railway museums down

Climb on board for a short train ride - or travel further afield on a special mainline steam excursion. Many engines and coaches are on display in transport museums and railway centres, with memorabilia from the golden age of steam. The first railway in Ireland opened in 1834, and the network quickly reached into all corners of the island. By 1920 almost 3,500 miles of track threaded the countryside and no Irish town was more than 10 miles from a railway station.

Ireland's national...

It was an inspired decision to take the railway station-house and signal-box at Moira into State care as a gesture towards preserving industrial archaeology in the province. The station-house dates from 1841, and is the oldest surviving station building in Northern Ireland.

The station-house preserves much of the original woodwork inside, while the signal-box retains the complicated series of levers for regulating the signals along the line which are fast being replaced everywhere by...