The Irish narrow gauge in colour - Norman Johnston

Preface - An all-colour album on the Irish narrow gauge is a logical sequel to the much loved colour volumes on the 'Wee Donegal'
and the Isle of Man Steam Railway, published by Colourpoint Books in recent years. Of course, many books have been published on Irish narrow gauge railways; most of them on specific lines and a few as general albums. However, all have been illustrated in black and white, mainly because most of the lines closed before colour photography became commonplace. Apart from the Colourpoint albums, the colour medium has not been explored at all for the narrow gauge, except in a few general albums on Irish railways. Until recently, it would have been virtually impossible to find a sufficient number and variety of colour slides to make this book possible. This has changed in the last few years as more and more colour images from the 1950s have emerged from the archives and the credit for these discoveries must go to Ron White of ColourRail and my good friend John Langford who put me in touch with some other photographers. Of course, a colour album on this subject has inevitable constraints.There is no material pre-1949 and by that date many of the smaller lines had already closed completely, leaving only seven to have any colour coverage at all. Of these seven, the Giant's Causeway Tramway closed in 1949 and the UTA's Ballycastle line in 1950 and they are represented by only a handful of images. The Tralee and Dingle and the Lough Swilly bowed out in 1953 and fared somewhat better for colour, but nevertheless there are fewer than twenty shots of either. The three lines which lasted until 1959-61 survived long enough to attract a good number of Kodachrome or Agfa equipped photographers and inevitably it is these three
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the Cavan and Leitrim and West Clare sections of CIE and the ever popular Donegal
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which form the core of this album. I have concluded the album with a look at the industrial narrow gauge and the recent revival of some of the closed lines.