Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway
| Industry | railway |
|---|---|
| Fate | taken over |
| Successor | Great Northern Railway |
| Founded | 1855 |
| Defunct | 1876 |
| Headquarters | Portadown, Ireland |
|
Area served
|
County Armagh, County Tyrone |
The Portadown, Dungannon and Omagh Junction Railway (PD&O) was an Irish gauge (5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)) railway in County Armagh and County Tyrone, Ulster, Ireland (now Northern Ireland).
Building of the PD&O line started from Portadown in 1855 and reached Dungannon in 1858. This first section of line opened with temporary termini at both Portadown and Dungannon. At Dungannon the delay was in order to build a half-mile tunnel because Viscount Northland objected to smoky locomotives traversing his land. In due course the PD&O succeeded in gaining access to the Ulster Railway's Portadown station and in 1861 opened for traffic not only Dungannon Tunnel but also the remainder of the route to Omagh, where it formed a junction with the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway. In so doing it completed the railway route between Portadown and Derry that came to be informally known as the "Derry Road".
Besides Dungannon Tunnel, the PD&O's most significant engineering features were an iron lattice viaduct over the River Blackwater and the fact that west of Pomeroy the line reached a summit of 561 feet (171 metres), the highest elevation of any Irish gauge railway in Ireland.
The contractor to build the PD&O was William Dargan, who in 1860 sold a 999-year lease of the line to the Ulster Railway. In 1876 the Ulster merged with the Irish North Western Railway and the Northern Railway of Ireland to form the Great Northern Railway (GNR).
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