Glenagalt Halt

[Patrick Davey]

Work brings me to the stunning Kingdom of Kerry (I know, must be a hard life).

Not too much time for exploration on this trip but I've made it to the site of the remote Glenagalt Halt on the Tralee & Dingle Railway:

And here's the view in the opposite direction:

Am currently trying to imagine the sight and sounds of one of those legendary T&DR double headed cattle specials, crawling up the bank to this location.  

[Colonel]

Been round the Ring of Kerry three times and yet to see much due to (very) soft days. Better luck when we went to Dingle and with the road closely following the railway, you really can see how steep, wild and challenging the route must have been. Plus we have Patrick Whitehouse's fabulous photography of course.

[Patrick Davey]

1 hour ago, Colonel said:

Been round the Ring of Kerry three times and yet to see much due to (very) soft days. Better luck when we went to Dingle and with the road closely following the railway, you really can see how steep, wild and challenging the route must have been. Plus we have Patrick Whitehouse's fabulous photography of course.

Glenagalt is one of the many locations photographed by PW and other legendary photographers, across the whole Island - I have been looking at these photos since I was a youngster, thinking of them as mystical places in some far off fantasy land that I would never see, but now I have a job which makes visiting them almost routine.  Suits me!

[A. K.]

Whatever happened to the reopened section of the Tralee-Dingle Railway? I can't find anything about it, other than the No. 5 hasn't been operational since the late 00's/early 10's. It's such a pity it doesn't run anymore, I image views like the one in you photo would draw huge crowds!

[jhb171achill]

When reopened, it was operated by the local authority. Surprise surprise, despite ignoring warnings initially, they found out that if a fully waged crew, as opposed to volunteers, ran such an operation, it would lose money; and thus, predictably, it did.

Tralee town council were unprepared to put ratepayers' money towards it, so it foundered.

Several local enthusiasts did their best to try to persuade them to allow a voluntary group to take over. The council refused, despite publicly making encouraging noises. One particular councillor seemed to be the problem, as is so ioften the case, but local authorities do tend these days to be strapped for cash, and there is greater than ever scrutiny of what they spend their money on (or don't) with the overall public good in mind.

That bit is understandable. But refusing to let anyone else near it is not. It is irresponsible and criminal waste of the resources already invested in it. 

As of now, the loco is in bits, with a full rebuild required; you'd probably be looking at a bare minimum of half a million for that alone. The carriages are scrap, not that they were remotely appropriate in the first place. The track would need very major work, possibly replacement, at least in part. The river bridge may or may not still be serviceable. The "station" at the Blennerville end is atrocious, what there is of it; zero attempt at anything remotely appropriate to the line. 

My sources on the ground tell me that the local authority still haven't the remotest interest in funding it, and are equally uncooperative about allowing a volunteer group (if there was one) to take over.

Overall, a text-book case of why local authorities or commercially-driven interests (such as the crowd that run a biscuit tin on wheels along a very rough stretch of track at the Giant's Causeway) in Ireland should not be let near such projects. 

This brings to mind the sustainability of railway preservation projects on this island, a massive subject in itself for another day. Suffice to say, nowhere on this island can, does, or ever will, support a Severn Valley or Festiniog type operation. We are lucky we have the DCDR, likely to be the only operating 5'3" gauge line ever, and even they received a considerable subsidy from their local authority for many years (but were and are obviously volunteer-run).

Edited Sunday at 21:08 by jhb171achill