Geograph - photograph every grid square

A series of photographs showing the Attymon Jct – Loughrea railway during its last years of operation.
The line ran south for nine miles through Co Galway countryside from the rural Attymon Jct (between Ballinasloe and Athenry) on the Dublin – Galway line to the town of Loughrea. It opened in 1890 and closed to passengers in November 1975 but continued for a short time to operate sugar beet trains.
There was an intermediate station at Dunsandle (four miles from Attymon) and six level crossings. It operated as a single section, using an electric train staff, with a signal cabin at Attymon and a ground frame at Loughrea.
There were four trains daily on weekdays, some of which were mixed (passenger and goods in one train). Motive power was a 130hp Deutz G-class locomotive hauling a single coach equipped with a storage heater. When the Deutz was not available “A” or “B201” classes substituted.
Description compiled from personal notes, “Irish Railways Today” (Transport Research Associates, Dublin 1967) and “Johnson’s Atlas and Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland” (Midland Publishing, Earl Shilton 1997).
Acknowledgements also JMA, RW, BC and Mrs Conlon who ran the best B&B in Loughrea.