority

These are required for

PERMANENT  PRESERVATION

PLEASE CONTACT

THE B.& C.D.R. MUSEUM TRUST

9 Kilbright Road

Carrowdore

NEWTOWNARDS

Co. DOWN, BT22 2HQ

Freephone: 0800 980 1242                        E-mail: countydownrailway@yahoo.co.uk

All items in our collection are protected for posterity under the terms of our Deed of Trust

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THE LAST TICKETS HAVE BEEN ISSUED, NEWCASTLE HAS SEEN THE LAST 

TRAIN OFF, AND THE SHARP WHISTLE BLASTS THAT DAILY RENT THE 

MORNING STILLNESS HAVE BEEN SILENCED AFTER EIGHTY YEARS.

A shade of sadness cast its sentimental gloom over sweet County Down when the last train passed over the many miles of the serpentine iron ribbon between Newcastle and Comber.

Yes, that train rocked and shook and passed by the hills and dales and vanished like a phantom on its journey into the past, and reminded one of the funeral cortege of a gallant warrior who had served his country well.   Though there was no muffled drum, a death-knell did sound, not from a louvered belfry but from the occasional short blasts from the locomotive whistle, the signal of a duty being performed for the last time.

As those sonorous blasts died away in the evening air, so passed into the limbo of history a major portion of a railway whose embankments and cuttings will perpetuate it in the archaeological future when much of its story will have been long forgotten.

To those of us who remember its heyday, its decline and fall in this age of automotive transport on the highways and byways, the old 'County Down Railway will remain one of our most cherished memories.

Reprinted from the

     BELFAST TELEGRAPH

at the closure of the main line of the

Belfast & County Down Railway

on 16th January, 1950.

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All photographs on this web site are copyright, and are not to be copied for re-sale.