Posts of an historical nature
The BBC have an article about Sarah Doherty, a lady who campaigned for better working conditions for the (primarily) female workforce in Derry shirt factories in the late 19th/early 20th century.
A blue plaque in her honour was unveiled in Derry City on 22nd July.
The infamous Iron bridge in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, is the subject of an interesting Youtube video by well known Youtuber Tom Scott.
The RTE 100 buildings series features another industrial building – the Padmore and Barnes boot factory in Kilkenny.
The West Clare Railway closed at the end of January 1961.
The RTE website has an archive radio broadcast taken on the final day of operation (no TV in those days!), interviewing both passengers and staff.
The RTE online archive periodically includes historic news items of industrial heritage.
One such clip relates to the conservation of Tuam Mill, dating from 1981.
Located in northern Spain is Canfranc station, nowadays a 5 star hotel but opened in 1928 as an international border station between Spain and France, on a line running through the Somport railway tunnel. At the time of opening, it was the 2nd largest station in Europe (Leipzig Hauptbahnhof in Germany being the biggest).
No through trains ran beyond Canfranc as France uses the international standard gauge of 4 foot 8.5 inches whereas Spain has its own gauge of 5 foot 6 inches. The station acted as a transhipment point.
The station continued in this role until 1970 when a train derailment in France damaged a bridge on the route, which saw the cross border line closed. Spanish services continued from Zaragoza, as they do today, albeit now to a new station adjacent to the original.
Renovation of the spectacular station building started in 2020 with the hotel opening in January 2023. In addition to the station building, there is a restaurant in 2 carriages located on the site of the historic tracks of the original station (the modern station is off to one side on the site of former sidings).
I am writing this post from the hotel, having arrived off the train from Zaragoza at 19:50 on Sunday, after travelling by train from Barcelona. This involved a change of train at Zaragoza and again at Huesca. The reception staff seemed surprised at both my method of getting here and that I had travelled all the way from Ireland!
The modern day station is nothing spectacular from an architectural viewpoint, with three platforms and a siding for a grain silo. Elsewhere on the site of the former station, there are static displays of former track and two carriages.
I found this video on Youtube, which is a (UK) Channel 4 programme about railways in Ireland (primarily focuses on Northern Ireland but includes pieces about railways in the Republic of Ireland).
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 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.