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Railway Preservation Society of Ireland
AbbreviationRPSI
Location
  • Dublin
  • Whitehead
Websitewww.steamtrainsireland.com

The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) is an Irish railway preservation group operating throughout Ireland, founded in 1964.[1] Mainline steam train railtours are operated from Dublin and Belfast, but occasionally from other locations as well.[1] The society has bases in Dublin and Whitehead, County Antrim, with the latter hosting a museum and occasionally operating short steam rides within the confines of its site.[2] The society owns heritage wagons, carriages, steam engines, diesel locomotives and metal-bodied carriages suitable for mainline use.[3]

History

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The RPSI was formed in 1964.[4] On 26 September 1981 with a run on the Mulligar to Collooney Junction section the RPSI had traversed every line still open in Ireland at that time with a steam railtour.[5]

The RPSI commemorated its 50th anniversary in 2014, with RPSI president Lord O'Neill driving the newly overhauled No. 85 Merlin through a tape to mark the occasion.[6]

Governance

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The RPSI's 2019 financial statements indicated Management committees based in Belfast and Dublin were responsible to the Board for day to day and operational matters.[7] The report indicated it had been recognised there was an imbalance between facilities at Whitehead and Dublin and steps were in hand to develop those in Dublin.[7]

Bases

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Whitehead site and museum

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The Whitehead Railway Museum opened without ceremony in early 2017.[8] The 5-year project to expand the site from a working steam and engineering depot to include a rebuilt Whitehouse Excursion station and the museum. The total cost was £3.1m from various funding sources.[8] The museum received 10,000 visitors in 2017, its first year, and 15,000 in 2018.[9] The museum hosts five galleries and it is possible for visitors to see various heritage steam and diesel locomotives and observe work on railway carriage restoration.[9]

Inchicore, Dublin

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The RPSI has arrangements for storage of stock at Inchicore Works with maintenance also being carried out there.[8]

Connolly shed

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In 2015 the RPSI gained an arrangement with Iarnród Éireann to lease the locomotive shed just to the north of Connolly for the maintenance and storage of mainline diesel locomotives.[8]

Mullingar

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The Society moved into the loco shed at Mullingar in 1974[10] and based steam locos 184 and 186 there. Carriages were also restored here. The base is now going derelict with funding instead being channeled to Whitehead, including a council decision not to spend money on the green carriages based there.[11] Generating Van 3173 was the last vehicle to be overhauled.[12]

Prior to Mullingar, Sallins Goods Shed was used as a base.[13]

Rolling stock

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Steam locomotives

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GSWR steam locomotive No.186 on former GNR tracks, near Newry.

The Society possesses a number of steam locomotives, typically only small number will be operational at any time:[3][a]

Passenger tender locomotives

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See also: GNRI Class Q, GNRI Class S, and GNRI Class V

The RPSI has three Great Northern Railway of Ireland 4-4-0's within its fleet.[3] No. 131, a 'Q' class, was built in 1901.[17] The others are 'S' Class no. 171 Slieve Gullion and 'V' Class No. 85 Merlin,[3] although the latter is owned by the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and is on loan. These locomotives are suitable for longer distance main line work, but are speed restricted if they need to run tender-first in the event they cannot be turned.[18]

Mixed large tank locomotive

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See also: NCC Class WT

The RPSI's Northern Counties Committee (NCC) 2-6-4T, WT Class No. 4 holds significant records. It worked the last steam passenger train on Northern Ireland Railways, and with No. 53 operated the last stone goods train on 22 October 1970. Acquired by the RPSI in June 1971 it then went on to work over most of the remaining Irish railway network.[19][a]

Goods tender locomotives

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See also: GS&WR Class 101 and DSER 15 and 16

The Society possesses three goods tender locomotives all of which are suitable for slower speed passenger workings. Two of these are from the 101 (J15) class, of which over 100 were built between 1866 and 1903 and which lasted until the end of the steam era on CIÉ in 1963.[20] The RPSI possesses two examples of these simple, reliable and robust engines, No. 184 with a saturated boiler and round-shaped firebox, and No. 186 with a superheated boiler and squarer Belpaire firebox.[20] No. 461, a 2-6-0 K2 Class heavy goods locomotive, is the only Dublin and South Eastern Railway example that has been preserved.[21]

Shunting locomotives

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See also: LPHC No.3 R.H. Smyth

Shunting locomotives are useful and economical for shunting and short passenger work within Whitehead yard. These include the 0-6-0ST No.3 'R.H. Smyth', affectionally known as Harvey, which has also been used ballast workings for NIR.[22]

Diesel and other locomotives

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134 at Inchicore railway works
See also: CIE 121 Class and CIE 141 Class

The RPSI has indicated it has a strategy to create a mainline heritage diesel fleet.[23] To this end it has accumulated four c. 65t 1,000 horsepower (750 kW) General Motors (EMD) Bo-Bos Nos. 134, 141, 142 and 175.[3] No. 134, one of the original 15 with cabs only at one end, was sent for renovation at Inchicore Works.[24]

Carriages and other stock

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In the 2000s, with more rail stringent regulations, the RPSI was forced to acquire rakes of metal bodied carriages for mainline railtours.[25]

Operations

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Railtours

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The main work of the society is in securing and maintaining steam rolling stock, with a view to running rail tours and Mulligan, in "One Hundred and Fifty Years of Irish Railways" noted that the RPSI did "sterling work" in the area of organising of such rail tours around the island, following the end of steam as a regular means of service provision on UTA and CIÉ lines.[26]

Films

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The RPSI has been able to assist in the provision of suitable rolling stock for train-related scenes in films made on the island of Ireland.[26] The shooting of The First Great Train Robbery in 1978 was an early significant involvement in film making by the RPSI.[27]

Incident

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On 7 November 2014, an RPSI train chartered by Web Summit blocked a level crossing in Midleton for over 25 minutes. The operation was referred to the Commission for Railway Regulation. The resulting investigation found that the Society had knowingly run a train that was too long for the station's platform and that it would block a level crossing, yet senior IR management overrode their internal safety department by allowing the train to run.[28][29][30]

See also

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References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ a b RPSI 2016.
  2. ^ RPSI 2021s.
  3. ^ a b c d e RPSI 2021c.
  4. ^ Cassells & Friel 2004, p. 12.
  5. ^ town Talk 1981, p. 8.
  6. ^ Newsroom 2014.
  7. ^ a b Finegan Gibson 2020, p. 2.
  8. ^ a b c d Hewitt 2017.
  9. ^ a b Newsroom 2019.
  10. ^ Morton, Robin (Spring 1979). "News from Council". Five Foot Three (23).
  11. ^ "RPSI News Letter". November 1996.
  12. ^ McKeown, Joe (April 2016). "Dublin Carriage Report". Five Foot Three (61).
  13. ^ Scott, Peter (Summer 1971). "Locomotive Report". Five Foot Three (11): 15.
  14. ^ Devereux 2019.
  15. ^ Boocock 2009, p. 87.
  16. ^ Mitchell 2021, p. 232.
  17. ^ Newsroom 2021.
  18. ^ Steam Railways 2018.
  19. ^ Scott 2008, p. 142.
  20. ^ a b Boocock 2009, p. 19.
  21. ^ Boocock 2009, p. 38.
  22. ^ RPSI 2005.
  23. ^ RPSI 2021f.
  24. ^ Hewitt 2017p.
  25. ^ BJ 2008, pp. 14–15.
  26. ^ a b Mulligan 1990, p. 179.
  27. ^ Newsroom 2018.
  28. ^ O'Brien 2016.
  29. ^ Wall 2016.
  30. ^ O'Regan 2016.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b The RPSI was reported in 2019 to have begun work on a "new-build" locomotive project, choosing to commit to a Class W 2-6-0 in preference to a second 2-6-4T tank sister to No. 4.[14] The Class W were the NCC's top express passenger locomotives built c.1933 and were noted for excellent performance.[15] They were a parent design to the Class WT, which were essentially a tank variant.[16]

Sources

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Primary sources

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Newsletters

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Railway Preservation Society of Ireland.
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