Narrow Gauge North

2024

By Steve Jones
Scale 5.5mm/ft
Gauge 16.5mm
Size 2.5m x 0.6m

In the early years of the 20th Century plans were drawn up for the Ulster & Connaught Light Railway to run from Larne on Ireland’s east coast to Clifden on the west coast, taking over some existing lines in the process. At Shrule there would have been a junction with branch lines going north to Ballinrobe and south to Galway city.

The line, of course, was never built but this model imagines that it was. Headford would have been a stop on the Shrule to Galway branch but it is assumed that when they got to Headford the money ran out so this station is now being used as a ‘temporary’ terminus.

The model features rolling stock from the lines the UCLR would have taken over as well as stock from other parts of Ireland, no doubt bought at a good price.