Irish Railway Record Society

The Corporate Birth, Life and Death of a Railway:

The County Donegal Railways Joint Committee 1906-1981

REG DAVIES

The County Donegal Railways Joint Committee (CDRJC) was a venture that brought one Irish and one British railway company into partnership to operate narrow gauge lines in County Donegal, County Londonderry and County Tyrone in Ireland. When partition came in 1922 the CDRJC found itself operating in two countries. The eventual successors to the two original companies meant that the CDRJC belonged to three owners in two countries, which made its dissolution a lengthy and complex process.

This essay traces the life of the CDRJC by the various Acts of Parliament and Orders in Council that affected it. This was the standard procedure by which railway companies were incorporated and their powers amended. Detailed references to these Acts and Orders are given in Appendix A. However, to understand the complete story it is necessary to consider the CDRJC’s predecessors, as well as some more general railway and political history.

THE START OF IT ALL: THE FINN VALLEY RAILWAY

The first section of what became the CDRJC was the Finn Valley Railway Company authorised on 15 May 1860. It was a standard gauge line to run 13³/₄ miles from a junction with the Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway at Strabane to a terminus at Stranorlar. By the time it opened on 7 September 1863, the Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway, which operated both the Finn Valley and the Londonderry & Enniskillen, had changed its name to the Irish North Western Railway. In order to transform its unissued ordinary shares into preference shares and to modify the working agreement with the Irish North Western, the Finn Valley obtained another Act on 13 July 1871. In the twenty years or so before the next major development on the Finn Valley, the Irish North Western Railway became a part of the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland) (GNR(I)), although the Londonderry & Enniskillen remained in existence until purchased by the GNR(I) in 1883.

EXTENSION: THE WEST DONEGAL RAILWAY

Schemes for a westward extension from Stranorlar to Donegal had been aired for a number of years before an Act was granted for this purpose on 21 July 1879. Rather than involve the somewhat impecunious Finn Valley Railway Company in the venture, the separate West Donegal Railway Company was formed. Experience had recently been gained of a 3 feet gauge line in County Antrim and it became clear this was more suited than the standard gauge to areas where traffic was light. Accordingly the West Donegal was built to the 3 feet gauge. Even so, considerable difficulties were experienced in financing work on the 18 mile line; eventually it opened to a temporary terminus at Druminin, four miles short of Donegal, on 25 April 1882.

There matters remained until a Light Railway Order under the Tramways (Ireland) Acts was made on 13 January 1886. As the construction powers granted in the 1879 Act had expired, the Order authorised a line from the limit of the completed section to Donegal and allowed capital to be raised.  As work progressed slowly, a further eighteen months extension of time to complete the works was authorised on 28 December 1888. In an attempt to find additional capital, a separate company built Donegal station and leased it to the West Donegal Railway. Finally the line was opened from Druminin to Donegal on 16 September 1889.

KILLYBEGS, GLENTIES AND GAUGE CONVERSION

As one of the ways to alleviate poverty and to check declining populations, the Government proposed the development of light railways in sparsely populated areas and gave a legislative basis for this by the Light Railways (Ireland) Act of 1889. Two Orders were made under this Act affecting the two companies. The first was granted to the West Donegal on 24 October 1890 for a 19 mile line from Donegal to the small fishing port of Killybegs. The second gave powers to the Finn Valley on 15 September 1891 for a 24 mile line from Stranolar to the small market town of Glenties. Both were to be of 3 feet gauge. The first opened on 18 August 1893 and the second on 3 June 1895.

It became clear to the Finn Valley, which worked the West Donegal, that traffic would not come up to its original expectations. Accordingly it began to transform itself into a narrow gauge line. The first step, authorised on 27 June 1892, was to amalgamate the Finn Valley and West Donegal companies into the Donegal Railway Company. The second step, authorised on 27 July 1893, was to build a new terminus at Strabane and to convert the section to Stranorlar to 3 feet gauge. On 16 July 1894 the Finn Valley section re-opened on the narrow gauge.

LONDONDERRY AND BALLYSHANNON

Further expansion was authorised in an Act of 7 August 1896 for a 14¹/₂ mile branch from Strabane to Londonderry and another of 15 ¹/₂ miles from Donegal to Ballyshannon. The Act required them to be treated as a separate undertaking from the rest of the Donegal Railway Company’s system. Again money was difficult to raise and the Londonderry line did not open until 1 August 1900 for goods and 6 August 1900 for passengers. Money was even more difficult for the Ballyshannon line. The 1896 requirement to keep the two branches separate from the rest of the system was modified on 30 July 1900; each of the branches was henceforth to be regarded as a separate undertaking.

Progress was so slow on the Ballyshannon line that an extension of time for construction was granted by an Act on 23 June 1902. It also allowed the lease held by the Donegal Station Company to be purchased and eliminated the separate undertakings required by the Acts of 1896 and 1900. Powers to allow construction, to raise money and to issue shares, as well as authority to operate Motor Car services, were obtained on 22 July 1904. Services to Ballyshannon began on 2 September 1905.

LETTERKENNY

The final line to be completed, although by a separate company, was from Strabane to Letterkenny. To tap the traffic from the small town of Convoy, with its woollen industry, the Strabane Raphoe and Convoy Railway was authorised on 14 August 1903. As the Donegal Railway was allowed to subscribe capital and work it, the line can be seen as in its area of influence. A further Act, on 15 August 1904, authorised onwards construction to Letterkenny to give a line of 19¹/₄  miles and a change in the company’s name to the Strabane and Letterkenny Railway (S&LR). Since powers were also given to the GNR(I) in this Act to subscribe capital and work the line, it too saw the S&LR as in its area of influence. By the time the Letterkenny line opened on 1 January 1909, the possible conflict had been resolved by the establishment of the CDRJC.

THE COMMITTEE IS ESTABLISHED

In an endeavour to expand their Irish interests, the Midland Railway (MR) of England had taken over the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway on 1 July 1903. Seeking to further this process, the MR offered to purchase the Donegal Railway. Alarmed at this threat, the GNR(I) initially opposed the move but subsequently joined the MR to acquire the Donegal Railway. To do this, the CDRJC was set up by an Act of 4 August 1906, although the date of vesting was 1 May 1906.

The only part of the Donegal Railway not taken over by the CDRJC was the section from Strabane to Londonderry. Since the GNR(I) had its own line between these two points, it saw no need to acquire another and so this section became solely MR property. However, it was worked by the CDRJC.

The purchase was effected by issuing MR stock in exchange for Donegal Railway stocks and shares. As the CDRJC had no capital of its own, its needs were met equally by the MR and GNR(I). Any deficit remaining each year after paying expenses (including payments to extinguish Treasury rights to any dividends from the Killybegs and Glenties lines, as well as dividends paid by the MR on the stock it had issued to purchase what became the CDRJC section of the Donegal Railway) were to be borne equally by the MR and GNR(I). Similarly any surplus was to be shared equally by the two companies.

Finally the CDRJC took over the powers that the GNR(I) had been granted in 1904 to work the S&LR. Although legally a separate body from the CDRJC, the S&LR effectively became a subsidiary.

IRISH INDEPENDENCE AND RAILWAY GROUPING

The Home Rule movement for an independent Ireland reached a significant point in December 1920 with the Government of Ireland Act, which established two separate Parliaments. Six of the counties of Ulster constituted the Parliament of Northern Ireland and the remaining twenty six counties, the Parliament of Southern Ireland. Civil war followed the refusal of Sinn Féin to recognise the Parliament of Southern Ireland but ultimately peace negotiations resulted in an Anglo-Irish Treaty, given the force of law by the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act 1922. The Provisional Government elected under this Act enacted the constitution of the Irish Free State, established on 6 December 1922.  County Donegal became part of the Irish Free State and Counties Londonderry and Tyrone became part of Northern Ireland. For the CDRJC this meant it now ran in two countries with the border outside Strabane at Urney Bridge on the Stranorlar line and at Lifford Bridge on the Letterkenny line.

In Britain wartime control of the railway system was followed by a grouping into four major companies. The MR, one of the CDRJC’s owners, found itself, as a result of an Act of 19 August 1921, part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMSR) from 1 January 1923. The effect on the CDRJC was minimal; one of its owners had a new name.

In the Irish Free State early political troubles meant that the grouping of railways came a little later. All railway companies, except the Listowel & Ballybunion, lying wholly within the country were amalgamated as the Great Southern Railways from 1 January 1925 by Railways Act 1924. Lines like the CDRJC and the GNR(I), not wholly within the Free State, were not affected by this process. So these Irish changes had no effect on the CDRJC.

RAILWAY NATIONALISATION

The Second World War (in which the Irish Free State remained neutral) was followed by changes to railway ownership in much the same process as after the First. The results were however to be different. Government was to replace private ownership and the new bodies operated more than just railways.

In Britain, the LMSR was nationalised by an Act of 6 August 1947 and became part of the British Transport Commission (BTC) from 1 January 1948. Consequently the LMSR share of the CDRJC and ownership of the line from Strabane to Londonderry passed to the BTC. The Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1948 established the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) to take over the Belfast & County Down Railway and the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board from 1 October 1948.

Early in 1948 the Northern Ireland government approached the BTC about transferring the Northern Counties Committee (NCC) lines of the former LMSR to the UTA. After negotiations, the BTC agreed to such a transfer, which became retrospectively effective from 1 January 1948. As the UTA had not yet been established, the NCC was transferred to the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board, a body ultimately taken over by the UTA. After this transfer, the BTC lost the ownership of the Strabane to Londonderry section, which eventually passed to the UTA, but retained its part ownership of the CDRJC.

In the Republic of Ireland (as the Irish Free State had become in 1949) the process involved two stages. The Transport Act 1944 set up a new company, Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ), from 1 January 1945, a merger of the Great Southern Railways and the Dublin United Transport Company.  However, CIÉ remained private until the Transport Act 1950 nationalised it from 1 June 1950. These moves had no impact at that time on the CDRJC but brought into existence the organisation that was ultimately to replace it.

FIRST CLOSURE AND NEW OWNERS

As owner, the UTA alone was able to determine the future of the Strabane to Londonderry section, which was only worked by the CDRJC. Thus the UTA decided on closure as part of a policy of eliminating uneconomic lines. It gave notice of intent in October 1954 and the line closed on 31 December 1954. Although it came fleetingly to life again to cater for a Sunday School excursion special on 30 June 1955, by the end of that year the track had been lifted.

Meanwhile storm clouds had gathered over the GNR(I). At the end of 1950 the company had exhausted its financial resources and its shareholders authorised closure as soon as possible. Political pressure resulted in a takeover by the Great Northern Railway Board (GNRB), set up by Acts both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. The GNRB began operation on 1 September 1953 and was jointly owned by each government.

These changes left the remainder of the CDRJC in operation, owned by the GNRB in partnership with BTC, which delegated supervision to its London Midland Region. Affairs were at their most complex. The CDRJC worked the separate S&LR. The CDRJC was jointly owned by the BTC and the GNRB. The GNRB was jointly owned by the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Eventually this knot would be untied but it would take time

MORE OWNERSHIP CHANGES AND FINAL CLOSURE

The GNRB had an operating life of only five years. The Minister of Commerce in Northern Ireland announced in June 1957 that he intended to end the agreement for the joint operation of the railway. After legislation had been passed in Northern Ireland and in the Republic, the Board ceased to operate railway services after 30 September 1958. The portion in Northern Ireland was then operated by the UTA and in the Republic by CIÉ. Agreement was reached as to how the GNRB’s assets were to be shared. In the case of the CDRJC, and the S&LR, the assets and liabilities were to be ‘transferred to and disposed of by the parties in such a manner as the parties may agree’. It was to take the parties twenty three years to complete this process. In the meantime the GNRB continued to hold its share of the CDRJC.

By 1957 it became apparent that the CDRJC system could not continue for long. Although permission to close the Ballyshannon branch was granted in that year, it was still open at the end of May 1959, when the CDRJC formally applied to end railway services on all its lines.  After agreement by the Transport Tribunal, the closure was effective from 1 January 1960. However, substitute road services for passengers and freight were provided by the CDRJC. Track lifting began in March and was completed by the end of the year; many of the moveable assets were auctioned on 1 March 1961.

Meanwhile in Britain changes in nationalised transport culminated in an Act of 1 August 1962. The BTC was abolished and its functions and property were divided among four successor boards. As the British Railways Board (BRB) took over railway operations, it inherited the BTC’s share of the CDRJC, although by this time the CDRJC only operated road transport. However, as the Act did not pass responsibility for British Transport Stock to the BRB, the CDRJC was no longer obliged to pay dividends on the stock originally issued by the MR for its purchase. This obligation had in turn been transmitted to the LMSR and BTC. It was with the BRB share that the winding up of the CDRJC began.

ONE OWNER AT LAST

In 1959 discussions began between the two governments about winding up the CDRJC and the S&LR. Although initial progress was good, it appeared by 1966 that no final agreement could be reached. Accordingly the BRB’s Legal Adviser reached a settlement with the General Manager of CIÉ. CIÉ would obtain the repeal of the 1906 Act that set up the CDRJC as soon as possible. Until this was done, the BRB would appoint as its three representatives on the CDRJC persons nominated by CIÉ. CIÉ would instruct its representatives on the CDRJC never to call upon the BRB to provide half the capital required or make good half the deficit. Finally in exchange for the payment of £57,742 by CIÉ, the BRB would relinquish all its interest in the assets of the CDRJC and its right to half the revenue and half the capital.

The agreement was made on 31 May 1967 but made retrospective from 1 January 1966. The result was the BRB was relieved of all further interest in the CDRJC and the S&LR. In addition it did not have to take any part in the negotiations about the GNRB share or between CIÉ and the Irish government about any necessary legislation. CIÉ now effectively held this 50% of the CDRJC, as well as claiming half the GNRB 50% share. 75% was thus in its hands. 25% remained with others. But since CIÉ had taken over management of the undertaking from 1 January 1966, the CDRJC was effectively its creature.

The UTA’s portion of the GNRB share, the outstanding 25%, was acquired by CIÉ for the payment of £3,449 to the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company, to which the assets of the UTA had been transferred in 1968. This purchase was formally approved by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Development on 21 March 1969 and by the Minister for Transport and Power in the Republic on 3 April 1969. Since CIÉ now owned all of the CDRJC, and through it the S&LR, CIÉ could arrange for their dissolution.

LEGISLATION

Legislation to facilitate the winding up of the CDRJC and the Strabane & Letterkenny Railway was enacted in the Republic of Ireland on 10 July 1971. It provided that the assets of the two bodies should be vested in CIÉ, and the S&LR should be dissolved, on a transfer date. The CDRJC could be dissolved by Order of the Minister for Transport and Power and the agreement between the BRB and CIÉ was confirmed.

FINIS

As the transfer date was fixed for 12 July 1971, the S&LR ceased to exist on that day. The entire Debenture stock and 87% of the share capital was held by the CDRJC. The remaining shares, privately held, included baronially guaranteed shares with a face value of £17,510. A 4% dividend on these was guaranteed by Donegal County Council and Letterkenny Urban District Council. After closure of the rail services, the councils made no further payments, arguing their liability ceased when railway operation did. Whilst the company thought payments should continue, the result was impasse and these shareholders received nothing after 1960. To compensate them on the dissolution of the company, the Government arranged for CIÉ to make payments of £14,500 in total.

The CDRJC continued in existence for another ten years, principally because of the pension rights of existing and former CDRJC staff who were members of the British railway clearing system superannuation fund. To preserve these rights it was necessary to set up a separate fund in Ireland, with an appropriate share of the assets of the British fund, to which such staff could be transferred. That required legislation in both countries, and until arrangements were complete, it was necessary to keep the CDRJC in nominal existence. Eventually the Order under the 1971 Act to dissolve the CDRJC was made on 13 January 1981 and became effective on publication in Iris Oifigiuil on 16 January 1981. The end had finally come.

As a footnote to the story, the GNRB had continued in existence because of its nominal ownership of the CDRJC. It too ceased to exist on 16 January 1981 with the simultaneous publication of orders in the Belfast Gazette and Iris Oifigiúil

Copyright © 2009 by Irish Railway Record Society Limited
Revised: January 04, 2016 .