Summer Sunday Steam

It’s August 1955 and the Great Northern Railway of Ireland has been operated by The Great Northern Railway Board since 1953. The GNRB was administered by both the northern and southern Irish governments in an attempt to keep the struggling GNR(I) operational. Although time is definitely running out for the railway, the GNR spirit was certainly present on Sunday, August 21st 1955, at the county Louth railway terminus of Clogherhead. Whilst some of the GNR’s lines had already closed, and many remaining services were operated by diesel trains, the many visitors to Clogherhead that afternoon were treated to the sights and sounds of familiar blue and black steam locomotives and mahogany carriages, and the railway staff could have been forgiven for thinking that this idyllic scene would last forever.