50 years closed: a history of the Ardee branch line

Ardee station in June 1962 with the carriages of a special passenger train visible in the background. Photo courtesy of Ernie's Railway Archive.

2025 marks 50 years since the closure of a number of Irish branchlines, which had managed to linger on past the steam era and into the 1970s. Also closed was the secondary mainline known as the ‘Burma Road’ from Claremorris to Coolooney, near Sligo, and the Ballingrane Junction to Listowel section. The branchlines concerned included those from Dromin Junction to Ardee, Attymon Junction to Loughrea, and that from Gortalea to Castleisland. In this article, we will take a look at the history of the first example, the Ardee branch.

The origins of the railway in Ardee

While the railway line to Ardee opened in 1896, the concept of a rail link to Ardee had been first discussed some 50 years earlier, when meetings were held in the town to discuss the possibility of a link with what would become the Dublin to Belfast mainline. Ultimately, attempts to persuade the Dublin & Belfast Junction Railway of the scheme’s merits did not bear fruit, and the scheme was revisited at various points over the following decades, again to no avail. In the 1880s, having met with disinterest from the D&BJR and its successor, the Great Northern Railway, a new company was formed, proposing to link Ardee with Dundalk by a tramway running via Blackrock and with a spur to Castlebellingham. Despite their lack of interest in linking Ardree previously, the GNR opposed the tramway proposal, and declared their intention to provide their own branch to the town. However, it would take much local lobbying over the following decade or so before the GNR would truly commit to the concept in the early 1890s, with their own Bill meeting opposition from other Louth interests until it was ultimately passed in 1892.

The Ardee branch line opens

Ultimately, the branch line to Ardee was opened on 1st August 1896, some four years after the Bill had been passed and over fifty years since the concept was first mooted. The station building, designed by W.H. Mills in his typical GNR yellow brick style, similar to that at Navan, Howth, Malahide, and many other locations on the GNR system.  It was a relatively short line even by branchline standards, running some 4.5 miles to a location known as Dromin Junction, where it met the GNR mainline, with the station having interchange facilities. Such was its short length that there were no intermediate stations on the branch, with Ardee itself being its only source of traffic. As with many rural Irish railways, cattle was an important traffic on the branch (Ardee being host to a local fair) along with grain.

A goods train from the Ardee branch at Dromin Junction. Photo courtesy of Ernie's Railway Archive.

Road competition and the end of passenger services to Ardee

While being one of the later Irish railway lines to open, it was also one of the first to become a victim of decline. World War I had seen motororised road vehicles disrupt the transport industry in general, and bus services linking Ardee with Dundalk and Drogheda would ultimately make the passenger services on the line unviable, with the GNR itself an early proponent of bus transport in Ireland. The GNR ceased passenger trains to Ardee in July 1934, just 38 years after the railway opened.

Goods traffic, however, would remain for many decades to come, with a daily goods train operating to Drogheda, along with occasional special passenger workings,  including summer excursion trains, GAA specials, and the odd railtour. The station at Dromin Junction itself would remain open for mainline services until 31st January 1955, when goods and passenger traffic ceased at this station. 

The end of GNR control and the dawn of the CIÉ era

The GNR itself became the GNR Board in 1953, now under the control of the two governments on the island. This in turn was disbanded in 1958, with its lines south of the border, including the Ardee branch, becoming part of CIÉ. This did not necessarily bear ill tidings for the branch, with goods traffic continuing along with occasional special passenger traffic, perhaps the most remarkable of which was an Ardee-Howth ‘Mystery Train’ excursion in the summer of 1959. Steam would continue on the branch in the early years of CIÉ operation, with diesel locomotives taking over on the branch goods from February 1961.

A Metrovick diesel locomotive and crew on a running-in trip to Ardee in 1964. On the left is fitter Pearse McKeown, let us know if you can identify the other staff. Photo: Kevin Finger.

However, despite the modernisation of its fleet, CIÉ was under pressure in the early 1960s to reduce its operating costs, with the Ardee line being one of twenty-three routes listed for potential closure in March 1962. Ultimately, Ardee would be spared, for a while, although rationalisation did take place in 1963, when most signals were removed and the line being operated on a ‘one engine in steam’ basis. Goods traffic would continue, along with occasional passenger specials. In 1968, it would see a brief spike in use, with CIÉ using Ardee as a ballast loading point and several ballast trains operating along the branch in connection with track works on the mainline.

GM locomotive No.B159 prepares to shunt the carriages of a railtour at Ardee, 14th May 1966, Photo courtesy of Ernie's Railway Archive.

The closure of the Ardee branch line

Freight traffic continued to serve Ardee into the 1970s; however, the branch was by now on borrowed time. With CIÉ’s financial situation continuing to falter, the decision was made to close a number of rural lines in 1975, with the four and a half mile branch to Ardee being among this wave of closures. And thus, the last train to Ardee operated in October 1975, bringing to an end all goods and special passengers on the branch. The track itself would remain in place until the 1980s.

It is now five decades since a train last served Ardee. However, the station building survives, and some of the old route has been made into a walkway. If you’re passing along the M1 motorway, you may just glimpse the sight of the old branch line embankment around the location of Dromin Junction, with the motorway now severing the old track bed from the Dublin-Belfast mainline.