Industrial heritage news for 2025
The Irish Mirror is reporting that a fire has engulfed the signal cabin at the Connemara Railway at their restoration project at Maam Cross in Galway.
Update 16 December 2025: A GofundMe campaign has been opened to raise money for the restoration of the signal cabin.
RTE reports that plans for a greenway on the ‘Burma Road’ – i.e., the line from Claremorris to Collooney – are dead. Technically, the decision only applies to the bit in Sligo, but given that Irish Rail have ruled out anything but a licence for the section in Co. Sligo, Sligo County Council have determined that a greenway adjacent to the railway is not feasible.
industrialheritageireland.info would like to extend its congratulations to the Downpatrick Railway Society on receiving The King’s Award for Voluntary Service 2025.
RTE have a video clip about the successful restoration of an old platform crane by the W&SVR, which is now on display at their main station at Kilmeaden.
The crane was originally at Ferns station in Co. Wexford, where I took a photo of it in 2003:
It is hard to believe that it is 5 years since Brian J Goggin, chronicler of the canals and navigable waterways of Ireland, passed away.
His loss is noticeable in the absence of anyone stepping into his shoes as he delved into both online and offline resources to ferret out that last bit of detail about the canals and navigable waterways of Ireland that mainstream research overlooked.
RIP Brian – you are missed.
The BBC reports on an innovative bye product of the sewage treatment business undergoing trials in Blackburn in England.
United Utilities is extracting glucose from toilet paper passing through the treatment plant, which they advise could be used as biofuel and other materials.
They also advise that the glucose will not enter the food chain.
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.
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.
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
The Belfast Telegraph reports on the restoration of an in situ ‘isolation pillar’ which was part of the tram network in Belfast. These allowed engineers to isolate part of the network for maintenance whilst keeping the rest of the network running.
The box is located on Linenhall Street and has both the city coat of arms and “BTH” for “British Thompson Houston”, cast into it.