The Central Gaeltacht Train Society (Fintown, County Donegal), together with the Downpatrick and Ardglass Railway, the Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Railway and the Cavan and Leitrim Railway, are establishing a cross-border cluster to harness the tourism potential of heritage railways and:- to derive economies of scale regarding product development, marketing, training, financing and business development thereby ensuring sustainability;- to safeguard and enhance the cultural heritage of railways;- to provide visitors with an interactive and ‘live’ experience of railways thereby linking them directly with their cultural heritage; - to ensure that the heritage railway product contributes to the economic, social and cultural development of the cross-border area. Achievements: The project has been based upon a cross border network involving the following heritage railways; Cavan & Leitrim, Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway, Fintown Railway – An Mhuc Dhubh and Giant’s Causeway & Bushmills Railway and has been concerned with the capital development, training, marketing and promotion of these Heritage Railways.The project has been responsible for the delivery of new and enhanced locomotives, rolling stock across all four partner railways and in the case of Fintown Railway a 500m extension to the railway. The result has been the development of a safer product and giving the railways a wider appeal to visitors.Training outputs have included workshops on permanent way (track maintenance) and has also focused on customer care and marketing. Staff and volunteers from all partner railways benefited from increasing their knowledge and subsequently applying these best practice models in the operations of their railways. Attracting greater numbers of visitors and increasing the appeal of the four railways has been a key aim of the project. In consultation with the four partner railways the marketing brand “Ulster & Connaught Heritage Railways” was developed and used on all marketing materials. The outputs of the detailed marketing plan include targeted advertising, production of a dedicated brochure and effective Ireland-wide distribution, development of online presence via www.ucrailways.com and signage. Most significantly the development of the Ulster & Connaught Heritage Rail Trail encourages visitors to visit all four railways as part of their holiday or short break, indeed the 2008 visitor numbers are up over 30% on 2007 figures”.The benefits of the project have been very visible to the four participating railways. Chairperson of Fintown Railway Oliver MacDevitt confirms this when he says “The project has been responsible for taking Fintown Railway and its project partners to a new level in terms of quality of product offering. Furthermore the joint marketing efforts have provided us with higher visitor numbers, one of the main legacies and success of the project is the willingness of the four partner railways to continue to work together to share information, expertise and also to explore future funding opportunities.