18th December 2025 – Railway Preservation Society of Ireland – the First 61 Years by Leslie McAllister
The evening began with the Branch AGM, the business, as usual, being conducted quickly and efficiently. All members of the committee were willing to stand again and were re-elected accordingly, although the point was well made that new committee members are urgently required to understudy the key committee roles. This was amply illustrated using the example of illness at the September meeting nearly resulting in the meeting being cancelled at the very last minute on the evening concerned. Additional committee members would also enable the Branch to consider expanding activities for all members to enjoy, as well as sharing the workload with less for each to do. Members and guests present enjoyed their first visit to the buffet while the room was rearranged for the presentation.
A year on from Part I, Lesley reminded us that it is now 61 years since the inception of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) in 1964. His first slide was a map as a quick guide to railways in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland highlighting Dublin, Belfast and other keys points. Much has changed since he joined the organisation right at the beginning with the main base now at Whitehead and much improved facilities since those early days.
One important aspect they are working on is encouraging the younger generation to become involved as their fathers were encouraged in the 1960s through the YTS and similar schemes. They currently have a youth team rebuilding a 20 ton brake van showing before and after photographs of their work. The young members owned the project and won an award for the excellent end result.
At the start, locomotives like 171 would have been jacked up to enable work on the wheels which would not be acceptable today for good safety reasons. Now they have a wheel drop and Leslie showed some photographs of the current facilities with its mix of new and old buildings, roads, workshops etc. They do not discard old successful equipment as was illustrated by some pieces of old Victorian machinery, eg the old steam hammer, that still function just as well today.
They could not always buy or acquire the locomotives they wanted so number 85 was initially on long term loan, with one of their benefactors paying a considerable donation towards getting her back into full working order. Leslie also described the acquisition of carriages and other rolling stock including a directors’ carriage restored in-house. They now own all their rolling stock as this is much more cost effective than leasing or renting. There are a number of locomotives owned by the RPSI but 85 is one of their originals and it was high time to restore it up to modern standards to enable it to run on rail tours between north and south - one of their key aims (ie rail tours). In the 80s they had 3 steam locomotives available including 85 which is now up to modern signalling systems, with several miles of internal wiring etc and a photo here nicely showed the presentation of an award won for the work done in successfully achieving the restoration so well. Photographs of McAlpine, the Queen, Prince Philip and other notables showed her back in service.
In 1978 the RPSI achieved what Leslie described as ‘fame at last’ when a film company needed a locomotive to make a film of the great train robbery. This involved quite a number of ingenious shifts to achieve the effects wanted not least ‘dressing up’ one of the stations for the scene where the key to the safe on the train holding the gold was to be filmed. Stars included Donald Sutherland and Sean Connery who did all their own stunts and Leslie described how the helicopter pilot complained that he could not keep up with the train in spite of having been told that it only went at about 30 mph. When questioned, the engine driver confirmed 30 mph but then it transpired that there was no speedometer so it was only a guestimate set by the driver by counting the trees passed along the line.
One photograph showed a very atmospheric scene with the Santa Special where the weather had very obligingly snowed the previous night. Other photographs illustrated locomotives and rolling stock on special trips with beautiful scenery to set it off. ‘Lazarus’ locomotive 461 was brought back from the dead originally built by Beyer Peacock, Manchester in 1922. This engine was restored at Whitehead and was launched by Irish President at the time, Mary Robinson, a terrific day. We were shown before and after restoration photographs of locomotive 186, now in dark grey as per the original freight locomotives. Other special events have included a celebration of small Guinness locomotive number 3 when it reached 100 years old. Other work taken on has included the restoration for static public display in the centre of Donegal of a 3 foot gauge locomotive, although this has not been universally popular there.
The relationship between the RPSI and Irish Railways in the republic seems to be fairly relaxed eg with Irish Railways borrowing a steam locomotive to carry out some ballasting work on the main line, and another occasion when the RPSI helped with reinstating some mainline track - excellent experience for the RPSI crew. Leslie showed further photographs of some of the key people involved both in the past and more recently, giving credit for their major contributions.
The RPSI had been renting at the Whitehead site for a few years and were given the opportunity to buy up the lease. Peter Montgomery signed a cheque for £70,000 and the site was theirs so they drew up plans with a wish list of what they would like. This was funded by GROW – a body encouraging employment using EU funding, and we were shown photographs of work in progress and the final outcome – a well planned and well executed project. Of interest were the newly built turntable and signal cabin with a full set of levers that will eventually be connected up to part of the signalling system.
There is no place like Barry (South Wales) in Ireland making it harder to come by additional locomotives so locomotive 131 was acquired from another group who had made little progress on restoration themselves, eventually giving it to the RPSI together with a quantity of parts. Again, funding for this project came from GROW. We were treated to photographs of a fully restored and working 131 including one showing the official handover from GROW. This one is licensed to run on the mainline which is helpful in continuing to provide rail tours. However, there are sometimes issues on using northern drivers in the south and southern drivers in the north in spite of good working relationships.
New build locomotives are infectious (?) and when the time came to decide about another restoration project, the Engineering Officer decided to build a Mogul from scratch – after all, they had the wheels already! Further pieces were acquired and the project continues although there is no precise end date in sight as yet.
Part of the conditions for the GROW funding at Whitehead was that the museum had to be open full time. This is staffed full time by RPSI members and won an award for excellence in 2017. Additional photographs illustrated further work of the RPSI including rail tours, locomotives, rolling stock with the beautiful Irish scenery in the background. Leslie told of the huge amounts of money coming into the railways in Ireland so when they were asked if they could spend some of the so far unspent roads allocation, they immediately got started, resulting in more carriages and track, as well as building a new station. The UK is poor by comparison.
The RPSI does ‘modern’ traction as well, as long as it is built before 1970 as illustrated by Shell Disel locomotive number 73. This cost them nothing to acquire and has proved to be a very useful little shunter as well as being really good for driver training. Acquiring another 0-4-0 diesel ‘sugar’ locomotive, payment was made by way of a case of orange marmalade. They also have a General Motors 1961 diesel that has been re-engineered with a different engine.
Other progress continues and they have now achieved over 50 years of international rail tours between north and south with a description of the ‘great and the good’ having to pull their weight like anyone else involved on the railway eg shifting barrels for the dining car. A photograph showed RPSI members 50 years ago and the same group today with only two of the original members missing. After a long period of steam driving, they now have their first lady working as a fireman. Late member Noel Playfair, no longer with us, was the one driver who could drive Number 85 after getting to know the engine well. He is now succeeded by his son Tyler who is learning to do the same thing, currently gaining experience on the Strathspey Railway in Scotland. Locomotive 171 had been out of action for quite some time and one of the interesting things about the photograph of the restoration group is that they all have dark hair rather than grey, so the younger generation is getting involved in taking the work forward. Tickets for the Santa Special hauled by 171, with 131 on standby just in case, sold out within an hour of going on sale in November, so they must be achieving another of their aims ie keeping the public happy. The future is looking bright with the younger members.
The vote of thanks highlighted what a wonderful and entertaining presentation we had enjoyed and a recommendation to visit them at home in Ireland. There was no time for questions and answers so all were wished a very Happy Christmas with a quick vote of thanks to Irene for providing the buffet.