Finn Valley Railway

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Finn Valley Railway
Industry railway
Fate taken over
Successor(s) Donegal Railway Company
Founded 1860
Defunct 1892
Headquarters Stranorlar, Ireland
Area served Donegal, Tyrone

The Finn Valley Railway (FVR) was an Irish gauge (5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)) railway in Ireland.

History [edit]

The Finn Valley Railway Company was incorporated on 15 May 1860 with capital of £60,000 (£4,212,255 as of 2013).[1]

The chairman of the directors was James Hewitt, 4th Viscount Lifford of Meen Glas, Stranorlar, and the deputy-chairman was James Thompson Macky of the Bank of Ireland in Londonderry.[2]

The other directors were:

  • Robert Collum, 1 Chester Place, Hyde Park Square, London
  • Edward Hunter, The Glebe, Blackheath, Kent
  • Maurice Ceely Maude, Lenaghan, Enniskillen
  • Sir Samuel Hercules Hayes, 4th Baronet, Leuaghan, Stranorlar
  • Robert Russell, Salthill, Mountcharles
  • Major Humphreys, Milltown House, Strabane

The other offices of the company were:

  • James Alex Ledlie, Stranorlar, Secretary
  • Peter William Barlow, 26 Great George Street, Westminster, Consulting Engineer
  • John Bower, Engineer

They built a railway line to Irish gauge (5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)) between Stranorlar and Strabane which opened on 1 October 1863.

The directors entered into a contract with the Irish North Western Railway to work the line for a period of 10 years. This company became amalgamated with the Great Northern Railway (Ireland)[3] in 1876.

In 1892 it merged with the West Donegal Railway into a new company, the Donegal Railway Company. The line from Stranorlar to Strabane was reconstructed to (3 ft (914 mm)) shortly afterwards.

Finn Valley Railway
Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway to L/Derry Foyle Rd
Strabane
Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway to Enniskillen
Clady
Castlefinn
Liscooly
Killygordon
Stranorlar


Footnotes [edit]

  1. ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
  2. ^ Bradshaw's railway manual, shareholders' guide, and official directory. W. J. Adams, 1864
  3. ^ The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, William Alan McCutcheon, Northern Ireland. Dept. of the Environment, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984