FIVE FOOT THREE
No.9
Summer 1970

Editor: A. Donaldson

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CONTENTS

ATHENRY – A RAILWAY CROSSROADS  -  R.M. Arnold

(A one-time paradise for timers)

Athenry "Ford of the Kings" has always been, I expect, as it is today, an insignificant place well in the centre of the second largest county in Ireland, On the old Midland Great Western, it was just a few hundred yards further from Broadstone than is Great Victoria Street from Amiens Street. In fact it is exactly thirteen miles from Galway which is 129 miles from Westland Row where all Midland trains from Dublin start nowadays.

The Down platform bears the legend "Athenry & Ennis Junction" and the Up "Athenry & Tuam Junction". Such might well be my text except that it is my intention to give you some Midland main line running as well. In April 1952 I visited this area for the first time and spent a full week, mainly centred on Tuam. In certain respects this is the story of that week and of the more interesting aspects of the many visits which followed, once I was caught up in its fascination.

Fortunately this is not a historical paper as the building of those two offshoots (the southern one to Ennis in particular) is one of the most complicated I know. The Midland had reached Galway in 1851 and almost immediately considered a branch to Tuam, but when it was opened in 1860 from Athenry it was as a separate company, though worked by the MGWR. In 1872 it was leased to the Waterford & Limerick and in 1893 this Tuam branch was, with the Athenry - Limerick section, amalgamated with the Waterford & Limerick. The following year the line began to extended north through Claremorris to Collooney but we are not concerned here with that part which was to complete the 139 miles of the longest branch of the Waterford Limerick & Western.

When I knew it the Tuam branch train made two runs in the day to Galway, which apparently was the service when it opened. During the intermediary period this was for the most part doubled and when one remembers that there were also four Dublin trains per day out of Galway traffic on the local Athenry - Galway section must have been brisk enough. I usually stayed in Tuam and it was quite an achievement (Western hotels being what they are) to catch the 7:45 a.m. This returned from Galway at 11:55 a.m. and the afternoon train out of Tuam was 3:10 p.m. Leaving Galway again at 6:40 p.m. this train sat 29 minutes at Athenry (even Preston seems slick with the average station work in these parts) and was usually mixed thence to Tuam.

I never knew the exact allocation of Tuam shed but there were always a few small 0-6-0s about, both Midland and Southern. In a way this was puzzling as the WTT showed only one goods (to Limerick and back) originating at Tuam as well, of course, as the Galway passenger. However, during the beet season Tuam became very active. There were many fair specials and Tuam, rather than Galway, was the senior shed of the area. Old Dick Cole, very quiet spoken, tall and angular, was Tuam’s senior driver and, week in week out, always worked the morning passenger. He was courtesy itself on my first visit, always taking me on the footplate and indeed well over half of my runs over this branch, with various drivers, were not in the train, a useful thing if I hadn’t had a ticket (though I always had) for there was a searching ticket check at the one intermediate station on the branch, Ballyglunin. If any of you have seen that excellent film "The Quiet Man" you will have seen No.59 at Ballyglunin (disguised as somewhere else) and I never saw Cole with any other engine.

A different man seemed to work the afternoon train every day, all quite good except Paddy Ryan who can only be described as outstanding. At that time there were only two unrebuilt "52" class 4-4-0s in addition to No.59 and one of those was No.1 which a friendly foreman at Limerick had had pulled out of the shed there some time previously. I had always a great hankering to get a run with this engine, never seen in steam, and I expect I rather tortured the various Tuam drivers as to whether she ever came to work the branch. That is one of the things I remember about Ryan, apart from his fast running, that about eighteen months after I had been talking about No.1 he came over to me at Athenry, as I was looking out of the afternoon mail for Dublin, and said, "That engine you were talking about, No.1, she was here for a few days recently."

The WLWR train proper, all that remained of the service by 1952, was the 8 a.m. ex Sligo, returning from Limerick at 3:35 p.m. This covered the Tuam section also, of course, invariably with a larger engine and a lighter load. Yet, as the example given shows, its running was always inferior. Of course, with corridor stock and a not too badly pressed travelling ticket checker, there was no need to linger at Ballyglunin so running could be more relaxed, especially as this train connected with absolutely nothing at Athenry whereas all No.59’s trains either took or gave connections.

The other passenger working (Galway drivers) was the 8:50 a.m. from Galway to Limerick returning at 12:45 p.m. This may, but I think it unlikely, be the survival of the right of the Midland to run over the WLR between Athenry and Limerick and it involved turning the engine at Athenry in each direction, for which 15 minutes were allowed. At the turn of the century W&L tanks of both 4-4-2 and 0-4-4 types were used in the Tuam area (I did manage a run with one survivor, No.295, from Limerick to Limerick Junction) and no doubt it would have suited well to have worked out of Galway bunk first and thence to Limerick.

Probably the line from Athenry to Ennis would never have been completed but for the expectations of the development of Galway as a great transatlantic port with connections south to Limerick and Cork and it is just as unsuited to fast running with its light switchback construction as the Tuam section appears to be ideally suited.

From Limerick to Athenry the vast majority of the gradients are 1/100 but too short and undulating to be difficult for a passenger train. One of the few instances where there is a continuous grade for as much as a mile is after Cratloe where it is down at 1/100 from post 9 to 10½ and again from post 19 to 20½. The latter is through Ardsollus station where all ordinary passenger trains stop. At post 45 there is a sharp dip down and then up again at 1/70 and there is ½ mile up after Ardrahan at the same grade. After Athenry the track takes on a more mainline appearance and there is a steady climb of five miles to post 65 begun at 1/70 but mostly rather easier than 1/100 with a short downward dip at post 62 at 1/200. After Ballyglunin there is a hump at post 70½ at 1/120 after which it is easy to Tuam.

During my first visit, with unlimited travel for the Mullingar - Sligo - Athenry triangle, the Athenry - Ennis section remained a tantalising mystery, difficult to fit in without time wasting even if my ticket had been valid. One day I did remain in the Athenry area just to see what would work the Limerick train and it turned out to be a very smart looking No.55 (rebuilt). I envisaged this engine doing running of at least the quality of her original sister on what seemed a more important train. A year or two later I began to travel this section quite often - it was a very handy turn to leave Limerick at 12:45 p.m. and be in Athenry in plenty of time to catch the mail up to Dublin, always an interesting train. By this time, however, No.55 had been scrapped and I found the actual running much less exciting (as the tables show) than I had hoped.

You will note, however, the run with old W&L 2-4-0 No.291. This engine had appeared mysteriously some time previously for shunting Limerick passenger yard and it certainly never occurred to me that there was the slightest chance of getting a run with her, but CIÉ was like that; anything could happen. These engines were built for the W&L main line but I have a note of interest about No.291 that she was involved in an accident with No.1 (of all engines) at Athenry on 25^th November 1933. No.1 had the 5:20 p.m. Tuam to Limerick and ran into the 5:30 p.m. Galway to Dublin train which was, apparently, forced back onto No.291 on the 3:15 p.m. Limerick to Tuam. Both engines suffered some buffer and frame damage.

Before moving away to Midland matters, I should like to mention that both the Athenry offshoots saw steam passenger workings later than the majority of CIÉ and some of you may have records of this. The Tuam branch train was one of the last to be dieselised and serious flooding at Ballycar (a feature of the other line) brought steam engines onto the line during the 1960/1 winter, and even as late as March 1961 No.301 worked on this line where in proper steam days she can scarcely ever have been seen.

And so we pass to the kind of experience which resulted from using the main line at Athenry. The pattern of services in 1952 was not greatly different from that of a century ago or, indeed, today. The day mail left Westland Row at 8:40 a.m. and returned from Galway at 3:30 p.m. Night mails left both ends of the line shortly after 8 p.m. and the other passenger working left Galway at 8:05 a.m. returning from Dublin at 3:35 p.m. The runs I had in 1952 on the latter, in particular, were a useful experience, as the arrival of diesel railcars almost immediately afterwards meant that in future years, and then not for long, only the mails were steam.

In 1880 the fastest train was, curiously enough, the night mail which left Dublin at 7:30 p.m. and took five hours. Nine years later pride of place had passed to the 7:40 a.m. Limited Mail with a commendable three hours fifty minute timing for which one paid extra. The next accelerations were in 1902, some time after both the GS&WR and GNR had made big improvements. But the Midland had now more power than either of their rivals with the largest engines in Ireland and a very short lived timing of three hours ten minutes makes really startling comparison with 4½ hours of the 1952 period and even with 3½ hours today.

However, I must immediately correct any impression that the top engines of 1952 wouldn’t have been able for that kind of thing. You can see from the tables that Nestor reached Athlone from Galway in 62’50". Allowing for one stop for water after, his work forward to Dublin was equal to a time of under 160 minutes from Galway. Insert reasonable stops at, say, Athenry, Ballinasloe, Athlone and Mullingar and the three hour ten minute timing could be achieved or even cut. But that was just the point. Stops on the Midland were of prestigious extent; fifteen minutes at Mullingar, for example, on the 3:30 p.m. ex Galway. Loads too must regularly treble that train of 1902 and indeed the afternoon mail of 1952 was consistently the heaviest passenger train in Ireland, from Athlone forward.

We are not concerned here with loads which include the Mayo portion and just as well, for the grades west of Athlone were quite severe. From milepost 82 for over 18 miles the only favourable section is a four mile stretch after Carrowduff which is partly at 1/150, a welcome relief for the famous Woodlawn bank beyond. This, apart from the level mile at post 94 is 8½ miles long, mostly at 1/160. After Woodlawn station the line falls in steps to the sea at Galway, rather less severe as the process takes 25 miles which is all downhill (shortish banks of 1/100 and 1/150) or level.

The 545 class (royal blue engines of 1902) were a sorry sight by 1952 though they still, occasionally, might handle a Galway train and a big load. As it happens, the Athlone – Galway section is the only part of the three Midland main lines on which I did not time, so they do not appear in the tables.

As far as the Galway trains were concerned that was one drawback in which they resembled the NCC – lack of variety of motive power, one of the charms of the Cork main line and, to a lesser extent, the Great Northern. However I have very happy memories otherwise of that very independent concern, the Midland, which in pre-grouping days seemed to keep clear of English influence in a way which neither of its neighbours could. A night mail with a diner was doing things in style and except at holiday periods (when it was chaos) the trains were pleasantly empty.

I find it easy to forget how puerile the running could seem all the way from Dublin to Galway (the Up run was always better) with so many miles covered at less than 50 mph. Instead I remember how fleet of foot the "Woolwiches" could be when they did get a chance and especially the Athenry set-up whence one could either scamper over to Tuam with a high-wheeled engine of nigh the three score and ten or else turn south and proceed more sedately past the stone ditches of County Clare.