The Great Southern Railway Preservation Society (GSRPS)

In response to various queries regarding the GSRPS I herewith give a very brief synopsis of the events concerning the society from inception through to the eventual wind-up. There will be no further comment from me.
1980 – The East Cork Railway Supporters’ Association formed to preserve the Cobh Jn/Youghal line.
1983 – The above was merged with ‘The Southern Steam Preservation Society’ to form the Great Southern Railway Preservation Society (GSRPS).
When the RPSI got wind of this they made an eleventh hour offer to set up a Mullingar style depot at Mallow where we could work on carriages for their mainline operations. This nearly caused the planned establishment of the GSRPS to be cancelled until it was realized that it was purely a cynical attempt by the powers that be at Whitehead to continue their stranglehold on preservation in the Republic.
The Southern Steam Preservation Society had for some time been considering the possible restoration of ex.GS&WT 0-6-0 No.90. (then plinthed at Mallow) but had had a survey carried out on it which dismissed the project on cost grounds. This turned out to be the first of many errors to beset the GSRPS.
The next big mistake was made on the 17th November 1983 at a meeting with CIE in Heuston station when the committee accepted that they were not going to be allowed to proceed with the Youghal project, and accepted the remote Fenit branch instead without putting up a fight. In my heart I knew that the GSRPS fate was sealed then but soldiered on for another six years before giving up. Is there a preservation scheme in history that has had its main depot 60 miles from its working line?
The third fatal mistake was the enforced choice of restoring ex.GNR 4-4-0 locomotive No.131 (then plinthed at Dundalk) but there wasn’t anything else once No.90 had been dismissed! The restoration of No.131 was hopelessly beyond the resources of the society and even in the unlikely event that it had succeeded it had too big an engine for the lightly laid Tralee/Fenit line. Anyway we soldiered on – recovered No.131 from Dundalk to Mallow, set about collecting a large quantity of diesel locos, carriages, wagons etc and gathered them together at Mallow and a sub-depot at Tralee.
The rebuilding of the Tralee/Fenit line was undertaken using FAS labour – not a day’s work was put in on the actual line by volunteers such was its remotness – and that hardly boded well for the future. A large sum of money, probably in the region of €100,000+, was spent on the line mainly by way of labour but also in resleepering. Financial considerations led to the termination of work on the line in 1988 and it has been returning to nature ever since. FAS switched their attentions to the Tralee/Blennerville narrow gauge project which had been established through the GSRPS but gradually slipped away from our control.

CIE 1950's carriage after restoration at the GSRPS (Tralee depot)
The 6th July 1985 represented the zenith of GSRPS achievements with the inclusion of two of our fully restored carriages operated on the Irish Railway Record Society (IRRS) “Seabreezes Express”from Cork to Youghal as part of the Cork 800 celebrations. Even this event was marred by senior Dublin officials in the IRRS trying to have our carriages excluded from the tour. After the tour it was all downhill, relations with the new management in CIE/IE reached an all time low in May 1989, when the bulk of best carriages were moved with no prior consultation for Mallow to Rathpeacon. Again we tipped off by an RPSI contact rather than anyone in CIE but it was too late to take any action. Despite our protests, and assurance from the then Chairman of CIE that they would be quite safe in their new home they were, within two weeks, beyond salvation.

Rathpeacon - a few miles north of Cork where much of the GSRPS rolling stock was scrapped.
This removal of stock to Rathpeacon led to major recriminations within the working membership of the society and the project began to unravel. During late 1989/90 the assets of the GSRPS were divided between the Limited Company and the Society with the bulk of the stock at Rathpeacon going to the society. By September 1990 we had decided to scrap everything in Rathpeacon due its condition and use the proceeds to save what was left of the historic stock. This we commenced to do but it was soul destroying dangerous work and eventually we abandoned our interest in the stock. We had also asked CIE if they could move it to Cork where a scrapper could more easily gain access to it but they refused on safety grounds – a senior Irish Rail manager in Cork later confided to me that it cost them in excess of €20,000 to pay a scrapper to deal with it. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Top: Scrapping at Rathpeacon in 1990.
Bottom: The demolition of Mallow Shed - home to the GSRPS 1983/89.

The Limited Company continued on for a year or two before being struck off by the Companies Office. Some of their portion of the rolling stock is now at the Half Way House Pub on the Cork/Bandon road. While much of the society’s stock has gone to good homes (Deutz 616 and 617) to the Irish Traction Group; the SLNCR railcar to Downpatrick (?); a Ruston to the Clonakilty Model Railway Village; several six wheelers and other vehicles ended up at Belturbet/Downpatrick and the Stationhouse Hotel in Clifden, and all that could be found of poor old ex.GNR loco No.131 .is now at Whitehead.
Not much of a synopsis and not much of a legacy but at least we tried which is more than can be said about the hundreds of armchair enthusiasts across the country who wouldn’t even pay an annual sub.
I will not engage with anyone on this thread as I am heartily sick of the whole affair but I would very much appreciate if those of you who think you know more than you do would mind your own business, leave my other threads alone and get on with your lives as I am still trying to achieve some good on Boards and elsewhere. Further more detailed information will eventually be available in my almost completed book but I have no publication date in mind as it is hardly going to be a money spinner.

I almost forgot and as some of you are bound to ask, I was a founder member of both the East Cork Society and the GSRPS, and Memberhsip Secretary,Secretary and, post 1989, Chairman of the latter.