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The first railway in Donegal County, the 14-mile Finn Valley Railway was a 5 ft. 3 in. gauge line which ran from Strabane to Stranorlar and opened in 1863. The West Donegal Railway was an 18-mile 3 ft. 0 in. gauge line which ran from Stranorlar to Donegal, and opened 1889. In 1892 the two railways combined as the Donegal Railway Company and converted the 5 ft. 3 in. gauge section to 3 ft. 0 in. gauge. Various extensions were subsequently built and by 1906 the system was a total length of 105 miles. In 1906 the line was jointly purchased by the Northern Counties Committee of the Midland Railway (England) and the Great Northern Railway (Ireland). With the addition of further lines it eventually reached a system size of 111 route miles of 3 ft. 0 in. track on 1 January 1909. In the 1930s the County Donegal system was a pioneer of diesel traction, having introduced its first diesel railcars in 1930, a full four years before the Great Western Railway. It also had a number of petrol railcars. The system closed in 1959.
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| Map of County Donegal Railways in 1906 |
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| Preserved County Donegal Railways 2-6-4T No. 2 "Blanche" built by Nasmyth, Wilson & Co. in 1912. Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons |
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| County Donegal Railways Joint Committee logo |
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| County Donegal Railways Ford railcar No. 2 |
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