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You are > Home > Elphin’s model railway project to get over €1.4m
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Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Elphin’s model railway project to get over €1.4m
By Mairead O’Shea
The LittleElph Model Railway Village project for Elphin has been awarded, in principle, a €1.4 million grant from the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and is now on course to become a major tourist attraction.
The news was welcomed with great excitement in the Elphin area. The announcement brings an end to years of campaigning, lobbying and fundraising by the hard working local committee.
The Committee of Elphin 2000 Ltd. announced the news last week when they finally received approval in principle for the LittleElph Model Railway Village. A grant of €1,458,825 was allocated to the project.
Speaking to the Roscommon Herald this week, Carolin Callery of the Committee of Elphin 2000 said that the committee, with huge support from the people of Elphin, battled for over 10 years for this award winning project.
“Its unique design won an AIB New Business Award which resulted in a slot on the Late Late Enterprise show a number of years back. The news was received with great jubilation in Elphin, as word filtered through that the project had received approval. Never before has an amount of money like this has been put into our town for major capital project and it is long overdue,” said Ms Callery.
Ms Callery explained that the Model Railway Village would be built on a scale of 1-12 and the theme part would feature key historical events from areas throughout County Roscommon.
“The model village will for example include sections on Arigna Coal Mine, Roscommon Jail House, Rockingham House on the night of the fire, Rathcroghan etc which are all key historical events of interest in various areas of the county,” said Ms Callery.
The project will be built on a six acre site across from the windmill in Elphin with the theme park taking over four acres and a visitors building and administration area located on the remaining two acres. The site was donated by Roscommon County Council.
It is hoped to start the project in the coming months with a completion date scheduled for 2007. When up and running the Little Elph project will employ between 7-10 part time and full time staff with that number increasing depending on visitor numbers.
Ms Callery went on to say that 2006 was proving to be a very fruitful year for the town and she praised the ongoing support from the people of Elphin for the project.
“Along with this major investment, which will provide employment and attract substantial tourism to the town of Elphin, we were delighted with the recent news that the Elphin Community College is being granted funding which will secure the future of secondary education in the town.
“The committee would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Elphin who have supported the project over the years through Lotto, donations, underwriting and sponsorships. With their ongoing support we look forward to developing this project and ensuring that it becomes a major tourism attraction,” said Ms Callery.
Deputy Michael Finneran has welcomed the decision, He said that it was a novel tourism project and when completed by 2007 it was expected to attract over one hundred thousand visitors per year.
Deputy Finneran paid tribute to the perseverance of the local committee led in particular by Owen Caulfield and Carolin Callery. He also thanked Cllr Eugene Murphy for his commitment and support for the project, Roscommon County Manager John Tiernan and the support of the council for underwriting the project.
Cllr Eugene Murphy said that this was a super announcement for the town and Elphin and surrounding areas.
“I have no doubt that the people behind this project will work tooth and nail to bring it to fruition as quickly as possible,” he said.
Cllr Murphy added that the County Manager John Tiernan along with his staff had given a lot of assistance in relation to the site and the underwriting of the project.
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