19 December 2024 – The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) by Leslie McAllister
The evening began with the Branch AGM with business being conducted quickly and efficiently, all members of the committee willing to stand again and being re-elected accordingly. The committee seeks further members to allow the Branch to better serve the membership, expand activities and share the workload more evenly. The Christmas meeting buffet, with wine courtesy of our late Fixtures Officer Tom Kolisch, was opened whilst the room was rearranged and set up ready for the speaker who was slightly delayed in traffic due to local road works.
Leslie began his talk by providing a potted outline of Irish Railways over the nearly 200 years of its history since 1834 when the first stretch from Dublin was built to 4ft 8inch, what is now standard gauge. Not to be outdone, the line from Belfast to Armagh was built to 6ft 2inch gauge as recommended by the Irish Gauge Commission. Next came another line from Dublin built to 5ft 2inch gauge! This was getting ‘out of hand’ and something had to be done about it so the Board of Trade considered what gauge would be used if the system was to be started from scratch. A compromise of none of the above was recommended.
Leslie used maps to show the extent of the lines throughout Ireland, describing the companies leading the development and construction, the areas covered by each and the links between them and between north and south.
Having set the scene, Leslie described the origins of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) from its inception in 1964 – 2024 is the 60th anniversary, and how it is dedicated to preserving (steam) locomotives, carriages and rolling stock, running them on the Irish railway network for all to see and enjoy. At this time some of the railway network had been closed although the land had mostly not been developed, the network seemed to have been consolidated and there were possibilities for the future. Steam was still running on the international service between Belfast and Dublin in 1964 and right from the outset the intention was to run rail tours. There were a number of groups with railway interests including the IRRS set up in 1946 to record and preserve railway history in Ireland. Leslie’s photographs showed some of the leading lights of the RPSI involved at the time who have continued with their interest. These include Lord O’Neill, treasurer John Richardson who enabled the Society to survive, and Peter Scott, their resourceful and long-serving engineer. Leslie himself has been involved right from the start.
The first step after setting up the organisation was to find a suitable locomotive and, after a number of setbacks, they were offered Guinness No. 3 locomotive in working order together with spares. There was a luncheon to celebrate. Approaches were made to various companies to ‘donate’ more locomotives and the RPSI chose the best one from those on offer. They were also after locomotive 171 but they could not buy her as this was too difficult. However, she was rented to them for the princely sum of £70 per annum. In 1965 they ran their first rail tour from Belfast to Port Rush and the photographs show the interest generated with people everywhere looking on. Locomotive 171 was later acquired outright and now belongs to the RPSI.
Further photographs from early rail tours include a unique trip to Larne harbour showing the steamer to Stranraer in the background. In the early days, the Society benefited from having driver Frank Dunlop whose skills and experience were hugely valuable to them. Leslie also described how the cooperation of the CIE and Northern Ireland Railways has been, and is, wonderful and gave shining examples of how this has worked on numerous occasions; and the ingenuity when locomotives occasionally do not work as well as they should.
Over time the Society has gained experience and acquired more carriages and rolling stock learning that it was cheaper to own than to hire them when you could buy coaches for as little as £200 each and a dining car for £250. However, there was restoration work to be done too as shown by some excellent photographs of the restoration of wooden bodied coaches including the GNR Directors’ Saloon number 150. Other photographs showed a number of north Atlantic coaches some of which were bought and some donated, but which they restored themselves. The Society has also acquired steel bodied coaching stock including some BR Mk2 coaches.
The RPSI’s main base for maintenance, restoration and repair is at Whitehead and Leslie showed a number of photographs to illustrate the facilities as they were originally and how they have been improved to the set up that they now enjoy today. Of course, all this requires money to keep it going and, as well as an interesting variety of rail tours, other services are operated such as the very popular Santa Specials and Easter Bunny trains.
This was a really interesting presentation with much covered and we look forward to Part II after the AGM in December 2025 when Leslie will complete the story and bring it right up to date.