Lost Railways Of Co Cork

Continuing our Lost Railways series into Eire, this collection of 52 period photographs recalls lines such as the Cork City Railways, which ran through the streets of the city, the Cork & Muskerry Light Railway and the Cork & Macroom Direct Railway. The county's railway history began in the 1850s and, despite suffering cuts similar to the Beeching economies in Britain, continues today. The full story is told here and the locations photographed include: Ballinascarthy, Ballinhassig, Ballydehob, Baltimore, Bandon, Bantry, Bantry Pier, Blarney, Carrigrohane, Church Cross, Clonakilty Junction, Coachford Junction, Cork Albert Quay, Cork Albert Street, Cork Summerhill, Cork Western Road, Courtmacsherry, Crossbarry, Crosshaven, Drimoleague, Dunkettle, Dunmanway, Fermoy, Hollyhill, Kanturk, Kinsale, Kinsale Junction, Madore, Mitchelstown, Monkstown, Newmarket, Schull, Skibbereen, Upton, Waterfall, and Youghal.

Dublin was an early target for railway development; in fact it boasted the world's second passenger railway (and the first to serve a capital city) which opened in 1834 between Dublin and Kingstown. This was swiftly followed by railway expansion throughout Ireland. In the south east it was the Dublin & South Eastern and the Great Southern & Western Railways that dominated. By 1925 they had amalgamated to become Great Southern Railways, but soon after there followed a period of fluctuating fortunes due to war and fuel shortages. In the 1950s competition from road transport led to drastic cost-cutting measures. Unlike the railways in Britain however, the region has enjoyed a revival since the 1980s with line electrifications and development of a modern tramway within the capital; as at date of publication there is now even an underground system being considered for the city. The whole history of the region's railways is told here in detail accompanied by a collection of 52 photographs. Locations featured include stations at Dun Laoghaire, Rosslare, Shankhill, Templeogue, the Guinness Brewery, Broadstone, Dublin Harcourt Street, Terenure, Embankment, Blessington, Poulaphouca, Sutton, Hill of Howth, Liffey Junction, Carbury, Edenderry, Tullow, Abbeyleix, Kilkenny, Mountmellick, Woodenbridge Junction, Shillelagh, Goresbridge, Borris, Ballywilliam, Palace East, Macmine Junction, Rathgarogue, Glenmore, Kilmeadan, Durrow, Dungarvan, Ballyduff, Waterford Manor, Waterford, Tramore, and Avoca.

Although Tyrone and Fermanagh both once had an extensive railway network, today nothing is left. The lines, stations and engines, all now gone, are recalled in this book which features over fifty rare photographs and a comprehensive account of the counties' railway history by Irish railway expert, Stephen Johnson. Featuring sections on the Clogher Valley Railway and its amazing steam railcars (see the front cover where a CVR railcar rolls up the middle of Caledon main street) and the wonderful Fintona Horse Tram.

The Trains Long Departed tells the story of Ireland's lost railways, the repository of optimism, disappointment and nostalgia.

By turning off the main highway and discovering old routes, some of which have been travelled for thousands of years, you will see Ireland in an entirely different way. Follow the Old Road will take you on a tour of a variety of pathways from great river roads to lost railways. Long before records began, travellers arriving on our shores found safe havens, natural harbours, the estuaries of rivers, and settled there, in sight of the ocean that had brought them to this land. Gradually they moved inland to more fertile soil, usually along the course of a river that provided both guidance and essential water supplies. In later centuries, great lords built their castles and monks their abbeys upriver, at the tidal limit. Some of the routes are still used today while others lie ignored and overgrown. Villages, and, later on, towns grew up around these castles and abbeys to serve their needs; towns that still prosper today.

Only two lines now remain in Co. 'Derry, an area which once boasted an extensive railway network. The county town itself once featured a number of important stations and nearly twenty photographs of these form the centrepiece of this volume. As always some lines had their own eccentricities such as the Lough Swilly line. Containing fifty-one pictures in total and accompanied by a detailed text by Stephen Johnson - this is the last word in Northern Irish railway history.

Includes lists of members.