Finn Valley Railway

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Finn Valley Railway
Industryrailway
Founded1860
Defunct1892
Fatetaken over
SuccessorDonegal Railway Company
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[]

Incorporation[]

The Finn Valley Railway Company was incorporated on 15 May 1860 with capital of £60,000 (equivalent to £5,760,000 in 2020).[1]

Personnel[]

The Chairman of the directors was The 4th Viscount Lifford, whose seat was Meenglass Castle, just south-east of Ballybofey, and the Deputy-Chairman was James Thompson Macky of the Bank of Ireland in Derry.[2]

The other directors were:

The other offices of the company were:

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

Opening[]

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.

Operation[]

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.

Merger and gauge conversion[]

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)) gauge shortly afterwards.

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  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
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