Once upon a time in the top left hand corner of Ireland there was a little roadside tramway.......* Welcome to the website of the Trawbreaga Bay Light Railway.
* with a nod to Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin
Fishing in Trawbreaga Bay
Trawbreaga Bay is on the west side of the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal in the north of the Republic of Ireland. The community of Aughaclay overlooks the bay from the northeast and lies about halfway between Malin and Culdaff, just south of Malin Head the most northerly point in Ireland.
A railway has never served Aughaclay; the nearest station was Carndonagh about five miles away on the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway (L&LSR), which closed in 1935. That line skirted the southern shore of Trawbreaga Bay on its way to Buncrana and from there on to Londonderry to the east and Letterkenny and Burtonport to the west. If there ever had been a railway serving Carndonagh, Aughaclay, Culdaff and Bunagee Harbour, it might have looked like this one.
The TBLR is a fictional line but my intention is to recreate, in a modest way, the atmosphere of an Irish narrow gauge railway in the 1930s. Aughaclay and Trawbreaga Bay were chosen as the location in order to evoke memories of holidays enjoyed there. The line was named Trawbreaga Bay Light Railway not only due to the location but also because its initials TBLR are almost a match for those of another Irish narrow gauge line, the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway (TDLR). Childhood holidays in Dingle in the '60s, spent exploring the remains of the TDLR kindled my interest in Irish narrow gauge railways.
The model railway is to a scale of 1/20th or more precisely 1:20.3 and the track gauge is 45mm, which represents three-foot narrow gauge in full size.
The original reasons for building the line were to renovate an overgrown rockery and to make use of some garden railway equipment that had been gathering dust in the attic for thirteen years. The simple railway that was planned has since grown into something that is developing its own unique identity.
The railway is in a large scale but occupies a small space approximately twenty feet by five feet. Due to the space restrictions the track layout is simple with sharp curves and only short (mostly four wheel) locos and rolling stock are used as these are able to cope with the curves and not overwhelm the layout with their size.
Consequently the railway takes its influences from the more modest roadside tramways such as the Schull and Skibbereen Railway and the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway, rather than the more 'Mainline' proportioned railways like the L&LSR and the County Donegal Railway.
Track power was used in the early days of the railway until July 2010 when the change over was made to battery power for all electric locos. The former track powered locos are now driven by radio control and a battery pack housed in van No.3. The other locos and railcars carry their batteries on board. A return to steam power has been made after a gap of almost 20 years with the arrival of a generic steam loco.
Photographs of the line's construction and its locos , coaches and wagons can be seen on their respective pages.
Thank you for visiting my site, I hope you enjoy your visit, Dirk Shrapnel.
