"Attention, please. Ladies and gentlemen, stand clear of the platform, the steam train special will be arriving in Westport station at 4 o'clock," announced station master Ms Anne Elliot on Saturday.
Minutes later, with a high-pitched hoot, steam locomotive No. 4 came into sight.
Bellowing smoke and belching steam, the train, built in 1947 and the last of its kind to be retired from railway service, in 1970, provided west of Ireland trainspotters with an unusual treat.
This year's "three-day tour", run by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) every May for the last 30 years, had begun at Connolly Station, Dublin, at 9.20 a.m. Aboard were 300 enthusiasts from Ireland, Britain, Germany, Italy and the US. Many of the 30-strong crew, identifiable by green T-shirts, have had special training.
"The entire RPSI crew are all volunteers," explained Mr John Beaumont, tour organiser. "There's a priest, a bank official, a telephone engineer, a computer programmer, a mechanical engineer, a civil servant, a garda. Its a bit like Noah's Ark."
The turntable in Westport is no longer in operation, which meant that locomotive No. 4 had to reverse, bunker-first, to Claremorris Station, where she turned and stabled on Saturday night. The train serviced the Belfast- Portrush-Derry line for over 25 years. Bought soon after its retirement by the RPSI, its engine was rebuilt at the RPSI's engineering base in Whitehead, Co Antrim, in 1990.
"The RPSI is Ireland's only operator of preserved mainline steam locomotives," said Mr Beaumont. "We have nine in our care. And, at any one time, three to five will be in working order, the others under repair or storage." The group - who spent the night in Achill in the company of the local "Strawboys" and traditional musicians - returned via Ballina to Dublin yesterday. There, locomotive No. 85, known as "Merlin", took over for the second leg of the trip to Belfast.
Merlin was built in 1932 for the Dublin-Belfast express line and was withdrawn from service in 1965. Today the tour will finish with "a wee jaunt" around the north-east coast.
According to Mr Richard Allen, a participant since 1983 from St Alban's, near London: "The Irish tours are far more fun than the British ones. They are relaxed, extremely friendly and I've built up so many friendships over the years."