Whitehead Railway Museum
Castleview Rd, Whitehead, Carrickfergus BT38 9NA
Whitehead Railway Museum, which was officially opened in 2017, combines the past with the present. You can get up close to some of the magnificent steam locomotives in the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland collection and get a chance to step aboard the footplate of an 1879-built steam engine.
The RPSI is an all-island body, run by volunteers, which preserves steam and diesel powered railway locomotives, carriages and other equipment from all over Ireland and uses them for passenger excursions on the Irish railway network. RPSI steam trains carry passengers to places as far apart as Portrush and Tralee, Rosslare and Bangor.
The RPSI’s main engineering works at Whitehead, County Antrim is opened to guided tours on several dates each summer, offering visitors a unique glimpse of how the people travelled in bygone days – and the engineering skills and methods of those days, still in use today by our staff and volunteers.
The RPSI collection of nearly 100 railway vehicles – up to 160 years old – is truly unique, and so too are the experiences offered by RPSI excursions. Trips to the seaside, journeys with a Jazz band, special trips for Easter, Christmas or Halloween, and railway tours through the Irish countryside are all accompanied by the distinctive sights, sounds and smells of steam that enthral children of all ages.
Guided tours are available at 11am, 12.30pm and 2pm (times may vary depending on volunteer availability).