Westrail/WISRA

Grandeeod

Did they ever run a train to Loughrea or was it more a case of shunting movements in the Attymon area, before the move to Tuam?

kc56

Grandeeod wrote: »

Did they ever run a train to Loughrea or was it more a case of shunting movements in the Attymon area, before the move to Tuam?

In the 70's there used to be a connecting train from Attymon Junction to Loughrea. Don't know when it ceased.

ClovenHoof

Last mixed passenger train was in 76 I think.

The Loughea Branch was crazy in some ways. Facing the wrong direction for services to Dublin which a town like this should have had.

If CIE reversed the connection it would probably be still open. But that's CIE for you.

kc56

ClovenHoof wrote: »

Last mixed passenger train was in 76 I think.

The Loughea Branch was crazy in some ways. Facing the wrong direction for services to Dublin which a town like this should have had.

If CIE reversed the connection it would probably be still open. But that's CIE for you.

Trains ran until at least mid 1980. The branch line faced the Dublin direction. Look here

Grandeeod

Cheers lads. I know the history of the line when in actual operation. But I want to know if the preservation group ever ran a train to Loughrea?

whisky_galore

Had assumed they did, but can't find a reference anywhere, seems to be a big blank pre-Tuam.

As their stock was in Attymon, an unofficial jaunt wouldn't be beyond the bounds of possiblility, esp in those fast and loose days.

Losty Dublin

Some video footage of the Westrail stock transfer. There is some movement on the Loughrea branch though just how far down the line they get is anybody's guess. Certainly I've never heard of anything that got all the way down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poSxKc_yiow

Del.Monte

Alas poor Martin Hewitt not to mention Eddie Donnelly Nash. WISRA was doomed from the start due to a total lack of local interest. In all their time in Attymon they hadn't even one member in Loughrea. It was all the more surprising given how hard the locals had fought to keep the line open only a few years earlier.

Anyone interested should look for this book:
The baronial lines of the Midland Great Western Railway : the Loughrea & Attymon Light Railway, the Ballinrobe & Claremorris Light Railway by Padraig O'Cuimin (1972).

end of the road

when was the line lifted? and was there actually any reason given or just the usual?

Losty Dublin

end of the road wrote: »

when was the line lifted? and was there actually any reason given or just the usual?

Early 90s saw it being lifted and abandoned formally; 1994 I think was the actual year when it was all finalised. There was a few projects around the town that required the legal procedures to be followed through, most notably the M 6 which meets the old line at Dunsandle.