page_title: Downpatrick and County Down Railway
section_title: Heritage Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Downpatrick and County Down Railway / History / Heritage Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: The station building at Downpatrick, on the Downpatrick &amp; Co. Down Railway.
context_page_description: The Downpatrick and County Down Railway is a 5 ft 3 in gauge heritage railway in County Down, Northern Ireland. It operates passenger trains with Irish steam and diesel locomotives and carriages on part of the former Belfast and County Down Railway mainline. Its four miles of track connect the town of Downpatrick with the local tourist attractions of Inch Abbey and King Magnus' Grave, as well as Downpatrick Loop platform.
  The railway's Downpatrick terminus, located at the foot of Down Cathedral, contains an award-winning museum which houses a variety of railway artefacts. These range from restored locomotives and coaches to historic railway relics and buildings from across the whole island.
  It is the only operational Irish standard gauge heritage railway in the whole of Ireland.
context_section_description: Local architect Gerry Cochrane M.B.E. was inspired to start the scheme after taking a walk along the route of the line, and by 1982 had gained support to rebuild part of the line as a heritage steam railway from the local council. Lord Dunleath, whose father had purchased the railway trackbed adjacent to his estate after the closure of the BCDR in Downpatrick, gave the newly formed society a package of land on which to build the line and station for a peppercorn rent. This was on the approaches to the old Downpatrick station, which had been demolished in the 1970s. Work started on rebuilding the railway in 1985, with public trains finally running in the town again in Friday 4 December 1987, making it the first Irish gauge heritage railway in Ireland to carry passengers over its own track. Track has been relaid on nearly 6 km (4 mi) of Belfast and County Down Railway trackbed, and a 1.6 km (1 mi) extension south to the hamlet of Ballydugan is planned.
  The railway began life as the Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway, as the original intention was to extend the railway to this fishing port on the south coast of County Down. This name was dropped in 1996 following the abandonment of this proposal and the railway was renamed the Downpatrick Railway Museum until 2005 when the new name, Downpatrick & County Down Railway was adopted following the opening of the Inch Abbey extension.
caption: Downpatrick station building
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