Foyle Valley Railway

The Foyle Valley Railway is a railway museum in Derry, Northern Ireland.[1]

Foyle Valley Railway Museum, 2016
County Donegal Railways Joint Committee locomotive on the museum tracks, 1995

Foyle Valley Railway Museum was initially opened in 1990 on the site of Foyle Road station of the GNR (Ireland). In August 2016, Destined Ltd, a charity for adults with learning disabilities secured a lease on the premises and reopened the museum which had been closed to the public since 2002. A number of Destined members are currently being trained as Museum by a staff member of Derry & Strabane District Council's Museum Service. [2]

The exhibition consists of a recreated railway station platform and within the displays visitors can find out about the various railway companies which once operated out of the city.[3]

The steam locomotive exhibited in front of the museum is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge locomotive built for the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee in 1907 by Nasmith & Wilson, originally numbered No. 16 and named "Donegal". She was superheated in 1926 and then renamed and renumbered as No. 4 "Meenglas" in 1937. The locomotive was withdrawn from service on 31 December 1959, when the CDJRC ceased to exist as a railway company.[4]

Initially a former County Donegal diesel railcar ran along a three-mile stretch of track along the riverbank.[5] This railcar has now been relocated to the Fintown narrow gauge railway in County Donegal by the North West of Ireland Railway Society in 2002.

Rolling stock
Railway vehicles at the Foyle Valley Railway
Number Type Build date Original operator Notes
42-6-4T steam locomotive1907CDRJCnamed Meenglas, stored outside
62-6-4T steam locomotive1907CDRJCnamed Columbkille
24wDM diesel shunter1956Motor Rail
12diesel railcar1934CDRJCbuilt by the GNR at Dundalk
30third class carriage1901CDRJC
14composite carriage1893CDRJC
18composite carriage1885LLSR
?hand-worked crane?LLSR
19goods van1881CDRJC

Original use

The current railway structures were the Londonderry Foyle Road railway station terminus of the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) route into the city on the west bank of the river Foyle from Strabane and Omagh.

gollark: Oh, the numbers were changed.
gollark: | wrote #4, though.
gollark: Interesting.
gollark: So Olivia didn't.
gollark: Oh, never mind, *I* wrote #4.

References
  1. "Foyle Valley Railway Museum". Derry City Council. Archived from the original on 13 April 2015.
  2. Paul Gosling: Derry City Council unveils plans to sell off the Foyle Valley Railway Museum. Museums Association, Issue 104/8, p.8, August 2004.
  3. "Foyle Valley Railway Museum (Heritage Trail)". ni2012. Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012.
  4. Wilson Adams: Outside the Foyle Valley Railway Museum, Londonderry.
  5. "The Foyle Valley Railway Museum". Culture of Northern Ireland. 20 April 2006.
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