CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED TO RESTORE 1895 CONNEMARA STATION

A campaign has been launched to restore a long-disused station on the 48-mile Galway to Clifden branch. A company called Connemara Railway Revival has been set up with the objective of reopening Maam Cross station, which closed when the last train went by on April 27, 1935 and remains reasonably intact – apart from the signal cabin and the main building. The station opened in 1895 and was on one of the ‘Balfour lines’, built with Government assistance to help develop remote areas of the west of Ireland. The company has already acquired an 8.5-acre site – encompassing the station – and a section of trackbed, and has reinstated the station entrance gate. It aims to apply for planning permission to open the station as a tourist attraction. Jim Deegan – one of the backers of the project – who heads up Dublin-based travel company Railtours Ireland First Class, said: “Our vision is to recreate a snapshot of the west of Ireland country railway, complete with 400 metres of track, in keeping with the original layout, and heritage trains. “We hope to refurbish the platforms, rebuild the signal cabin and the down platform waiting shelter, restore the goods store and replace the water tank. “We wish to draw on early to mid-20th century themes of emigration, conflict, rural life and of course The Quiet Man film, with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, which was filmed in the surrounding area.”