The lough sWilly rAilWAy

BY DR E.M. PATTERSON • ColourPoint

Comprehensive, readable history of a quirky railway.

Nothing of note.

PRICE: £18 RATING:

We all love a weird, wonderful and characterful railway, and the Londonderry & Lough Swilly is a particularly charming oddball. A line with the only 4-8-0 tender and 4-8-4 tank engines in the British Isles; where Atlantic gales could blow trains clean off the track; and which went on to claim it was ‘the world’s oldest independent railway company’ by running buses until 61 years after its last trains; such a railway demands a closer look, and this book puts it under the microscope.

A revised and updated version of a volume by the late Irish narrow gauge historian Dr E.M. Patterson, it documents the full story of how the cross-border line started life in 5ft 3in gauge, was converted to 3ft gauge, and then expanded into the wilds of West Donegal thanks to government funding for this impoverished area.

It suffered more than its fair share of the ‘Troubles’ in the Irish Civil War, but even in peacetime it had its problems – such as being unable to retain most of its locomotive superintendents for much more than a year…

Well-illustrated with maps, track plans, rolling stock diagrams and a surprising number of good photographs (including the astonishing 4-8-0s and 4-8-4Ts), it does its subject full justice. A nice touch is some personal memories from those who used the line, and it brings the story up to date with a comprehensive guide to what remains today. (TJ) W: www.colourpoint.co.uk ISBN: 9781780731476