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In April/May 2024 we spent time in Co. Donegal again. Our intention was to walk as much as possible of the Londonderry & Lough Swilly trackbed as we could between Letterkenny and Derry and the branch to Cardonagh.
We were frustrated by contacting COVID at the very beginning of our holiday and recovery was slow!
Walking any distance at all was impossible for both of us.
I was, however, able to start work on the first of these articles about these lines.
I always thought that Donegal was one of the "Six Counties". Now I learn that, while it is most geographicly North, it is actually within the Republic.
I must wonder what interchange "issues" (ratemaking, divisions, physical) between the CIE and the NIR have occurred since 1919. Of course and of interest, I cannot locate any active rail lines on Mr. Google's maps extending Westward from Belfast, UK to Donegal; or for that matter from Dundalk, IE to same.
So perhaps, my immediate point was never an issue.
Posts: 10757 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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It is quite a while since Donegal had railways. I know that there was a customs point just outside Strabame at a place called Lifford on the Strabane to Letterkenny Branch of the Co. Donegal Railway Joint Committee lines.
You should find some links on here if you search for Co. Donegal Railways. In 2020 I wrote some articles about the Glenties Branch and about the Strabane to Letterkenny Branch.
I have not ventured onto broad gauge territory in Ireland as yet!
Posts: 453 | From: Telford, Shropshire, UK. | Registered: Dec 2018
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This company ended its days as a bus operator, running its last train in 1953 and its last bus in 2014; some of the routes were divided between Bus Éireann and Ulsterbus.
CIÉ dates to 1945, when the Great Southern Railway merged with the Dublin United Transport Company.
The Great Northern Railway lasted until 1953, when it was split between CIÉ and the Ulster Transport Authority (who subsequently closed most of Northern Ireland’s railroads that it inherited from the Northern Counties Commission that dated from 1903 to 1948); the GNR’s main line between Dublin and Belfast became the sole cross-border railroad after the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway closed in 1957.
Posts: 844 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Mr. Helfner, I have only set foot on your apparent Homeland once in this life during '86 and I rode a CIE train from Belfast to Dublin (also rode Dublin to Galway, where I "didn't exactly know the language").
I honestly cannot recall if there was any kind of inspection at Dundalk. After taking the ferry to Holyhead UK, Her Majesty's servants only wanted a cursory view of my Passport.
Posts: 10757 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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Speaking of ferries to/from Holyhead, I rode one of the last trains to the former Carlisle Pier station in Dun Laoghaire, when I was young; CIE would run express trains directly from Connolly Station. Now all boats to Holyhead run from Dublin Port, with Dun Laoghaire abandoned.
The UK was never formally part of the Schengen Area (established 1985) but participated in “borderless” free travel notwithstanding, especially with Ireland.
Posts: 844 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Great photos, but somewhat depressing to look at in light of the Republic’s mad dash to spend public money to turn every last abandoned railroad into “greenways” with no real economic benefit.
Posts: 844 | Registered: Mar 2002
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What is surprising is that so much of the old formation on these lines is still available to turn into freeways!🙂
Posts: 453 | From: Telford, Shropshire, UK. | Registered: Dec 2018
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The November 1899 edition of The Railway Magazine carried a short article about the L&LSR which was not heavy on technical detail. It mostly reads as though it were a holiday brochure rather than an article in a railway journal. None-the-less, the article is still of interest, particularly for the fact that it was written during the period when the L&LSR was expanding.
Posts: 453 | From: Telford, Shropshire, UK. | Registered: Dec 2018
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