After a disastrous end to 2023 and most of 2024, 2025 has started on a brighter note at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway when last weekend it held a number of festivities culminating in St. Patrick’s Day on Monday, 17th March.

While some volunteers were busy in the yard getting ready for Monday’s running of the Shamrock Express, the front of the station was a hive of activity.

This was because the railway was hosting the Downpatrick Lions Club and its Coffee and Chrome rally in aid of Northern Ireland Hospice and NI Chest Heart and Stroke.

Attending the rally were many interesting types of motor vehicles, old and new, from cars to tractors. They included some eye-catching vintage vehicles and some that their owners would rather wish weren’t considered classic but time waits for nobody.

The Downpatrick & County Down Railway is hoping to welcome Downpatrick Lions Club for further events in the future.

Several Shamrock Expresses ran on St Patrick’s Day, Monday, 17th March, between Downpatrick and Inch Abbey operated by 450 Class railcar set No.458 Antrim Castle. This year is the railway’s 40th anniversary, and these were the first of other special trains that will be run to celebrate the event.

The Shamrock Express was operated in conjunction with and supported by Newry Mourne and Down District Council, and fares were only £3.

Trains departed from Downpatrick every hour with a train ride on the heritage diesel train that featured in the ‘Derry Girls’ TV series. During the journey, there was traditional music on board and travellers were greeted by Irish dancing on arrival at Inch Abbey station which is close to the Cistercian monastery of Inch Abbey.

In November 2023, the railway was devastated by the worst storms it had experienced for many years when much of its rolling stock was stranded among flooded railway lines. It took the railway almost a year to recover from the floods, but resumed operations on Saturday, 26th and Sunday, 27th of October 2024 when it operated “The Phantom Flyer”.