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 Tramway’ of August 1953, [1] there was a report of an expedition by members of the Light Railway Transport League in June 1953 which toured a number of Ireland’s Light Railways. [1: p150-155] The visits included:
CIE., Tralee and Dingle section, 3 ft. 0 in. Steam.
Irish Turf Board, Clonsast bog railway … 3 ft. 0 in. Steam & diesel.
In 1953, this represented all the remaining Irish narrow gauge railways and tramways, with the exception of the derelict Schull and Skibbereen and Ballycastle lines and certain industrial lines (Guinness Brewery, British Aluminium Company, several Irish Turf Board lines and a few others) The Lough Swilly and Tralee and Dingle railways were both to close in the summer of 1953.
The tour commenced in Belfast on Saturday, 6th June and the morning was spent on the Belfast Bangor section of UTA, which was served by 3-car diesel trains. In the afternoon, a tour of Belfast Corporation Tramways ran from the Mountpottinger Depot in an old tram (No. 340). It was noted that tramcars and track on the Belfast network were in a very poor state. Belfast had just purchased 100 surplus London buses which would hasten the closure of the tramway network.
A visit to the Hill of Howth Tramway consumed much of the next day.
On the Cavan and Leitrim, the tour party travelled behind 2-4-2T No. 12L. The train consisted “two open platform coaches and a sting of vans, some of which were detached and shunted at Mohill.” [1: p152] The description of the time on the Cavan & Leitrim continued: “At Ballinamore our coach was transferred to another, smaller train behind 4-4-0 tank locomotive No. 31, complete with cowcatcher for the roadside journey, to Arigna. This line is the last roadside steam tramway with passenger service in the whole of the British Isles, and is kept open by reason of the fact that it serves the Arigna coal mines. The speed is quite brisk, despite some really abrupt curves and switchback gradients, but the journey was cut short by an encounter with a road vehicle at Mahanagh (Shannon Crossing), through no fault of the train crew.” [1: p152]
After a short hiatus while a policeman from Drumshambo took everyone’s particulars the tour continued to Manorhamilton and then to Enniskillen and Fintona Junction where they enjoyed a short return journey on the newly reconditioned Fintona horse tram (G.N.R. No. 381), continuing later to Omagh and then Derry (Londonderry).
From Derry, the tour party travelled to the border behind 4-6-2T No 15. This loco was replaced by 4-6-2T No. 10 for the remainder of the outward journey to Buncrana. The article continues: “The return journey from Buncrana was run as a mixed train. At Pennyburn sheds were locomotives Nos. 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 – Nos. 5 and 6 are 4-8-4 tanks, the most powerful locomotives ever built for the Irish narrow gauge.” [1: p152]
The article reported that at the time of the visit, Derry had “four quite separate railway termini, each served by a different company and linked only by mixed gauge tracks laid along the quays and across the lower deck of the Craigavon Bridge. One railway, the 3 ft. gauge Londonderry and Lough Swilly, is to close down very shortly, and the special 3-coach passenger train provided on 9th June to take the L.R.T.L.-I.RR.S. party to Buncrana and back is likely to be the last; regular passenger service ceased in 1948.” [1: p152]
After a morning spent on the Lough Swilly, the party travelled to Strabane to explore parts of the Co. Donegal Railways system. They were taken from Strabane to Stranorlar in Railcar No. 19 and toured the company’s workshop. They noted what at the time was “probably the oldest surviving railcar in the British Isles, a small 8-seater built as an inspection car in 1906 and fitted latterly with a Ford engine for use in pass- enger service; it [was] still in working order, and … stored at Stranorlar together with the Directors’ Saloon, which [was] still used once per year for an annual inspection by representatives of the Joint Committee. The locomotive shed housed two locomotives in startling brick-red livery as [were] the coaches and railcars.” [1: p153]
From Stranorlar, Railcar No. 19 took the party non-stop through Barnesmore Gap to Donegal town, where it coupled with Railcar No. 10 and ran on to Killybegs. Returning to Donegal town the party transferred to a train of “Railbus No. 14, observation saloon No. 30 and trailer No. 1 for the last section to Ballyshannon, which ran fast to Rossnowlagh Friary halt and there picked up about 70 churchgoers from the Tuesday evening service at the Fransiscan Friary, some of whom were subsequently set down at their cottages along the line.” [1: p153]
Wednesday, 10th June started with a long cross-country journey to Ennis for a visit to the West Clare section. In 1952, the section had received 4 new railcars and a demonstration run between Ennis and Kilkee was provided for the tour group.
The following day saw the group travelling on the Tralee and Dingle Railway. By this date only monthly trains timed for the Dingle Fair were timetabled. The visit was on a Thursday and a special train was provided. 2-6-0T No. 8 took charge of two bogie vans fitted with new wooden benches and a few from the station platforms. The journey to Dingle took more than three hours and was followed by a return journey which also lasted longer than three hours and included a marvellous view of the sun setting over Tralee Bay.
Other visits followed before the tour returned to Dublin. None of which quite measured up to their experiences on the Tralee and Dingle!
Associated news carried by The Modern Tramway in the same issue of the journal included:
The end of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly
“The Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway, a light railway, which together with the Burtonport Extension, was once Ireland’s largest narrow gauge railway (99 miles of route) closed finally on 1st August. At its fullest extent, the line once extended from Londonderry to Burtonport with a long branch to Cardonagh. The Company, unlike its railcar-minded neighbour, the County Donegal Railway, decided that its future lay on the roads, and in 1929 began to operate buses, closing the railway between Buncrana and Carndonagh six years later. The Gweedore Burtonport section was closed on 3rd June, 1940 and the Letterkenny-Gweedore section in 1949. Occasional passenger trains during the holiday season, to relieve double-deck buses, ran to Buncrana until August, 1951.” [1: p159]
Belfast
“The General Manager stated recently that in conformity with the policy of abandoning tramcar operation at the earliest possible date, tramway repairs and maintenance have been reduced to the minimum consistent with safety. The Queen’s Road tramway will not be replaced by trolleybuses but by motorbuses as the movement of large pieces of machinery to and from the shipyard is inconvenienced by overhead wires (in the past the tramway wires have occasionally been temporarily removed to allow “out-of-gauge” loads to pass along this way). During June and July the following tramcars were withdrawn and scrapped: [300, 301, 320, 337, 338, 340, 341, 369, 392, 394, 400, 413, 415, 419, 428].” [1: 159-160]
Late News from Ireland
“Two steam-worked light railways visited during the Irish Tour have just been finally closed. On the Tralee and Dingle Railway, the last train ran on Wednesday 22nd July, to collect wagons from Dingle station yard. On the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway, the last goods train was due to run on 10th August.” [1: p160]
At the end of a fortnight’s holiday in Co. Donegal my wife and I had 3 nights staying close to Dublin. We chose to stay in Howth as it was at the Northern end of the DART, but perhaps also because of its history and particularly for the Hill of Howth Tramway, or to give it it’s formal title, “The Sutton and Howth Electric Tramway.” The tramway should not be confused with the Clontaff and Hill of Howth Tramroad.
The Tramway served Howth Head, near Dublin. The termini were at Sutton railway station, by the entrance to the peninsula, and Howth railway station by the village and harbour of Howth.
The tramway operated from 17th June 1901 to 31st May 1959 and was run by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) (GNR(I)), which viewed it as a way to bring more customers to its railway stations at Sutton and Howth. The tramway replaced a horse bus service, which had run since 1867. [1][2]
When it opened, “the Hill of Howth Tramway had eight trams, open-top 67-seaters built by Brush of Loughborough. … Traction current at 550 volts dc was drawn from the overhead wires by conventional trolleypoles. … In 1902, two further trams … were obtained. Nos. 9 and 10 were 73 seaters built by Milnes, the firm which also supplied Dublin’s first electric trams in 1896. There were 41 seats upstairs and 32 inside seats.” [9]
“The tramway also had a freight and engineering car, No. 11, built in 1903. This … had a cab at each end, with a wagon body between. No. 11 also had a maintenance tower and at least in its later years was fitted with a telephone which could be connected into the wires along the line.” [9]
“Around 1918, the original crimson lake and ivory livery gave way to varnished grained teak. When the colours changed again around 1930 to blue and cream, Nos. 9 and 10, being used so seldom, remained in teak. Reasons for their lack of use included [an] awkward seating layout and a tendency to derail because the motors were outside the wheelbase. Furthermore, cross springs were not fitted between the bogies: when these were added in the fifties, their performance improved. By then these two cars were in constant demand and the invariable choice of the many enthusiast groups visiting the line in its twilight years.” [9]
“No. 9 was the last tram to run in public service on the Hill of Howth on 31st May 1959, and thus the last to operate anywhere in Ireland. Following the closure, No. 10 was sent to Britain’s National Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire, while No. 2 went to California and No. 4 to Belfast. Due to vandalism and apathy, No. 9 was the only survivor of three cars set aside for inclusion in a future museum” [9] at the National Transport Museum at Howth Desmesne.
“On 1 October 1958, Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) took over GNR(I)’s operations in the Republic of Ireland, including the Howth Tram. [7: p32] A year later, the tramway was closed down. It was initially replaced by two CIÉ bus routes – numbers 87 (Sutton to Ceanchor Road) and 88 (Howth to Windgate Road). [8] Two routes were necessary, as several narrow hill curves were not passable by the buses used. Eventually, sections of the disused tram route between the Baily post office and the Summit were expanded to form an extension of Carrickbrack Road; this enabled a single bus route (number 88) to be used.” [1]
The area was then served by the 31, 31a and 31b bus routes, which operated from Abbey Street in the city centre. In winter, icy roads on the hill occasionally cause the bus service to be suspended, unlike the tram, which ran in all weather conditions. A public footpath now follows the tram route between Howth station and the Summit.
It is important not to confuse the Hill of Howth Tramway with the Clontarf and Hill of Howth Tramroad, a completely different company which ran trams from Dublin to Howth.
The Clontarf and Hill of Howth Tramroad Company (C&HoHT) “operated a tram service from central Dublin via Dollymount in Clontarf to Howth Harbour in the Dublin area of Ireland from 1900 to 1941. Formed in the 1880s, it was a separate entity from the other Dublin tramways, notably the Dublin United Tramways Company (DUTC), but worked closely with the latter, who owned the line as far as Dollymount, for most of its operating existence.” [5]
A horse-drawn or steam tram service for the Howth area was first proposed in 1883, by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) (GNR), to bring more passengers to Howth and/or Sutton railway stations. The Clontarf and Hill of Howth Tramroad Company (C&HofHT) raised the idea of a circular line around Howth Hill. “Neither idea progressed, not least because the slopes of the hill were too steep to be safe for horses, or practical for steam power, though a line may have been considered using a viaduct over Balscadden Bay, just beyond Howth village, to keep gradients within the range of steam propulsion.” [5]
In 1890, the C&HofHT sought an Order in Council to allow it to build a tram line from Howth Harbour to Dublin’s fish market. It was intended that the line should have “a gauge of 3 feet, with lines running from Mary’s Lane past Halston Street to Capel Street, and then along Parnell Street and Summerhill, through Ballybough, Fairview, Killester and Raheny, then along the coast through the fields of Kilbarrack to Sutton and Howth. While this matter did not proceed, the company developed two new proposals after the DUTC received permission to electrify its lines. The proposed lines, at a gauge of 5 feet 3 inches, were from the DUTC’s terminus in the Clontarf area, via the hamlet of Raheny-on-the-Strand and Sutton, to Howth Harbour, and from the Summit on Howth Hill down past Howth Station and the Howth Estate to the gates of Claremont. The GNR made a two-part counter proposal, seeking to electrify their railway line from Amiens Street Station to either Sutton or Howth, and to provide a circular tram line, with connections at Sutton Cross and Howth, and with the trams able to move all the way to Dublin’s centre. The C&HofHT added a third element to their proposal, for a tram line from Sutton Cross to the Summit, and the GNR then objected to the whole package, and won. The GNR then received permission for its proposed circular line, which became the Hill of Howth Tramway, and dropped the idea of electrification from the peninsula to Amiens St., and so of trams through-running around Howth and to the city centre.”
The C&HofHT eventually received “permission for a line from the DUTC’s depot at what had become Dollymount in Clontarf to Howth Harbour, and this was enshrined in a Private Local Act of 1898, The Clontarf and Hill of Howth Tramroad Bill, 61 & 62 Victoria I, cap. clxxxii. This Act had its Second Reading on 3 March, and on 18 July was the subject of debate about the possible insertion of a clause requiring the purchase of rolling stock from England, the promoters having expressed a preference for buying from the DUTC, or failing that, from the United States. The bill was returned to the House of Lords on 26 July, and later completed its passage.” [5][6]
Construction costs ultimately came to £71,624. Much of the work was “straightforward, allowing for the challenges of building at the water’s edge, but there were difficulties with Lord Ardilaun, the Guinness heir, whose estate of St. Anne’s ran to the coast where the line was to be laid. At the time, there was no coastal road, and Lord Ardilaun sought multiple conditions in return for removing objections to the project. He received most of what he sought, including the provision that the trams would not stop along the margin of his property, and line construction proceeded. The line opened on 26 July 1900.” [5]
The company purchased twelve large tram cars (larger than those of the DUTC) “for its operations, each seating 74 passengers, 29 inside and 45 on the upper deck. The enclosed lower deck had a driver’s cab, and separate areas for each of First, Second and Third Class. The journey from Nelson’s Pillar to Howth took 45 minutes, and the price for much of the operating period was 2 shillings and 6 pence.” [5]
“During the 1930s, the line became unprofitable, and when the GNR put forward a proposal to run a competing bus service on the Howth Road, and launch a bus to Malahide, the Board of the C&HofHT offered to end their service if the GNR agreed not to run a bus to Malahide. The line ceased operation on 29th March 1941, with the last tram to Howth, No. 294, departing Nelson’s Pillar at 11.45 pm, driven by Dick Ward. The company was wound-up on 1st July 1941, and the remaining tram cars were transferred to the DUTC’s Dalkey route, where they served until that line closed in 1949.” [5]
As we have noted already the Hill of Howth Tramway was more correctly called the ‘Sutton and Howth Electric Tramway‘. It was GNR(I) owned but made little or no profit for the Company. When Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) took over GNR(I)’s operations in the Republic of Ireland, it reviewed all of the lines (including this tramway) over which it took control and the Howth Tram was replaced by buses within 8 months. It’s removal opened the way for the construction of a housing estate over a length of the route from Howth to the Summit Station. As we will see, this makes it difficult to be precise about the course of the line over that length. Much of the rest of the line can be followed relatively easily, either on foot or in a car.
The Routeof the Hill of Howth Tramway
The Ordnance Survey of Ireland (OSi) have relatively recently released both a 6″ and a 25″ national survey from the early 20th century. We will follow the route of the tramway as shown on the 25″ beginning at Howth and finishing at Sutton.
The photograph above shows Tram No. 3 about to leave Howth Station for Sutton via Summit Halt. This image is embedded here from David Bradley’s webpages with his kind permission. [13]
The Summit was the usual tourist stop and was accessed either from Howth or from Sutton. Having reached the Summit from Howth, we now start the journey down to Sutton.
The photograph above shows a tram running parallel to Station Road with Sutton Cross 200 yards to the right and Sutton Station 25 yards to the left on the opposite side of the road. This photo is embedded here from David Bradley’s webpageswith his kind permission. [29]
As we have noted already the Hill of Howth Tramway was GNR(I) owned but made little or no profit for the Company. When the nationalised compnay, Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) took over GNR(I)’s operations in the Republic of Ireland on 1st October 1958, it reviewed all of the lines (including this tramway) over which it took control and the Howth Tram was replaced by buses within 8 months!
London: Hansard, vol. 62, c. 1291 – 26 July 1898, House of Lords Sitting, Private Bill Business, “Returned from the Commons agreed to, with Amendments, ‘Clontarf and Hill of Howth Tramroad Bill'”
Michael Corcoran; Through Streets Broad and Narrow — Dublin’s Trams; The Sir John T. Gilbert Commemorative Lecture, Dublin City Public Libraries, 2008.
Hill Of Howth Tramway Closure; in Irish Railfans’ News. Railway Preservation Society of Ireland. Volume 5 No. 3; 6th July 1959.
The featured image above shows Fintona Railway Station from Main Street, Fintona in June 1957, (c) Wilson Adams. The image is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license (CC BY-SA 2.0). [7]
The Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway [2] opened the railway station in Fintona on 5th June 1853. A short time after the Londonderry to Enniskillen Railway completed its mainline to Enniskillen (in 1854 [2]). mainline services were withdrawn from Fintona (in 1856 [1]), and the link to Fintona became a branch from the mainline at Fintona Junction railway station. [3] Most passenger services on this branch line were then provided by a horse-drawn tram car. [1] Since the line’s closure, the tram has been preserved at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Cultra, County Down. [2]
Wikipedia notes that the branch line to Fintona was taken over by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1883 when it took control of the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway. [1]
The branch-line and the station at Fintona were closed on 1 October 1957. [1] The whole area comprising the Fintona Train station is now a car park and public toilet. [4]
As we have noted, “Passenger services on the half mile Fintona branch were worked by horse traction throughout the 104 years of its existence up to closure in 1957.” [4]
Timetables were worked out on what a horse could reasonably be expected to achieve. This meant that rail authorities “allowed 10 minutes for the slightly downhill trip to Fintona, and 15 minutes for the return working. Seven trips per day were scheduled in summer 1951.” [5]
The tramcar which was used for the majority of the life of the service, “entered service in 1883, had longitudinal seating, back to back on the upper deck and with seats facing each other on the lower deck. Originally the latter was divided into 1st and 2nd class, and the top deck was 3rd class. The car is estimated to have covered 125,000 miles in its ambulation’s on the branch.” [5]
“Goods wagons for Fintona were worked by a steam engine which, in later years at least, made a return trip in the morning before passenger services started.” [5]
The Line between Fintona and Fintona Junction
The first image below shows the route of the line on an extract from the GSGS maps of 1941-1943 produced by the British War Office at a scale of 1″ to 1 mile. [6] The second picture is a matching 21st century satellite image which shows how little of both the mainline and the branch remain in the 21st century.
Fintona Junction
The next image below shows the approach road to what was Fintona Junction Railway Station from the B46. Immediately to the right of this road was a level-crossing which took the mainline across the B46. The Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway ran under the location of the bungalow on the right, parallel to the station approach road.
The access road shown above now only provides access to a farm. At one time it was the public access to the junction station.
The line
AS we have already noted, the journey from Fintona Junction to Fintona Railway Station was timetabled as just a 10 minute journey. The tram was usually waiting for connections at Fintona Junction as in the first picture below.
In the picture above the line can be seen to be in a shallow cutting soon after leaving the railway station. As can be seen below, this was a very shallow and short cutting.
The Return Journey to Fintona Junction
Just a few photographs now which show the return journey to Fintona Junction.
And finally. …
After closure of the line, Fintona’s tram was preserved and now sits in Ulster Transport Museum, Cultra.