Last Saturday, 13 December, whilst on site preparing to run Santa trains for the local community, our beautiful, recently built signal cabin was destroyed by fire. The blaze was caused by the cabin’s stove becoming extremely hot due to high local winds. Despite a fireproof backplate and insulation around the stovepipe, the intense heat proved too much and the timber wall caught fire.

Our volunteers fought valiantly with fire extinguishers, but to no avail, and we had to evacuate quickly, retrieving some — but not all—artefacts and equipment. Sadly, our newly installed antique station clock was among the casualties.

Fire engines from Clifden and Carraroe were soon on the scene and again battled to control the fire, but our beautiful structure was very badly damaged. The good news is that nobody was injured, although we were all shocked and traumatised.

We have decided not to be phased by this enormous setback, and we are determined to rebuild our cabin as soon as possible, with the aim of being open and operational by late spring/early summer. To that end, we have launched a fundraising appeal to do just that – please help.