Plans to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Free State’s main railway company will include a special nod to the rail heritage of the island as a whole.
A special train journey is taking place this Saturday from Dublin to Killarney to celebrate the 1924 founding of Great Southern Railways, which operated across the south until 1945.
The centenary journey is taking place to mark a “major event” in the history of Irish transport, and organisers said they were keen to include a “cross-border element” to the celebrations.
The train chartered for the journey will be formed of Intercity mark IV carriages usually seen on the Dublin to Cork line, and will be pulled by an Enterprise diesel locomotive, which normally leads carriages on the Dublin to Belfast route.
Rail heritage voluntary organisation Táilte Tours is behind Saturday’s journey, and the group is named after the last coal-fired steam locomotive to be built in Dublin’s Inchicore Railway Works.
Founder Niall Kelly told the Irish News: “This is all about marking an important date in Irish rail history, and with the train being led by an Enterprise locomotive, it will bring a cross-border element to the celebrations.”
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The Great Southern Railway Co was created from the merger of four Irish railway companies that had been founded in the 1840s.
As it served the Irish Free State following partition, the new company excluded cross-border and northern rail firms of the time.
It was eventually dissolved in 1945 and became Córas Iompair Éireann, the holding company for Irish Rail and Bus Éireann.
“The Enterprise locomotive is a very rare sight in the Limerick and Kerry regions,” Niall said.
“So it will be exciting to see it running outside of it’s usual Belfast to Dublin route.”
The tour train is expected to take around 200 passengers and will depart Dublin’s Heuston station at 9.10am, and arrive back at 8.40pm.
“The formation of the Great Southern Railway in 1924 was a major event in the development of the Irish transport industry, both road and rail, and its centenary is something we felt couldn’t be let go unmarked,” Niall added.
Enterprise services between Belfast and Dublin recently increased to an hourly service following the opening of Belfast Grand Central Station.
