Overview
A handful of volunteers have spent thirty years rebuilding a narrow-gauge railway in the old Dromod station yard, and the result is one of the more endearing small museums in County Leitrim. The headline experience is a short ride on three-quarters of a mile of restored 3ft track, but the collection ranges far past trains: vintage buses, trucks and cars, First and Second World War artillery, Irish Air Corps aircraft, and a clutch of cockpits you can actually climb into, including a DC-7 and a Boeing 707. Reckon on 45 minutes to an hour for the guided tour.
One thing to know before you set out: this is a 100% volunteer operation, and trains run only when there’s a crew and a working locomotive. The society itself advises ringing ahead on +353 71 963 8599 to confirm a train is running on the day, especially if the steam engine is the reason you’re going. Entry is paid by cash or card at the end of the tour, not the start.
The original line
The Cavan & Leitrim was one of Ireland’s busiest narrow-gauge railways, and among the last to keep steam working. The first 34-mile section, from Dromod up to Belturbet in County Cavan, opened in October 1887 on a 3ft (914mm) gauge. A branch from Ballinamore reached Arigna in May 1888 and was pushed on to the coal mines beyond the village in 1920 – and it was that Arigna coal, more than passengers or cattle, that kept the line alive decades after most of Ireland’s narrow-gauge routes had closed.
The railway picked up its share of lore along the way. One of the original locomotives carried the name Queen Victoria; during the War of Independence another, painted up in the national colours, became known as the Sinn Féin engine. The line passed into the Great Southern Railways at the 1925 amalgamation, then to CIÉ, and the last train ran in 1959, leaving the station, water tower and an 1887 engine shed – said to be unique in Ireland – to fall quiet for a generation.
Nancy, and the restoration
Volunteers took the site on in the early 1990s and had a diesel service carrying the public again by 1995. The set piece arrived in March 2019, when Nancy – a 1908 Avonside 0-6-0T built in Bristol, which spent her working life in the English ironstone industry until 1961 – steamed for the first time in Leitrim after a 22-year restoration. Owner Michael Kennedy, who hopes one day to relay the line as far as Mohill, is the kind of host who’ll talk you through every piece of rescued stock on the site; the former minister and rail enthusiast Michael Portillo filmed here in 2016 for one of his railway programmes.
Practical information
- Location: former Dromod station, Station Road, Dromod, County Leitrim, N41 R504.
- Opening hours: seasonal, from Easter Sunday (5 April in 2026) to the end of September.
- Saturday: 11.30am–4.30pm
- Sunday: 1pm–4.30pm
- Monday: 11.30am–4.30pm Hours can change for events; check the website or Facebook page before travelling.
- Admission: Adult €9, Child/Student/OAP €6, Family €20, paid by cash or card at the end of the tour.
- Parking: free, on site.
- Getting there: Dromod has its own stop on the Dublin–Sligo mainline, a few steps from the museum – one of the easier heritage railways in the country to reach without a car.
- Contact: +353 71 963 8599 | dromodrailway@gmail.com | https://www.cavanandleitrimrailway.com
Nearby
Dromod sits on the Shannon between Lough Bofin and Lough Boderg, so it pairs naturally with a walk by the harbour or a boat trip. Carrick-on-Shannon, the region’s boating hub, is a short drive northwest and makes the obvious base for lunch and a longer day on the river. If the railway has whetted an appetite for transport history, time your visit for one of the society’s occasional special running days, posted on its Facebook page.