The Cavan and Leitrim Railway again. ....

[rogerfarnworth]

In April 2023 we were able to drop in at Belturbet Railway Station on our way to Co. Donegal. The Station Museum was open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12noon to 5pm throughout the Summer season. A small group of enthusiast's have turned a derelict site into a good museum and rescued the majority of rail related buildings on the site.

The Cavan and Leitrim (C&L) Railway again – Belturbet Railway Station ….

Belturbet Railway Station viewed from the West. The main passenger facilities are on the left behind an unidentified C&L locomotive with its mixed goods/passenger train. The 3ft gauge C&L e…

rogerfarnworth.com

This is a follow-on from an earlier thread .....

The Cavan & Leitrim Railway

The Extension I have started work on a study of the Cavan and Leitrim Railway and hopefully the first post on the two main lines will be ready soon. While I was reading various sources on-line and Patrick Flanagan's book about the line, I became aware of a series of attempts to extend the...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Calthrop]

Most interesting, re the C & L's easternmost extremity -- in any case, I love anything to do with that system: feel that it must have been a delight. If only I'd experienced it first-hand; it closed when I was ten years old, and for the last few years of that period, I'd known of its existence -- but we lived in England, and my parents had no interest in anything Irish -- in fact, an outright aversion to same.

Oddly enough, a few weeks ago I came upon (by chance, and not in pursuance of anything railway-related) a curious reference to Belturbet. John Wesley passed through there in 1760, on his journeyings; and remarked of it, "a town in which there is neither Papist nor Presbyterian; but to supply that defect there are Sabbath-breakers, drunkards, and common swearers in abundance". One wonders whether Belturbet has a similar reputation today; or whether over the past two-and-a-half centuries or so, the place has reformed?

 

[rogerfarnworth]

Hello Calthrop.

Good to hear from you again. We saw no evidence of delinquency. The small town was a lovely gentle location! I guess the place must have reformed!

Best wishes

Roger

 

[rogerfarnworth]

1953. ... August of that year.

This is a note about a visit to Ireland by members of the Light Railway Transport League in June 1953 which included a visit to the Cavan and Leitrim.

The Modern Tramway – Part 4 – Touring Ireland’s Light Railways in June 1953.

The featured image above shows one of the last tram journeys in Belfast. This tram is travelling along Castle Place on 27th February 1954, heading for Ardoyne Depot. [7] In ‘The Modern Tramwa…

rogerfarnworth.com

 

[danm14]

One wonders whether Belturbet has a similar reputation today; or whether over the past two-and-a-half centuries or so, the place has reformed?

Belturbet is a quiet ghost town today - having previously been on the main road from Dublin to Fermanagh and South Donegal, it was bypassed in 2013, and lost the vast majority of its passing trade overnight and many local businesses closed as a result.

Interestingly the other event which had a significant impact on the town 40 years previously was also road related - in 1972, the bridge carrying the aforementioned road across the border (which runs along a river) was blown up, and was not reinstated until 1999. During this period a diversion of over 12 miles was needed to cross the river. As a significant amount of trade in Belturbet businesses at the time came from Northern Ireland, and a significant number of people in Belturbet were employed in the nearby quarries in Northern Ireland, the closure devastated the town economically for decades. Socially the town was also significantly impacted, as there had previously been close ties among those living on either side of the border in this area.

 

[Calthrop]

An unlucky town in recent decades, then. One might muse on whether Wesley would consider this, appropriate divine retribution for the inhabitants' mid-18th-century misbehaviour .