{"id":14633,"date":"2017-07-20T13:14:07","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T12:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=14633"},"modified":"2017-07-20T13:14:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T12:14:07","slug":"the-railway-preservation-society-of-ireland-sea-sand-and-steam-on-the-portrush-flyer-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2017\/07\/the-railway-preservation-society-of-ireland-sea-sand-and-steam-on-the-portrush-flyer-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland : SEA, SAND AND STEAM ON THE PORTRUSH FLYER THIS SUMMER"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland\u2019s <em>Portrush Flyer<\/em> steam train will be offering holidaymakers and daytrippers the opportunity to travel on a unique and stylish excursion to Portrush on Sundays 30<sup>th<\/sup> July, 6<sup>th<\/sup>, 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 20<sup>th<\/sup> and 27<sup>th<\/sup> August.<\/h1>\n<p>Passengers on <em>The Portrush Flyer <\/em>will travel in vintage carriages from the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s behind the beautifully restored, 103-ton, blue locomotive, \u201cMerlin\u201d.\u00a0 \u00a0<em>Merlin <\/em>is no stranger to the railway line from Belfast to the north coast and even hauled a train carrying the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh last year on their way to re-open Bellarena station on the railway line to Londonderry.<\/p>\n<p>Railway Preservation Society of Ireland Operations Officer Mervyn Darragh commented \u201cWe are pleased to be able to share our wonderful steam train <em>The Portrush <\/em>Flyer again. \u00a0These annual trains are the high point of a great year for our Society, following the completion of our new Museum at our depot at Whitehead. \u00a0The <em>Flyer<\/em> will start from the RPSI depot at Whitehead Excursion Station, picking up at Carrickfergus and Belfast Central en-route to Portrush and we love to see the passengers on the train waving at the holidaymakers on the beach as we weave along the coast for our arrival at leave Portrush.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur volunteers have now restored three mainline steam locomotives to active service and are preparing one of them, our largest, <em>Merlin<\/em> for Portrush action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEach train will offer passengers travel in lovingly restored carriages, the opportunity for children (and more nostalgic adults) to get close to the steam engine and talk to the driver and fireman (if he has the energy after shovelling up to 4.5 tons of coal into the fire), and a relaxing journey through city suburbs, leafy countryside and North Atlantic seascapes to Portrush and back. \u00a0We\u2019ll be operating this train on Sundays 30<sup>th<\/sup> July, 6<sup>th<\/sup>, 13<sup>th<\/sup>, 20<sup>th<\/sup> and 27<sup>th<\/sup> August.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always enjoy helping the public and especially children get closer to the industrial heritage we maintain. \u00a0A steam train just oozes atmosphere and we would especially appreciate the public sending us drawings, notes or poems about their day out on the steam train for posting on our website.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland is a charitable not-for-profit organisation and has it\u2019s main workshops at Whitehead in County Antrim. \u00a0Restoration and preparation of the trains is entirely managed by and, largely carried out by, volunteers.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Portrush Flyer<\/em> departs Belfast Central at 1130 sharp. \u00a0\u00a0Return tickets to Portrush cost \u00a322 Adult, \u00a315 Child and \u00a366 Family (2 adults and 2 children). \u00a0Tickets can be purchased in advance by telephone or call-and-collect from Belfast Welcome Centre, tel 028 9024 6609 or online from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.steamtrainsireland.com\/\">www.steamtrainsireland.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland\u2019s Portrush Flyer steam train will be offering holidaymakers and daytrippers the opportunity to travel on a unique and stylish excursion to Portrush on Sundays 30th July, 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th August. Passengers on The Portrush Flyer will travel in vintage carriages from the 1960\u2019s and 1970\u2019s behind the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2017\/07\/the-railway-preservation-society-of-ireland-sea-sand-and-steam-on-the-portrush-flyer-this-summer\/\">Continued<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14634,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633\/revisions\/14634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}