Tralee and Dingle Light Railway

The Tralee and Dingle Light Railway and Tramway was a 32 mi (51 km), 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railway running between Tralee and Dingle, with a 6.2 mi (10.0 km) branch from Castlegregory Junction to Castlegregory, in County Kerry on the west coast of Ireland. It operated between 1891 and 1953, the Castlegregory branch closed shortly prior the outbreak of the Second World War. It was one of the most westerly railway lines in Europe, but the terminus of the Valentia Harbour branch at 10.277785° was further west.

The railway was built as cheaply as possible, largely following adjacent roads, resulting in some very tight curves and severe gradients. The railway opened on 31 March 1891, but from the start income failed to cover operating expenses. In March 1893 the Board of Trade held an inquiry into poor management and operating practices on the railway; nevertheless a fatal accident (involving a runaway train) took place at Curraduff in May of the same year. The railway continued to require public subsidies from local ratepayers, which were able to be reduced in 1898 after a grant from the Treasury (although the line continued to require subsidies throughout its existence). In 1907 a further grant of £23,000 (just over €2 Million in 2007/8 values) was made to allow the scene of the accident at Curraduff to be bypassed and other improvements made.

Operations on the railway were severely disrupted between 1921 and 1923. The line was closed in 1921 on the orders of the British Army (during the struggle for independence prior to the creation of the Irish Free State). Services were also suspended at times (and infrastructure damaged) during the Irish Civil War of 1922–23. The railway was taken over by the Great Southern Railways on 1 January 1925 – a train had a collision with a car on a level crossing on the first day of GSR ownership.

The line was 31 miles long, broken into approximately 10-mile sections at Castlegregory Junction and Annascaul, where the locomotives would take water if required, and where trains could pass each other.

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