About the collection
The Finn Valley Railway Company was incorporated on 15 May 1860 They built a railway line to Irish gauge (5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm)) between Stranorlar and Strabane which opened on 1 October 1863.
The West Donegal Railway Company was incorporated by an act of July 1879 to extend the Finn Valley Railway line south west to Donegal, a distance of 18 miles in length in 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge.
Donegal Railway Company was formed in 1892 by a merger of the Finn Valley Railway and the West Donegal Railway. One of the first acts of the new company was to convert the former Finn Valley Railway from Strabane to Stranorlar from 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) to 3 ft (914 mm) gauge, which it completed on 16 July 1894 Further new lines were built with a Government grant of £300,000 (equivalent to £32,900,000 in 2019)
Stranorlar and Glenties 24 miles (39 km), opened 1895
Donegal Town to Killybegs 19 miles (31 km), opened 1893
Strabane to Derry 14 miles (23 km), opened 1901
Donegal Town to Ballyshannon 16 miles (26 km), was the last section to be completed and opened 2 September 1905
In 1906 it was obtained by the joint interest of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland and the Midland Railway Northern Counties Committee which set up a new company, the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee. They opened the Strabane and Letterkenny Railway on 1 January 1909, bringing the total mileage to 121 miles (195 km).
Under the management of Henry Forbes, traffic superintendent from 1910 to 1943, the County Donegal Railways became pioneers in the use of diesel traction. The first diesel railcar was built in 1930 (the first diesel railcar anywhere in the British Isles)
The Glenties branch closed in 1947, the Strabane-Derry line closed in 1954 and the rest of the passenger services ended on 31 December 1959. Much of the railway was closed on that date. Goods trains ran between Strabane and Stranorlar until 6 February 1960