1844 Plan: Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway

The following documents entitled "Plans and Sections of the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway with a branch to Lough Swilly 1844" were made available to the OSB through the kind generosity of Mr CurlyHill. The entire photocopied plan spreads out over 21 pages.

Sheet 1: Plans and Sections of the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway with a branch to Lough Swilly 1844

This particular plan for the Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway (L&ER) was prepared for Parliament by the engineer Sir John McNeil in 1844, at the request of the Irish Railway Commission. However, these pages do not depict the final route taken by the railway. The final design was influenced in part by the eminent engineer Robert Stephenson and Alexander Ross; after McNeil declined to build the line when the act passed in July 1845.

Report, Robert Stephenson and Alexander M Ross, London 18 August 1845, with report of the first General Meeting of the Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway, The Railway Times, VIII, 30 August 1845, p. 1390. We have inspected the entire line, and have to report to you that much alteration is required to save expense, and to expedite the execution of the works very materially. We are informed that surveys were made in haste, and that Sir J. MacNeil, in the midst of his then pressing engagements, did not himself have time personally to go over the line.

The line to Strabane should have been completed by September 1846 (L&ER General Meeting, Railway Times IX 29 Aug 1846), but allegations from shareholders of Ross's personal and financial involvement with the contractor James Leishman (1800-1884) slowed the project down. The railway station at Strabane opened months later in 1847. Perhaps wearied by the growing dissatisfaction and paranoia of parsimonious shareholder during the famine years, Stephenson and Ross withdrew from the project by January 1848. (The Railway Record V, 15 January 1848 pp56-57). It would take 6 more years to reach the terminus at Enniskillen.

To highlight the difference between McNeil's plan and the completed 1854 L&ER route: on sheet 4 MacNeil runs the rail track at Strabane east of the Bowling Green, through the plot where the Church Of the Immaculate Conception is now situated, up Townsend Street and parallel to the Liskey Road.

Despite Stephenson's criticisms, McNeil's maps are still a useful source of information that show us, albeit roughly at times, what 70 miles of countryside looked like during that period.

The following downloadable KMZ Basemaps and KMZ Enlargement files were designed to be viewed upon the satellite imagery of Google Earth. Since the files were converted to the WGS 84 datum, all measurements should be treated as imprecise due to datum displacement. The opacity and location of the maps can be adjusted within Google Earth. Zoomit links are provided to show the maps in their original unadjusted state.

*NOTE: Google have altered the way their cloud storage system "GoogleDocs" handles KMZ files. Instead of displaying a direct download link, GoogleDocs now opens the KMZ file directly onto Google Maps. Whilst this is a good idea in principle, Google have only partially implemented KMZ support on Google Maps as of yet. As a result, many KMZ files are aligned incorrectly when viewed on Google Maps this way. However, the same KMZ files will appear correctly aligned when opened in GoogleEarth. On the following links please make sure you select Download from the File menu, and then open the files in Google Earth. Just ignore the GoogleMaps preview.

Main Route

View and Download Links

View Online	Download BaseMap	Download EnlargEments
Zoomit Views	KMZ for Google Earth	KMZ for Google Earth
Sheet 1 ∙	City and County Londonderry	6 Sections
Sheet 2	Saint Johnstown - Templemore	3 Sections
Sheet 3	Porthall - Tullyowen	7 Sections
Sheet 4 ∙	Strabane town	4 Sections
Sheet 5	Breen - Milltown	7 Sections
Sheet 6 ∙	Newtown Stewart - Mulvin	3 Sections
Sheet 7	Beltan - Pubble	11 Sections
Sheet 8	Lislimnaghan - Castletown	17 Sections
Sheet 9 ∙	Omagh	12 Sections
Sheet 10	Mullawinny - Mullaghmore	9 Sections
Sheet 11	Drumskinny - Shanaragh	8 Sections
Sheet 12	Strangagummer - Esker	9 Sections
Sheet 13	Drummurry- Lisnahanna	11 Sections
Sheet 14	Aughaward - Salry	9 Sections
Sheet 15 ∙	Enniskillen	9 Sections

Lifford Deviation

View and Download Links

View Online	Download BaseMap	Download EnlargEments
Zoomit Views	KMZ for Google Earth	KMZ for Google Earth
Part 1	Lifford Common - Porthall	6 Sections
Part 2	Liggartown - Coneyburrow	8 Sections
Part 3	Trafalgar	1 Section

Derry City and Branch to Lough Swilly

View and Download Links

View Online	Download BaseMap	Download EnlargEments
Zoomit Views	KMZ for Google Earth	KMZ for Google Earth
Sheet 1a	City of Londonderry Enlarged Plan	-
Swilly Branch	Port Lough - Whitehouse	9 Sections

Life expectancy \ income - Ireland \ UK. 1800-2009 (GapMinder data)

SkyDrive Folder (alternative links)