Arson attack causes £250,000 at rail museum

Damage estimated at more than £250,000 (€385,000) was caused by an arson attack on a railway museum today.

One of five irreplaceable railway carriages dating back to 1950 was destroyed in the attack and extensive damage was caused to the old Downpatrick Station which houses the Downpatrick Railway Museum in Co Down.

Police said the fire was started in one of the railway carriages and quickly spread to the canopy over the platform and through the station building.

Edwin Gray of the Railway Museum said: “There has been very severe damage. I was called out at 3am and the fire was well alight. The fire was started in one of five carriages and it has been completely destroyed and the station gutted.

” We are very, very distressed. This is a voluntary organisation and the amount of man hours put in by our members in restoring rolling stock and the station is immense – it is very much a labour of love.

“Our members are all down here looking around and are all feeling very sad and upset.”

He said the Downpatrick station, dating back to 1870 – and which had been derelict from 1950 until the museum took it over in 1985 and renovated it -was insured.

However, the destroyed 1950 carriage had not been insured because they could not afford the premiums, he said, but even if it had been a replacement would be impossible to find.

Mr Gray estimated that the damage would cost at least £250,000 and praised the Fire Service for preventing the damage being even worse.

“It was only the swift action of the Fire Service which prevented the fire spreading through all five carriages.”

The carriages, and steam train which had been stored a short distance from the platform, are regularly used to make five-mile round trips through the Co Down countryside.

The museum often lays on trips for schoolchildren from throughout Northern Ireland to give them an experience of the bygone days of steam train travel.