Full steam ahead for train station restoration

PEOPLE the world over are familiar with the opening scenes of motion picture, The Quiet Man, when emigrant Sean Thornton, played by John Wayne, arrives into the fictional Castletown train station aboard an emerald steam engine.

Yet the journey to restoring the real-life train station at the heart of the Hollywood classic is just as worth telling.

Since 2004 residents of Ballyglunin in Co Galway, the setting for the fictional Castletown railway station, have been working on a project to bring the station back to its former glory.

Although volunteer Mark Gibson says the committee had difficulties during the “lean times of the recession”, last year it launched a crowdfunding campaign where it managed to raise €35,000 in 30 days and received support from local and internationally known celebrities.

“Leo Moran from the Sawdoctors did a promotional video for us and we also got support from Liam Neeson, who is a big fan of the film, and Gabriel Byrne as well,” says Mark.

“Recently we got €10,000 in funding from the Heritage Council and €100,000 in the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. It’s been a busy year.”

In 2013, the Ballyglunin Community Development charity got planning permission from Galway County Council to fully restore the train station, which ceased as a passenger station in 1976. While it continued to operate as a station used for transporting beet freight into the 1980s, it eventually shut its doors in the early 1990s.

The local community hopes that with the help of funding from Government initiatives and the generosity of the general public they’ ll be able to establish a heritage and arts centre at the station when the renovations are complete.

“If the group wasn’t there, the station would be completely dilapidated by now. It would make a great tourism site for this part of the west,” says Mark.

“We have the M6 connecting us to Dublin and we’d love to capture tourists who are on their way to the Wild Atlantic Way.”

Mark hopes the group can strengthen its co-operation with community groups with an interest in the nearby Tuam and Athenry train stations to make the area even more attractive to tourists.

He also envisions that the revamped Ballyglunin train station would be a hub for local community groups.

“It would be a local point for community groups such as the elderly group and we plan to develop gardens and a pollinator site that schools could visit,” he adds.

For those interested in donating to the project you can visit ballyglunin.com or their Facebook page, Ballyglunin Railway Restoration Project.