Track gauge in Ireland
Template:Short description Template:Sidebar track gauge The track gauge adopted by the mainline railways in Ireland is Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. This unusually broad track gauge is otherwise found only in Australia (where it was introduced by the Irish railway engineer F. W. Sheilds), in the states of Victoria, southern New South Wales (via some extensions of the Victorian rail network) and South Australia, as well as in Brazil.
The Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway used this gauge between 1840 and 1855, as did the Canterbury Provincial Railways in New Zealand, until conversion to the Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge in the 1860s. The Launceston and Western Railway in Tasmania also used this gauge from 1871, until conversion to Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge in 1888.
Different gauges
Ireland's first railway, the Dublin and Kingstown, was built to Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". (later known as standard gauge). The Ulster Railway (UR), taking the Irish Railway Commission's advice, used Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".. The Dublin and Drogheda Railway was proposed to be built to Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge[1] on the grounds of lower costs. The two broader gauges were not used anywhere else. Following complaints from the UR, the Board of Trade investigated the matter, and in 1843 decreed the use of Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..[2]
This gauge was given legal status by the Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846,[3] which specified Template:Cvt for Great Britain, 5Script error: No such module "String".ft 3Script error: No such module "String".in for Ireland.
The UR was re-gauged in 1846, at a cost of £19,000 (about £Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". today), and the Dublin and Kingstown Railway in 1857 for £38,000 (about £Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[". today).
The Hill of Howth Tramway and the Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway also adopted the Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". gauge. Dublin's Luas tram system, opened in 2004, uses Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"..
Narrow gauge
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Numerous narrow-gauge systems were built, usually as three foot gauge railways (Script error: No such module "Track gauge".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".). Most are now closed, including one of the largest narrow-gauge systems, that of the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee. The Irish narrow gauge today survives as heritage railways in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland. Bord na Móna uses narrow gauge in the Midlands bogs as part of its peat transport network. There is also a private peat railway on the southern shores of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, operated by the Sunshine Peat Company.
See also
- History of rail transport in Ireland
- Irish gauge
- List of narrow gauge railways in Ireland
- Regulating the Gauge of Railways Act 1846
References
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- ↑ Steaming into the Future
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