As a young lad travelling by road to visit family in Connemara, Jim Deegan harboured dreams of restoring the disused rail track so that trains would once again journey into Clifden from Galway.

Back then he had ambitions of reopening the full 100km of track. But with age comes realism and after years of hard work he is months away from opening a visitor steam train experience involving 8km of line either side of Maam Cross along spectacular scenery.

This week the project took another major step forward with the delivery of a 1903 former Great Southern and Western Railway Carriage. The carriage had been stored in a shed in Mullingar, which was about to be redeveloped.

While it is in fairly poor condition, it is salvageable, insists Jim. It will be a combination of local volunteers and experts needed to bring it to its former glory as an express carriage on the Dublin to Cork and Kerry lines. The likely cost will be around €100,000, he predicts.

The managing director of Railtours Ireland set up a not-for-profit company to purchase the derelict Maam Cross station standing on 8.5 acres behind the mart.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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