50th anniversaries of 1st - 3rd November

[jhb171achill]

Today (Saturday 1st) is the fiftieth anniversary of the last public trains on the Loughrea branch. While official closure date was Monday 3rd, since the line had no Sunday service for almost all of its life, the last trains ran on the previous Saturday (1st).

Also closed with effect from 3rd November 1975 were the ex-GNR Dromin Jct. to Ardee branch, the Claremorris - Collooney "Burma Road" and the Listowel-Ballingrane Junction section of the North Kerry (Listowel-Tralee would close the following year, along with Castleisland).

This period marked the last significant reduction of railway mileage here, though apart from the Loughrea branch the others were goods-only.

1975 also saw the end of cattle traffic - as I understand it, Ennis, Athenry and Loughrea were about the last places to ship any out. I recall seeing rows of cattle trucks that year lined up in Cork goods yard awaiting scrapping. They were all still grey. It also saw the last use of the "G" class, which still saw use on the Loughrea branch until the mid-summer, after which re-engined "C"s were used on this line, with an occasional appearance by a B141 or an "A" - though crews dreaded the latter on account of the state of the track.

Finally, 1st November 1975 saw the last official mixed trains, again on the Loughrea branch. While officially mixed to the end, in later months crews preferred to do an unofficial mid-day run with the branch loco to the junction and back, acting as a seperate goods train, to deal with the paltry amount of goods traffic, which had declined to 2 or 3 laden goods vans a day inwards. Virtually nothing was going out of Loughrea by goods train by that stage.

Barry carse recorded this working on one dull misty day. The loco was G616 and it had two empty H vans and a guard's van to the junction, and it brought back just two other laden ones. Meanwhile, the "mixed" train each way was just the passenger coach hauled by a "C".

The one time I travelled on the branch, it was the same; that was about two weeks before the closure. The trains was the single coach hauled by B209; I was disgusted! All that way - Connolly - Mullingar - Athlone - Atrtymon to see an oiul "C" class sitting in the branch platform instead of a "G": sure you can get any oul "C" to Bray or Howth any day, I thought. But that's what it was; and while technically a "mixed", there was actually no incoming toods traffic at all that day for Loughrea. One of very very few mixed trains I've ever been on, and the only one ever in Ireland. (The nearest other one to that, geographically, was on the Austrian narrow gauge Krimml - Zell-am-See line in 1979, when an incoming train stopped at Mittersill, reversed into the siding after doing its passenger stuff, and hitched on three bogie goods vans for the run home)....

So, this fine day I lament Gs, mixeds, Loughrea and cattle traffic. And steam, and buses with flying snails on them, and UTA crests on carriages, black'n'tan 141s, grey 121s, Bredin, laminate and steam-era wooden carriages, proper dining cars with steak dinners and dribbly teapots* , South African eight-coupled steam locos battling the Montague Pass, narrow gauge steam in Austria, main line steam in India, wood-burning 2.4.0 tender engines in Indonesia, and all manner of stuff. I lament the view of the Raford River near Loughrea from the train window as the sun set over it on a freezing afternoon; the endless level crossings seen from the train on the Navan-Kingscourt line, wandering round Albert Quay station in Cork watching fertiliser wagons being dealt with, seeing a GNR "UG" shunting at Lisburn, rain seeping through the roof on the Athenry - Claremorris line, the clatter of loose-coupled goods trains, watching a black'n'tan B145 shunting at Tuam, and I'm showing me age. Time to stop burbling.

From 1976, all was modern. 071s seemed to cap it all. Illogical it might be, but in all railway matters I hanker after the pre-1976 period, with little to nothing that was new after that being of much interest to me! Odd and ancient I may be - but I know i'm not the only one!

(* Actually, my local coffee shop, where I will be in an hour's time, does a good line in those...)