European Railroad Discussion > The Tralee and Dingle

Like the Schull & Skibbereen the Tralee & Dingle was a product of the Tramways (Ireland) Act. Also like the Schull & Skibbereen the local ratepayers spent most of the company's existence paying it's deficits.

The Tralee & Dingle's independent life ended in 1925 when it was vested in the Great Southern Railways, which in 1944 became CIE. Passenger service ended in 1939, after which it was freight, predominantly cattle, which kept the railway alive. Latterly it operated once a month, coinciding with Dingle's cattle fair. In June 1953, worn out and virtually moribund, the end came.

Today the Lispole Viaduct still stands and in Dingle a restaurant sign recalls the T&D.

A restoration of part of the line, the 2 miles between Tralee and Blennerville, was attempted using a surviving Hunslet 2-6-2T. It opened in 1993 but operations ceased in 2009. The track is still in place and attempts are being made to restart services.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/16 06:56 by 86235.

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Interesting to see structures that have survived over sixty years after abandonment.
ALLEN

What happened to the rest of the viaduct?

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> What happened to the rest of the viaduct?

Stone thieves...

lynnpowell Wrote:
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> What happened to the rest of the viaduct?

The approach embankment was simply bulldozed by the farmer who bought the land off CIE

The survival of the locomotive was interesting. Sometime in the 1960's, Nelson Blount of Steamtown purchased a variety of English and Irish and European  locomotives. From my recollection they were a Southern Railway "Schools" class 4-4-0, a Southern Railway M7 0-4-4 tank engine, the Tralee and Dingle narrow guage tank engine and a Swedish vertical boilered industrial locomotive.

​I think in time all were returned overseas, at considerable expense to the new owners.

​What I don't know is how the Tralee & Dingle locomotive survived from the line's abandonment to the time of purchase by Blount, and later, who imported it back to Ireland? 

eminence_grise Wrote:
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> ​What I don't know is how the Tralee &
> Dingle locomotive survived from the line's
> abandonment to the time of purchase by Blount, and
> later, who imported it back to Ireland? 

On closure of the Tralee & Dingle 5T (a 2-6-2T) went north to the Cavan and Leitrim which continued to operate until 1959, primarily hauling coal from the mines at Arigna.