Carriage Takes Final Journey after being scrapped in Downpatrick
The end finally came for one of the Downpatrick & County Down Railway’s carriages, as former CIÉ Steam Heating Van No. 3189 departed the yard for the last time – not on rails, but on the back of a lorry writes Robert Gardiner, DCDR chairperson.
After being purchased from Iarnród Éireann, it arrived at Downpatrick in 2007, where it saw a varied second life as a guard’s van, generator vehicle, and storage facility, before being retired at the end of the 2019 Lapland Express season.
However, after spending years out of service during the Covid pandemic and being one of the carriages damaged in flooding at the railway, 3189’s condition had deteriorated significantly.
An internal review found restoration economically unviable, with costs estimated well above £100,000 to restore it even as a basic van – let alone convert it back for passenger use. Efforts to find another home for the vehicle, including approaches to other heritage railways, proved unsuccessful.
“I desperately tried to find a new home for it,” said Robert Gardiner, chairman of the DCDR. “There were a few expressions of interest, but nothing firm.
“As much as I’d have loved to restore our only Mk1, it realistically would have been a complete money pit – and we have much more pressing needs at the railway.”
After sitting in full view of the public since 2019 at the front of the DCDR’s workshop, finally on the morning of Wednesday 14th May, Ahoghill-based contractor Thomas Hamill and Sons arrived to deliver the coup de grâce.
The van was cut in half and the body loaded onto lorries for its final trip to County Antrim – proving quite the spectacle for onlooking members of the public, and later travellers on the M2 motorway.
The bogies and an assortment of spare parts were retained by the DCDR for potential reuse in future projects.
It’s a sad farewell for a long-serving vehicle, but as the team at Downpatrick often reflect, ‘you can’t save them all’.
More about the carriage:
- Steam Heating Van No. 3189 began life as BR No. 81029, a standard Brake Gangwayed (BG) Mk1 coach built at Wolverton in 1961.
- It was converted into a steam heating van by CIÉ in 1973, becoming one of a small fleet (numbered 3181–3190) that operated across Ireland to provide heating to older carriages without onboard generators.ry.
- The van was brought to Downpatrick in 2007 after withdrawal by Iarnród Éireann, and was used extensively in winter train services where a generator was needed
- The vehicle was not considered of significant enough rarity or historical importance to warrant major fundraising for restoration, especially given its advanced corrosion and limited operational use.
- The disposal was carried out in line with museum best practice, and in line with the DCDR’s Acquisitions and Disposal policy. The vehicle was not accessioned as an artefact.
- Thomas Hamill and Sons are a long-standing partner in recovery and heavy lifting work at the DCDR.
Originally built in 1961 at Wolverton Works as a BR Mk1 BG (Brake Gangwayed) carriage, 3189 was converted in 1973 by CIÉ into a steam heating van, used to supply passenger carriages with heating during the winter months.
It later passed into Iarnród Éireann service and was eventually withdrawn in the mid-2000s.
