Brookeborough Station
A NOTED authority on the railways, Charles Friel will be a guest of Lisnaskea Historical Society on Monday next 20th January (8pm) for an illustrated talk on ‘The Railways of Fermanagh’ in the Castle Park Centre, Lisnaskea.
Charles lives in Belfast but he was born in Enniskillen and h enjoyed many railway trips to Bundoran and to Letterkenny for family holidays.
He is a founder member of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland, and he has been the Society’s Publicity Officer and has editor of its magazine, ‘Five Foot Three’.
He has been collecting pictures and negatives of Irish railways for some time so that they will not be lost to future generations, and has written four railway books, including two editions of “Fermanagh’s Railways” for Colourpoint Books.
He has also contributed to many publications on Irish railways and continues to help Irish railway authors.
In an advance editorial to the Lisnaskea Historical Society, Charles suggests that, although it is over 50 years ago since the last trains ran in County Fermanagh, memories of the railways are still very much alive.
He will tell his audience that the railways came to Fermanagh from a number of directions, the first the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway which opened to Enniskillen on 19 August 1854.
The second line was built by the Dundalk and Enniskillen which came from the east. On 16 August 1858, the railway reached Lisbellaw, and the final stretch into Enniskillen opened on 15 February 1859.
Fermanagh’s third railway company was the Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway which opened its line from Enniskillen as far as Belcoo on 12 February 1879 and to Glenfarne on 1 January 1880.
It eventually connected with the line from Mullingar to Sligo at Collooney in 1882.
All of these three lines were built to the Irish standard gauge of 5 foot 3 inches (hence the title of one of his books).
The county’s fourth railway was a narrow gauge line, (with the rails set just three feet apart) namely the Clogher Valley Railway and Tramway Company opened between Maguires Bridge and Tynan on 2 May 1887 thus connecting the fertile Clogher Valley with two Great Northern Railway lines.
Charles’ talk will include many pictures which have not been seen in public before.