Marconi Railway
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| Marconi Railway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Visitor shuttle
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| Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Line length | 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track gauge | 2 feet (610 mm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Marconi Railway was a 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) narrow gauge railway with a gauge of 2 feet (610 mm) at the Marconi Wireless Station near Clifden in the Irish County Galway. It operated from 1907 to 1922.
The route ran from the gate of the site over bog and rocks to the main buildings of the Marconi Wireless Station. There was a turntable at each end of the track, of which ruins are still visible. There were no passing loops on the single-line track. Several manually operated cranes along the route could be used to load the waggons with peat, which was burned as fuel by the on-site power station.[2][1]
History
Construction and inauguration
The track and the steam locomotive were designed and built from 1905 to 1907 by Dick, Kerr & Co. in Scotland. Initially it was used to transport construction material and electrical equipment. On 17 October 1907, the first passengers were transported to the Wireless Station. Later it became useful for transporting peat to the power station and for employees and visitors to various points.[2]
In 1919, the pilots John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown, who had crash-landed on 14/15 June after the first 16-hour trans Atlantic non-stop flight, drove with the Lancia railcar from the capacitor building to the receiving house and the social club.[2]
Closure
When the Marconi Wireless Station burnt down in 1922 due to political unrest, the locomotive and waggons became useless. Subsequently, the railway line was taken out of use, lifted and probably scrapped.[2]
