The County Donegal Remembered
Jim McBride
■ This latest book from the pen of Jim McBride is a first-class trip over County Donegal Railways narrow gauge tracks long gone, but fondly remembered. Some 200 black-andwhite and 50 colour pictures take time travellers over all 124 miles of the system, whose last sections closed in 1959.
The majority of the images are previously unpublished, and there are some gems showing stock and locos in a drab, black livery, before the CDR adopted its eye-catching red-and-cream for coaches and railcars.
Pictures taken within weeks of closure in December 1959 show just how busy the line was in its dying days, and poignant shots of the track lifting in summer 1960, illustrate just how much was destroyed in that era of gung-ho railway scrapping. Even the CDR’s own rail replacement buses make an appearance.
The book comes with a reprint of an article by renowned CDR enthusiast and pioneer modeller the late Sam Carse, first published in Railway Magazine in 1951 and describing the railway in action.
The book is a ‘must’ for Donegal, narrow gauge and Irish railway fans, while modellers will find much to inspire them. All proceeds go towards developing Donegal Railway Heritage Centre, and re-opening a section of the railway, which comes to life between the books’ covers, thanks to author, Jim McBride and sponsor Peter Leach who met the production costs. HD Published by Donegal Railway Heritage Centre
ISBN 978-1-874518-10-5 Web: www.donegalrailway.com Tel: 00353 74 9722655 Price: 24 Euros inc post, Sterling rates available