SLIGO, LEITRIM & NORTHERN COUNTIES RAILWAY

A ROUTE MAP OF THE SLIGO, LEITRIM & NORTHERN COUNTIES RAILWAY - The SL&NCR Company was incorporated in 1875, and its construction started at a junction with the Great Northern Railway (GNR(I)) at Enniskillen and proceeded westwards, opening as far as Belcoo in 1879, Manorhamilton in 1880, Collooney in 1881 and Carrignagat Junction on the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) opened in 1882, completing a line of about 43 miles. Beyond Carrignagat Junction the SL&NCR exercised running powers over the MGWR to and from Sligo. In 1895 the Waterford, Limerick and Western Railway (WL&WR) was extended to Collooney, forming junctions with the MGWR and SL&NCR. This gave access to a larger area of western Ireland, whose cattle exports formed a significant part of the SL&NCR's traffic. The SL&NCR was one of the railways that the Irish Free State's Great Southern Railways did not absorb in 1925 because it crossed the border with Northern Ireland. It became the last privately owned railway undertaking to survive in Ireland. The company never prospered since the countryside it crossed was poor and sparsely populated, although at one time intermittent heavy cattle traffic used the line. Governments on both sides of the border subsidised the railway in its later years, but the SL&NCR closed on October 1st, 1957, as a result of the Government of Northern Ireland making the GNR Board close its line through Enniskillen.