CDRRL Heritage Centre


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CDRRL Heritage centre

The Donegal Railway Heritage Centre is the headquarters of the County Donegal Railway Restoration Limited.

Our aim is the re-opening of a section of the old County Donegal Railway as a tourism railway attraction and the operation of restored vintage CDR steam and diesel trains.

Also, we seek to promote Donegal's railway past to as wide an audience as possible, enthusiasts and the general public alike.

As part of that aim we have restored the old station house at Donegal Town and it’s open as a museum and heritage centre.

The society has a growing collection of photos of the old railways as well as original documents, film footage, various artefacts and memorabilia of all types. Most of these are on display at our heritage centre.

Outside the station house is our growing collection of original rolling stock undergoing restoration. These are Class 5 steam loco Drumboe which has just finished a complete cosmetic restoration, Brake/3rd carriage no. 28 and Railcar Trailer no. 5. The society also has the passenger section of Railcar 15 currently stored at the railway heritage centre for restoration.

There are over 500 members in the society; from Donegal itself, the rest of Ireland, Britain, Europe and the United States.

Some views in and around the Heritage Centre.

Just click on a thumbnail for a larger picture. Each jpg file is between 41K and 50K

A general view of the Heritage Centre with coach no. 28 on the left.

The unique Brake/3rd coach no. 28 fully restored, only awaiting bogies.

Railcar Trailer no. 5 undergoing complete restoration "from the ground up". This photo was taken in May 1997 and she is now much further along her journey back to life.

The platform side of Donegal Town Station, now the Heritage Centre.

A view of George Hannan's beautiful working scale model of Donegal Town. The photo just doesn't do it justice!

The Signals and Telegraphs hut, on the left, was built in the early years of this century is one of our future restoration projects. It will house a display devoted to railway signaling and communication.

A couple of view s of the interior displays, this one of the Finn Valley Railway.

And this one of the Letterkenny and Burtonport Extension Railway.