Happy hedgehog rescued from pit slumbers by museum officer who is also a qualified vet

It was an adult hedgehog who was discovered curled up in a ball fast asleep on a black bin liner tucked away beneath the locomotive turntable at the award-winning location.

The animal was found by the site squad who were busy cleaning out the turntable pit. Happily, site officer Dermot Mackie is a qualified vet so he was the ideal person to gingerly recover the hedgehog.

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A spokesperson for the museum explained: “He rescued it from the pit and gently set it down in a nearby area of dense shrubbery.

"Our visitor was still dozing contentedly on its bin liner bed but when Dermot returned to check some time later, it was nowhere to be seen.

"Presumably on a warm and sunny afternoon it had decided it was time to root around for a bit of grub.

"But for the intervention of the site squad the hedgehog would have been unable to scale the sheer six foot high concrete walls of the pit. All in a day’s work for Dermot and the squad!”

Run by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI), the five-gallery museum allows visitors to step back in time and experience the magic of steam engines.

As well as restoring trains, the RPSI runs themed trips during the year and short train rides at the Whitehead site on Saturdays in July and August.