Cavan and Leitrim Railway
| Cavan and Leitrim Railway | |
|---|---|
 Cavan and Leitrim Railway, 1906
| |
| Route length: | 78 km |
| Gauge : | 914 mm ( English 3-foot track ) |
The Cavan and Leitrim Railway (C & LR) was a narrow-gauge railway with a track width of 914 mm (3 feet ) in the counties of Leitrim and Cavan in northwest Ireland , which was from 1887 to 1959 in operation. The railway line was primarily for the transportation of coal from the mine in Arigna used. It was in operation longer than the other Irish narrow-gauge railways and used their steam locomotives.
Early years
At a public meeting in Ballinamore in September 1883 , it was announced that a light railway and tramway would support the coal and iron ore areas of Arigna and Lough Allen . The Cavan and Leitrim Railway was opened on October 17, 1887 for freight and on October 24, 1887 for passenger services. The section from Belturbet in County Cavan to Dromod in County Leitrim was a small train , and the section from Ballinamore to Arigna a tram-like steam tram . Initially, eight tank locomotives with a 4-4-0T wheel arrangement from Robert Stephenson and Company were used on both sections of the route . Later the locomotives were used by railway lines that were closed in the area.
Ballinamore was the hub of the railway line, with a locomotive shed and a depot . In Belturbet there was a reloading possibility to the broad-gauge Great Northern Railway (Ireland) to Ballyhaise on the railway line from Clones to Cavan , and in Dromod from there was a reloading possibility to the main line of the Midland Great Western Railway from Dublin to Sligo . Starting from the Arigna station, a connecting line to the coal field was built in 1920. A special feature of the Cavan and Leitrim Railway was that it did not procure any diesel locomotives because it could use locally mined coal from Arigna to run its locomotives. (Most of the other Irish narrow-gauge railways had, for economic reasons, usually switched their passenger services to combustion railcars very early on )
Later years
In 1925 the company was integrated into Great Southern Railways . From the 1930s, the Cavan and Leitrim Railway got into economic difficulties due to increasing road traffic. The demolition of the vehicle hangar as an economy measure worsened the condition of the rolling stock. She survived World War II , but the opening of the Arigna coal-fired coal-fired power station at Lough Allen, which did not rely on rail transport, made matters worse. The line was finally shut down on March 31, 1959, as the last all-steam-powered narrow-gauge railway in Ireland.
Route
.jpg)
The railway line consisted of a 54 km long main line from Belturbet via Tomkin Road , Ballyconnell , Ballyheady , Bawnboy Road , Killyran , Garadice , Ballinamore, Lawderdale , Fenagh , Adoon , Rosharry , Mohill and Dereen to Dromod and a 24 km branch from Ballinamore via Ballyduff, Cornabrone , Annadale, Kiltubrid , Creagh and Drumshanbo to Arigna .
Locomotives
At the opening there were eight steam locomotives the wheel arrangement 4-4-0T with the numbers 1 to 8 of Robert Stephenson and Company .
The locomotives No. 5 to 8 were supplied by the manufacturer with cover plates over the wheels, with a cow catcher , a bell and a lamp on the tender, typical for tram-like operation on non-fenced routes. The locomotives were equipped with capacitors and each driver's cab had all control levers. After a short period of use, all eight locomotives were fitted with new boilers, which increased their weight from 25 to 27 t.
When they were delivered, the locomotives had no names and it was suggested that they be christened with the director's daughters. Locomotive No. 1 was named "Isabel" after the daughter of RH Johnstone of Bawnboy House, the senior director of the C&LR.
No. 8 "Queen Victoria" lost her name tags in 1923 under what it was called "patriotic" circumstances. The nameplates were occasionally found and the C&LR insisted that they be reinstalled, after which a few days later they disappeared forever.
A ninth locomotive (No. 9) with a 0-6-4T wheel arrangement was delivered by the same manufacturer in 1904. When the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway was closed , Great Southern Railways (Ireland) sold its four locomotives with the 2-4-2T wheel arrangement to C&LR, which renumbered them as 10L to 13L.
| No. | Surname | Manufacturer | Wheel alignment | Construction year | Serial no. | End of service | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isabel | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2612 | 1949 | (a) |
| 2 | Kathleen | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2613 | 1959 | (a) Preserved at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum |
| 3 | Lady Edith | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2614 | 1959 | (a) Preserved at the New Jersey Museum of Transportation |
| 4th | Violet | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2615 | 1959 | (a) Scrapped in Dromod |
| 5 | Gertrude | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2616 | 1925 | Scrapped by the GSR |
| 6th | May | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2617 | 1927 | Scrapped by the GSR |
| 7th | olive | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2618 | 1945 | (a) shut down in Inchicore in 1939 |
| 8th | Queen Victoria | RS | 4-4-0T | 1887 | 2619 | 1959 | (a) Scrapped at Ballinmore |
(a) In 1930, the firebox was lined to allow Welsh hard coal to be used instead of lignite from Arigna.
All locomotives got new boilers between 1902 and 1906. The locomotives were initially green with red stripes and later black with white stripes. There were brass panels with the numbers on the driver's cabs and brass panels with the names on the water tanks.
museum
In addition to the Irish Rail station, there is also a transport technology museum with narrow-gauge trains of many gauges, buses, airplanes, fire departments and artillery pieces from the two world wars. A 400 m long section of the Cavan & Leitrim Railway was used by volunteer museum trains from Dromod station in Co. Leitrim every weekend and on Mondays until 2014 . Since then, the company has been temporarily shut down due to urgently required maintenance work, and no date has yet been set for the restart. It was originally planned to rebuild the railway line to Mohill, but that seems increasingly unlikely.
The number 2 locomotive and a carriage are on display at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum . Locomotive No. 3, "Lady Edith" , was exported to New Jersey , USA and is now on display in the New Jersey Museum of Transportation . The structure of a closed freight car has been preserved in Dromond and is probably the last remnant of the freight car.
literature
- Clements, Jeremy & McMahon, Michael (2008). Locomotives of the GSR. Newtownards: Colourpoint Books. ISBN 978-1-906578-26-8 .
- Cavan & Leitrim Railway Guide Book and Stock List, David Parks - 1st edition - May 1994.
- Cavan & Leitrim Railway Guide Book and Stock List, David Parks - 2nd Edition - October 1994.
- The Cavan & Leitrim Railway, Patrick J. Flanagan - David & Charles - 1966 and 1972 paperback with Pan Books.
- Tom Ferris, Patrick Flanagan: The Cavan & Leitrim Railway. The last decade - an irish railway pictorial. Midland Publishing Ltd., Leicester 1997. ISBN 1-85780-073-7 .
