West Clare Railway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Clare Railway (WCR) operated in County Clare, Ireland between 1887 and 1961. This 3 ft narrow gauge route ran from the county town of Ennis, via numerous stopping-points along the West Clare coast to two termini, at Kilrush and Kilkee (the routes diverging at Moyasta Junction). The system was the last operating narrow gauge passenger system in Ireland and connected with the mainline rail system at Ennis, where a station still stands today for bus and train services to Limerick. Intermediate stops included Ennistymon, Lahinch and Miltown-Malbay.

The system was opened in two stages with the 27-mile section between Ennis and Miltown-Malbay being built first. The first sod was cut on 26th January 1885 at Miltown-Malbay by Charles Stewart Parnell, M.P., although actual work on the line had begun in November 1884. The line was opened on 2 July 1887. The South Clare Railway built the extension to Kilkee with a branch to Kilrush and Cappagh Pier from Moyasta, with work starting on the extension in October 1890 and opening on 11 May 1892. The extension was worked by the West Clare Railway and was initially dogged by poor service and time keeping, but this later improved, with diesel services arriving in the 1950s under the management of CIÉ. Despite the dieselisation of passenger services in 1952 and freight in 1953 the system was still closed. On 27 September 1960, CIÉ gave notice of its intending closure with effect from 1 February 1961. CIÉ said that the West Clare was losing £23,000 per year, despite considerable traffic handled. In December it was announced that the line would close completely on 1 January 1961. Eventually the line closed on 31st January 1961 with CIÉ starting work on dismantling the line the day after closure on 1 February 1961.

The West Clare Railway was the topic of Percy French's song "Are Ye Right There Michael, are ye right?", deriding the poor time keeping and poor track quality of the time. Though amusing, some complained that this jesting nevertheless did little to further the cause for keeping the line open.

Efforts were made by a preservation society to recreate part of the original route. This group succeeded in acquiring Moyasta station, and 5 km (3 miles) of track bed.