Railways were 'broadband of their time'
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| Noel Clare, Nessa Dunlea, Liam Kenny and Tony Sourke. |
That topical comment from historian Liam Kenny at last night's illustrated talk in the Town Hall on local railways was in relation to the extensive network built around the country in the mid-1800s, writes Brian Byrne.
"There was a huge momentum to build railway lines, with many private companies being set up to put them in place," Liam told the more than 40 people who came to the talk, one of a series under the Kilcullen 700 celebrations programme. He noted the irony that it was one of the greatest civil engineering projects in the country, being undertaken at the height of the Famine in Ireland.
"The reason wasn't the romantic image we have of railways, but for cattle. Cattle were being raised and fattened on Irish farmlands and then transported by train and boat to the abattoirs of industrial Britain."
That network had a relatively short life span considering the investment, with only the main intercity lines being spared closure in a post-WW2 cull underpinned by improving road transport. Among these was locally 'the forgotten branch-line' of Sallins to Tullow. "That line was actually one of the later ones, being built from 1883, opened in 1885, and closed in 1960."
The images included trains, stations, the level crossing at Naas station where now stands the Tesco store ("at the store's checkouts is just about where people would have bought tickets in the station"), and staff who were employed by the Great Southern & Western Railway at the various stops on the route. These latter included officials, porters, and the 'permanent way men' who walked the tracks every day to maintain them.
There were also pictures of the 'breaking up train' which was the last to travel the line, over a period of time its work gangs taking up the rails and other materials and transporting them for scrap.
One image showed a 'double header' situation at Naas, with two locomotives in series to help the train in slippery conditions climb the 300 feet from Naas to the highest point of the line at Dunlavin.
Harristown was effectively the station for Kilcullen, and Peter Bardon recalled that jarveys would collect passengers there who were coming to stay in Bardons Hotel.
In all, the line included some 77 bridges of various kinds along the route, including two major ones crossing the Liffey at Harristown and the Slaney near Tullow. Brendan O'Connell spoke about the Harristown bridge, with its unique stonework, and the remains of the oak scaffolding used in its construction still in the river.
The feat of the line being built in just three years and three months was discussed, by labourers using picks and shovels and mules to move earth and materials. "We often heard of the Irish navvies who worked building England's infrastructure, but we've heard very little of the navvies who did the same in Ireland," Liam Kenny said.
The total cost was £323,000, a considerable sum in the money of the times. In reality, very few of the lines on the national network recouped their original investments. Prior to WW2, the Tullow line operated three passenger services a day. "One wonders, at a time of poverty, who was using them?"
From 1947, the passenger facility from Tullow to Dublin was replaced by a bus service, a move for which there there was absolutely no reported local concern. The railway was then reduced to cattle transport, with the occasional special passenger train 'to Knock, and to the races'.
The last train to run the full branch line was in March 1951, a cattle train to which were added two passenger carriages for those who wanted to be on that final service.
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