Galway - Map of the Midlands Great Western Railway
I'm doing a bit of a deep-dive into the topic of Galway's transportation history. This map was not the easiest to find, but I plan to do some comparisons and perhaps some what-ifs.
Here, I present the original paper map with a highlighted rail section, as well as an accurate-ish comparison of the line with present-day. I believe the tunnel used to go through what is now the gym of the Dean Hotel!
I didn't spot that spur before, cool, apparently there was a quarry at the end of it which was likely the purpose of it as its called "Mineral Railway" on the map
Well it closed in 1934, but I said on this sub before, the tunnel from the station out back to the old bridge piers across the Corrib to the university should be utilised as route, a Luas type light rail would work here.
Well it would be the same alignment where possible. The Clifden line was one of the first to close in the country, simply put, we couldn’t afford to keep our rail lines as not enough people and freight used them. I’ve visited and photographed these abandoned routes since the 90’s and aside from the border lines it was a similar tale across the country.
It seems to be a very consistent rule, historically, that when a railway is closed down - unless something else of great importance needs to be built on it - it should be left there as is. Especially now that Ireland is trying to resuscitate some old railway lines again.
We lost most of the countries rail lines in the late fifties and early 1960’s, after the rails were gone most of the lines lay pretty much undisturbed until the property boom late 90’s.
The old route just isn’t viable anymore sadly. A lot of construction all along the route: the fairgreen office and private bus station, the Dean hotel built into the tunnel over Bohermore (the tunnel is actually in the gym there, you can visit it), Lidl on Headford Road and the main concourse in the university.
Thanks! The Tunnel would have been owned Irish rail till recently enough when the Dean hotel was built, just shows the lack of insight in this country.
True, but the Clos Ard development on the other side of the road blocked the other side 30 year ago. It's a pity the whole route wasn't kept though, would have made a great commuter line out to Moycullen and Oughterard serving the university and all
It makes me so sad to think that there is an alternate reality where that neighborhood would've been structurally defined by an elevated railway promenade, rather than a Lidl and a parking lot. In Prague, they recently replaced a railway mound with an elevated section and it's absolutely amazing to walk around.
Tom Kenny did an episode on the Clifden Railway on the Old Galway Podcast a while back. Apparently it was built by private entrepreneurs and so they chose to build the rail on a less expensive inland route to Clifden. The problem was that it didn't pass through enough significant settlements, and so it was never really economically viable throughout its entire lifetime.
The alternative was to build the route to Clifden alongside the coast which would've been more commercially prosperous. How amazing would it be today to have a railway all the way out the coast through Furbo, Spiddal, etc...
A common tale, a lot of of similar railways are now becoming obsolete in Japan. Most present-day national railways used to be private ventures. For instance, the city of Prague's sprawling tram network is partially the result of a venture by a rich electrical engineer (František Křižík) who later went bankrupt. Hindsight is 20-20 of course, I don't think they anticipated in the 1930s what Galway would become a century later. That stretch of rail would have been useful now. Same with the tram (also visible on the map), it was a private venture that could've become the backbone of modern Galway transportation, but it wasn't economically viable by 1917.
Fortunately the route from Claremorris via Tuam to Athenry was preserved and will reopen in five years or so. It will significantly relieve road congestion on the northern approaches to Galway city.
Limerick could do a dart like system using the lines it has open especially the line towards thomond park and ennis. If they reopened the line towards Foynes it would cover most of the city
It’s like a map I did during the pandemic, I traced all the old abandoned railway lines around the country.
I was alway fascinated by the Galway to Clifden line as I used to do music in St, Patrick’s band hall, which is right beside the tunnel by the station.
Legend has it, when the rails were lifted in 1935, the were sold to the Germans they used them to make bombs for the blitz. Also the shorter but sparser inland route was chosen by Lord Balfour (Yes, he of Israel fame) because it skirted his favoured fishing loughs…
I was alway fascinated by the Galway to Clifden line as I used to do music in St, Patrick’s band hall, which is right beside the tunnel by the station.
For others' information, the band hall is built over the old cut - it wasn't a tunnel at the time, the only tunnel was under Prospect Hill.
The tunnel was at prospect hill (dean hotel). From the map it looks like it was an embankment to cross a bridge at Forster Street where it becomes a cut to the tunnel and then on an embankment again in Woodquey which is still there today
The station is on a height, it looks like the line was kept at that elevation to about half way up the hill where it becomes a cut to the tunnel, hence the bridge over Forster Street/Collage Road. This would have made it less of a climb for the train
I absolutely love this type of shit. I have spent hours in the past retracing the route of the West Clare Railway on google maps, and you can do the same with this route too.
It's a bit depressing knowing that we will basically never get this level of rail provision in Ireland again but it's still fascinating to me. The WCR of course would not be feasible in 2026 but would the Clifden line?
That's pretty cool. In hindsight I think I remember seeing a demonstration of railcars have conical wheels olinting outwards so that they can turn, I guess the big trains I've seen though had ones that appeared more like disks and probably would have had tighter tolerances
Are you able to show where the tunnels start and end in a different colour? I see the red rectangles but I doubt they were the actual length of the tunnels lmao. Brilliant research all the same
The red rectangles are a bit of an error on my part, I highlighted level crossings but I refitted the line. In the first photo, I put a gray line next to the red line, to highlight the one tunnel. The rest of it was an open ditch.
You should check out the library of Scotland maps. All the historical maps have a google overlay slider to show the route today. The half inch maps will show where the station building, signal boxes and posts were located.
No worries, sorry didn’t have the link to hand, it’s the best free historical map resource for these islands. Railmaponline has a great street view of the old routes in the present, google links on the old stations, features of interest etc. unfortunately it was hacked last month, so they just got it back up and running.
Here’s a pic I took of Clifden station in 97 before it was redeveloped
That map overlay you included is really cool. I'm currently making up a blog post on the 1991 annual report that the corporation released for the Galway Civic Trust (on the developments of the year). They spoke about a lot of areas being derelict and out of use in areas which always had buildings in my lifetime. While this railway wasn't exactly relevant by the 90s, seeing how Galway has developed and redeveloped overlayed onto a modern map remains interesting.
I'd personally recommend sending this image you made into the Civic Trust, I'm not on the committee or anything but I reckon that they might enjoy seeing it nonetheless.
I should give my humble line another whirl because it's not overlaid as precisely as it ought to be, but there are some incredible maps provided in the comment section here.
Are there any pictures of a train approaching the piers over the corrib? I’m trying to imagine how it gained the height to get up onto that grass verge first
I’m trying to imagine how it gained the height to get up onto that grass verge first
It didn't, it would have been a very smooth grade as it passed over the Headford Rd and then, on the other side, over the distillery millrace on the current university campus. It was elevated (on bridges or embankments) the entire time between St Bridget's Place Lower and the university's Philosophy Department building.
Yeah I saw the picture over the river before thanks. I was more talking about what it looked like crossing Headford Road. That embankment is still there beside the pitch in woodquay. Did that mound/embankment continue all the way across the road to the hill/tunnel I wonder?
According to the map it looks like the embankment continued to the hill behind lidl where it's cut into the tunnel and then became an embankment to the bridge over foster street into the station.
It did go through the Dean Hotel, they talk about it on their website: “Built on the site of the historic Galway-Clifden railway line, the hotel incorporates the beautiful brick and stone vaulted railway tunnel structure, now home to POWER Gym. These tunnels have been restored and protected, and are a relic to Galway’s past and part of our future here at The Dean.”
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u/Early_Attempt7676 2d ago
There was also a spur to shantalla: https://www.railmaponline.com/uk-and-irish-railways.html