Fintown Railway, Co Donegal

reply to my message " no sorry still not open yet"

 

I would agree that it would take something very speicel to get more than a couple of miles open.

I have to say that I have been in contact with a couple of guys based in Derry on the Irish modeller group and they are saying that the Sligo to Derry proposal is dead in the water and just won't happen, The big problem as they see it is it would take up to much of the Donegal trackbed, some might say that is a good thing, but unlike in the UK trackbed and land is not always owned by the farmer, but is held by farming co-operatives and local communities.

This is one of the problems that the Donegal Heritage group in Donegal have, when it was set up many years ago, it was and I think still is impossible to just go and buy any trackbed if you are dealing with one of these co-operatives, the reason is they all have to agree and even then there may be legal and technical problems to overcome.

The other thing about that proposal was it was not proposed in a business way, there where no financial proposals put forward at the time or time scale to how long it would take to build.

I did hear about a later revision that was proposed for the line as it was to then run from Derry to Strabane then on to Letterkenny drop down to Stranorlar, Donegal, Ballyshannon before heading around the coast to Sligo.

If you look more deeply into the proposal it would not even break even and if a 3ft gauge line couldn't even pay its way how would a 5ft 3ins gauge line far any better? the simple answer is it won't.

Of coures there have been a number of proposals to rebuild a joint Donegal 3ft gauge system which would take in much of the Donegal and Swilly railways, plus there have been proposals to build new lines as well to cut out some of the old problems at the same time, but this time it was proposed to build them as light railway/ tramways, which I guess could work if the proposal was look at with a serious note.

 

the only Donegal project with a ghost of a chance would be Derry to Letterkenny, but that is only a faint hope. Anything more than a mile or two, as you say, is pie in the sky

 

yes, always was a money spinner

 

There is very little chance of any significant investment in the far north west for now. If the inevitable outcome of Lemming Thursday is followed through (deliberate choice of words) to it's logical conclusion, it's entirely possible major infrastructure investment will be revisited, as Donegal will be far less isolated within a 32 county republic. With the best will in the world, that's highly unlikely to involve any 3ft gauge track!

IIRC, a section of the one time CDR Donegal-Ballyshannon line is already underneath tarmac, so that's a 'goner'. Strabane-Stranorlar involves a border crossing, so that's out. The old Letterkenny-Burtonport line crosses countryside even more sparsely populated than when the LSR line was open. Basically, all the old LSR and CDR routes are either too remote, or cross the border, or too remote and cross the border! The only viable option lies in providing a connection between a centre of popuation and an attraction. This way, the line becomes part of the 'day out'. For the life of me, I can't see anything over a few miles, at most, being viable. I'd dearly love to be proved wrong.

 

Crossing the border isn't a problem and would be looked favourably on for funding as was the Erne Waterway .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Fund_for_Ireland

I think a 32 county Ireland is really unlikely without a return to the Troubles. There's no way the Unionists would sit back and let that happen.

 

Time will tell.....and I'll just leave it at that.

 

I guess there's no chance of any trackbed becoming available in the Cork, West Cork area? Considering the number of Brits in this part of the world....??

 

I wish....

 

Mmmm...... Blarney Castle (big time tourist magnet) is down that way. Wonder how much, if any, of the Cork & Muskerry trackbed is clear over 80 years after closure?

With the expansion of Cork over the years, a bit of 'big railway' expansion back onto a few 'Ks' of one or more of the former routes might yet happen. Unlikely (as some new route through to Cork(Kent) Stn would be needed), but still worth an outside punt IMHO. Get in early and you'd get a very good return on a fiver, should it ever come to pass!

 

the Cork and Muskerry was mostly a tramway on the road so you can be sure none of it is usuable, bizarrely the station at Blarney survives though.

The only likely railway devlopment will be a new station on the mainline to serve the projected mega-estate planned north of the City, not too far form Blarney as it happens. There's no chance of a cross city rail link as the North Link road uses the track bed. the two lifting bridges are still in place though and in fully road use,

 

Great shot, thanks for posting it. The need for some new route was specifically mentioned.... Even if the old cross city route were clear, I couldn't imagine running 5ft 3in gauge trains to regular schedules through the city streets would be considered. (Have you seen the photo of one of the last passenger 'specials'behind a 'Bandon Tank' passing within a few feet of a petrol station?!!). Any new route would only be likely if it gave a more concrete business case than the Western Rail Corridor. Unlikely, agreed, but it'd be surprising if links across the River Lee weren't being looked at.

The point about the tramway nature of (most of) the C&MLR is valid, but Blarney is undeniably attractive as a destination. South and west of Cork is spectacularly beautiful, but just as spectacularly devoid of any major settlements (Bandon at <7000 is one of the larger towns) or tourist honeypots.

In all honesty, a volunteer line just ain't gonna happen. The one which does exist, at Stradbally, does reasonably well, which is down to a seriously dedicated group and it's location well within a day trip from Dublin, with ankle biters in tow. Anything else withing the same radius of Dublin would only serve to damage the SWR.

I stand by my point a few posts back, any tourist line (and that's the only viable market) would have to be a useful part of the local economy. That severely limits the number of potential locations.

 

i don't think many people would go to Blarney castle by public transport, hire cars more likely.

The one "rail" development in Cork that might have legs would be a Kent Station/City Centre/ UCC/CUH/CIT/Ballincollig LUAS type system.

 

Blarney does of course have a station, on the commuter line from Cork to Mallow (wchich is of course also the mainline to Dublin).

What we need is a steam service from Cork to Kinsale!!

 

not currently, it used to have one and the new one proposed will be close enough

 

Well, many do come to visit lines by coach too, so let's not discriminate .... even if it's sometimes a one way trip (as in "one way by rail"..... not as in "one way group journey to Dignitas").