Fry Model Collection

The Casino Model Railway Museum at Malahide, Ireland (previously called the Fry Model Railway) is the display home for the Fry Model Collection in the refurbished Casino cottage building in central Malahide. It opened to the public on 22 January 2020.

The railway and collection was moved from its previous home in Malahide Castle in 2010. The collection originated from the work of Cyril Fry who had created the collection to run on his layout at his cottage in Churchtown, Dublin.

History

The layout and collection was created by the railway engineer and draughtsman Cyril Fry, an employee of Inchicore Works, and his family. The collection of models passed to Dublin Tourism in the 1970s, following Mr Fry's death. Following work by retired CIÉ craftsman Thomas Tighe at Inchicore Works a new model railway was moved to Malahide Castle in 1988, which operated with models made by other modellers, with the Fry collection on display in viewing cases.

Move from Malahide Castle

The exhibition was forced to be removed to storage for the redevelopment of Malahide Castle in 2010 following notice from the owners Fingal County Council. A 'Friends of the Fry Model Railway' association was formed and initial suggestions of where to relocate included Collins Barracks, Dublin. The only viable proposal to emerge was to re-open the railway at the basement Eblana Theatre in the Bus Éireann station in Dublin. An unexpected turn of events was that a wealthy farmer who died in January 2012 left a bequest of €1.5m to restore the Casino House cottage near Malahide railway station but a condition of the legacy was that it be used to hold the Fry model railway exhibition. Fáilte Ireland initially wished to continue with the Bus Éireann option however this would have lost the conditions for the bequest. By April 2012 Fingal County Council determined to accept the bequest and the incumbent transport minister Leo Varadkar indicated he was delighted the matter was resolved. In a Malahide/Howth area committee meeting in June 2017 councillors expressed frustrations over the delays but that matters concerning heritage buildings were complex and of the need to meet the constraints of the funding bequest.

In September 2017 the exhibition was expected to re-open in 2019 following refurbishment of the 'Casino' cottage building near Malahide railway station. By the end of April 2018 some progress had been made with the tendering process complete and the contractor having commenced on site with extension and refurbishment of the Casino Cottage to complete in February 2019 with public opening expected Spring 2019. October 2018 saw the plan broadly on the course of the September 2017 timetable to re-open in early 2019 in Malahide following the refurbishment and extension of the Casino building. However reported expected costs rose through 2018 from €2.4 million to €2.7 million and on to €3.2 million. In May 2019 the work on the Casino building was stated as complete and re-opening was scheduled for Autumn 2019. In August 2019 Shannon Heritage was appointed operator for the facility, seemingly termed the ''Casino Model Railway Museum'', with official opening remaining to be expected "later this year".

Casino House

Casino House was built around 1750 though some claims date it earlier to the late 17th century. It is a two-story thatched house with eight bays. It was a shooting lodge for the Talbot family (though some have suggested a romantic summer house) and remained with the family until 1927. The building had been allowed to deteriorate. May 2019 saw the building renovated and extended to house the railway museum and collection.

Fry collection

The Fry collection includes hand-built models of Irish features, stations and trains represents Irish railway heritage since the about the 1840s. While the O gauge models were usually very accurate the Drumm Battery Train model appears to be have been taken from preliminary drawings incorporating streamlined ends which did not appear in the actual train. A figure of about 360 rail vehicles is mentioned.

Steam locomotive models

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Railcars and trams

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Casino layout

The new layout is expected to be able to run six trains simultaneously. There will be about 360 hand-built carriages and locomotives. The new layout is on an 11m x 4m table () with additional trains running on overhead tracks. The main basis of the running display layout is a double loop oval with single track round Bray Head at one end and Dublin city represented at the other. Mallow railway station in County Cork and the local station are represented on the sides; while a single track loops overhead.

The Casino incorporates an educational centre available to groups of scholars.

Previous layouts

Churchtown

The original layout evolved in Cyril Fry's own home, and he originally called it "The Irish International Railway and Tramway System".

Malahide Castle

A dedicated O gauge display was set up at Malahide Castle in June 1988 after being prepared at Inchicore from the early 1980s. It was a working miniature rail display that grew to . The core design of the layout consisted of three double track loops encircling the control area in the middle. One end of the layout depicted ''Dublin'' with the opposite corners representing ''Cork'' and ''Belfast''. Even an Irish Sea mail Packet boat was represented in the background. In between various scenes of Irish rail scenes through the ages were depicted.

See also

* List of model railways

Notes

References

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External links

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Malahide
Museums in Fingal
Railway museums in the Republic of Ireland
Rail transport modelling