Tralee to Fenit Railway

The_Wanderer

After reading the "Tralee to Castleisland, Dingle and Fenit" article by John O'Meara in the Irish Railway Records Society Journal No. 179, October 2012, it struck me that having lived in the County of Kerry for a 12 year period, I had never explored the Fenit Branch. So as I was visiting the Kingdom this weekend I decide to put right that wrong.

The Fenit Branch was an 8 mile line from Tralee to the small village of Fenit located on the edge of Tralee Bay.

The railway line opened on the 5th July 1887 by the Great Southern and Western Railway. Passenger services ceased by the 31st December 1934 but the branch remained open for Freight Traffic and ah-hoc Summer Seaside Specials until the late 1970's.

On the 2nd June 1978 CIE withdrew the freight service on the line and the railway line fell into disuse. An attempt was made in the 1980's by the Great Southern Railway Preservation Society to preserve the railway line but sadly these efforts did not come to fruition and an alternative scheme to rebuild part of the Tralee and Dingle occurred.

Amazingly, like a number of railway lines in the country the Fenit Branch has never been officially closed by CIE / IE and is still mentioned in the current IE Working Timetable.

The track is still intact from North Kerry Junction to Fenit but has been breached in a couple of locations. At Fenit Station itself the track is buried under the tarmac and gravel of the car park which now stands on the site. Between North Kerry Jct. and Tralee the track was only lifted in the past 12 months as the first part of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway Project.

Please click on http://smu.gs/QRsBGg to view photos of the current state of the disused railway.

Hungerford

The_Wanderer wrote: »

Between North Kerry Jct. and Tralee the track was only lifted in the past 12 months as the first part of the Tralee to Fenit Greenway Project.

Who did that? It's still listed as an operational railroad in the IÉ network statement?

gobnaitolunacy

Kerry Co Council are doing the trail, you'd need a machete to 'operate' over it the way it is/was. I don't think it was ever formally abandoned though.

Oregano_State

The original intention was as a freight conduit to and from Fenit harbour, the lines running to the end of the pier.
It is unfortunate that the three western commercial ports; Galway, Foynes and Fenit, no longer have a rail head.

corktina

good post OP.

I guess you are the kind of guy who likes to roam around, never in one place, you roam from town to town

stevielenihan

in fact work had commenced a few weeks ago on the first section of the green way. Anybody know if its still under way or when it be complete?

ongarboy

Any of you interested in the old Tralee railway tracks around Rock Street, there is some classic footage of Tralee from 1983 on Youtube capturing it before the tracks were taken up. Over 100 minutes in total of footage of Tralee. My family and friends have been glued to Youtube all weekend reminiscing old shops, buildings and people long since gone!

From about 7m30s is the track footage. Separately, at 17m50s there is a quick view of an old railway building at Strand Street/Spa Road junction that was part of the Tralee to Dingle line (I think). I vaguely remember the building from my 80s childhood before it was demolished. The tracks of that line ran behind our house!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jatrH9A0Iy0

ClovenHoof

What kind of freight would have been carried on this line in the 1970s? Looks like all countryside with no towns?

Losty Dublin

ClovenHoof wrote: »

What kind of freight would have been carried on this line in the 1970s? Looks like all countryside with no towns?

AFAIK Fish, molasses, grain and the usual other odds and ends, which in railway terms was called Sundries. I believe that they sent out some machinery as well but I'll need to check that one out for you.

MickeyShtyles

Shtuff for Liebherr in Killarney woulda been sent out that way.