DONEGAL RAILWAY MUSEUM. Narrow Gauge Railway. Irish Tourism.

This is a record of my flying visit to this wonderful little museum. The station should be the future centre of the most dynamic Narrow Gauge Railway preservation project. Now that cruise ship tourists arrive in their thousands at the port of Killybegs the future prospects for an amazingly successful project appear to be very strong. Wether to stay with the current gauge or go to 60cm (2 foot) to get a footprint presence and a greater awareness nationally and inter-nationally. This is just something I am sure they will have to think about. The railway line from Donegal to Derry closed at the end of 1954, bar one school special in June 1955. The other lines survived until the end of 1959. Despite closure over 55 years ago, a large number of the railway's locomotives, railcars and rolling stock have survived in various museums. WooWooMad travels the world looking at railways, tramways, funicular railways, in fact anything that has an engineering interest and helps folk move about and communicate. In Austria, for example, I have seen three different gauges of track in one station, plus a bus depot. The different gauges, Standard, Metre and 60 cm, all related to the scale of the job to be done, terrain to be covered and the impact on the environment to be mitigated. The grand Irish broad gauge certainly would be unnecessary and inappropriate, I would have thought! Since the middle of the last century, there has been the most wonderful advances in various forms of public transport. Alternative transport packages from around the world are now available and would be spectacularly sucessful for this part of Ireland and truly should be carefully considered. I arrived by cruise ship at Killybegs, along with hundreds of other tourists and had to bus it to Donegal. A nice European style tramway from the port along the coast to Donegal would have been magical and confirmed tourist expectations for their visit to Ireland. County Donegal’s five designated heritage towns are Ardara, Ballyshannon, Moville, Ramelton, and Raphoe. These towns were officially recognised for their unique architecture, rich history, and diverse cultural landscapes. Quotes found on the internet: - The Seanad Éireann was told that there were no train line from Donegal to Sligo and further afield, on the western coast due to “low demand for all passenger rail services” and that a rail investment would “have a significant adverse impact on the environment”. 22 Jan 2026. Current railway proposals mean that rail will be in Donegal in the late 2030s/ early 2040s. The hope is that ministers from both sides of the border can come together to create a budget and infrastructure to speed up building a railway network to Donegal from Londonderry/Derry. 30 Apr 2026. A business opportunity, and a fun one at that, if I ever saw one. Very best wishes to you all. I will create another video when you get to your first station. Very best wishes, WooWooMad.