Courtesy of a YouTube video, I became aware of the Andrews family mausoleum, located in the grounds of the Church of Ireland in Comber, Co. Down.
The Andrews family feature heavily in Ulster history, with Thomas Andrews (Snr) being Chairman of the Belfast & County Down Railway and father to Thomas Andrews (Jnr), the designer of the Titanic and JM Andrews, a prime minister of Northern Ireland.
Today is the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in England. Of what relevance is this to Industrial Heritage in Ireland?
None, specifically. However, the S&DR is generally taken to be the first modern era railway in the world. Prior to the S&DR, there were multiple industrial railways, primarily connected with collieries. In addition, there were earlier railways carrying passengers, such as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, which carried fare paying passengers as early as 1807, albeit using horse drawn vehicles. There was also the Kilmarnock & Troon Railway in Scotland in operation before 1825.
The S&DR is, however, regarded as the first railway carrying passengers, using steam locomotives, on metal rails, anywhere in the world and as such, it is generally regarded as the first railway.
From this idea, others followed, including the Dublin & Kingstown Railway, opening in 1834.
I could see this one coming a mile away (even if the track it was on is not straight!). Two separate groups in two separate parts of the country calling for the restoration of rail services on lines that have been converted to greenways.
The first in Westmeath with Westmeath County Councillors have called for the railway from Mullingar to Athlone to be re-opened.
That would be the one that is now a greenway.
Similarly in Cork, a group calling themselves the East Cork Rail Alliance are calling for restoration of rail services to Youghal, the line from Midleton to Youghal now also a greenway.
Dear boys and girls, once a greenway, never a railway.
I am happy to announce that I recently visited the Clogher Valley and took photos at the site of the former halts along the first half of the line (from Tynan to Augher exclusive).
The CVR had a small number of traditional stations, with a station building and platforms, but had many more roadside halts in between these along the length of their line. I already had the former on the Gazetteer and have now updated the maps to include the latter between Tynan and Augher exclusive. Individual pages for each of these stopping places have also been created.
Weather intervened to prevent me from getting beyond Augher (I did make it to Augher and had a coffee and cake in the cafe in the former Augher station building). This will likely be a 2026 update for the remainder of the line unless an Indian summer hits Ireland in the next month or so.
I was in Northern Ireland last weekend for Heritage Open Days and one of the locations I visited was Toome Bridge for a guided history tour along the towpath of the Toome Canal.
One of the historical aspects of the town covered by the guide was the processing of kieselguhr in the town (known as diatomite in English). Diatomite is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. When nitroglycerin is absorbed in diatomite, it becomes more stable and can be transported. This was discovered by Alfred Nobel and patented as dynamite.
As I update the gazetteer for the railway stations visited last weekend (Derry Central Railway and the Belfast & Ballymena branch from Drumsough to Magherafelt), I noticed the presence on the historical 6 inch maps online at Toome of “Kieselguhr Works” north of the town.
Britain is currently commemorating 200 years of railways with a series of events having taken place this year, arising out of the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which will occur on 27th September.
However, this was not the first railway in Britain/globally as many mineral tramways predated this. In addition, there was at least one passenger service that predated the S&DR, which was the Swansea & Mumbles Railway in Wales, also known as the Oystermouth Tramway.
The line was built to primarily carry limestone from Mumbles to Swansea, however, a horse drawn passenger service commenced in March 1807.
The BBC has an article going into the details.
I have compiled a listing of events of an IH nature taking palce under the Open House banner in Dublin in October.
The Irish News reports on a proposed masterplan for Belfast City Airport, which apparently wants to have a railway station on the adjacent railway line to Bangor.
But not this one for some reason:
Personally, I can’t see Translink building a new station when Sydenham is already on the airport’s doorstep. If money were no object, there would be an argument to close Sydenham and build a new station further east as well as re-opening Victoria Park. However, the Cost Benefit Analysis of such a proposal would be negative.
Before you run to Googlemaps and tell me that Kells is inland and doesn’t have a lighthouse, you are correct.
What is located just outside of Kells is the Spire of Lloyd, a folly constructed in the late 18th century in the form of a doric column with a glazed balcony at its head, giving the appearance of a lighthouse.
Meath County Council have been running tours on Friday mornings over the last few months (ending this month) and as I was heading north last Friday to take part in Heritage Open Days in Northern Ireland (spent the full weekend there), I took the opportunity to pay a visit.
Due to a fire under the bridge carrying the LUAS Red line at George’s Dock, there are no trams running between Busaras and The Point, with the authorities advising that the George’s Dock bridge will need to be demolished and rebuilt.
As a result of this, there is a replacement bus in operation between the Point and Amiens Street, using former London Transport buses, complete with roundel logo.
This makes for a interesting juxtaposition of LT roundel and LUAS branding on buses in Dublin
