Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway
The Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway (SLNCR) ran from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh to junctions with the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) and the Great Southern and Western Railway near Collooney, County Sligo, some 49 miles (78 km) standard gauge. It was incorporated in 1875 and opened in sections between 1879 and 1882. It was the last privately-owned railway undertaking to survive in Ireland (although the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway still exists as a road transport firm).
In 1878 a stationmaster’s house and six houses were built for railways workers and their families at Belcoo, County Fermanagh and the following year the line opened with Belcoo station serving both Belcoo and Blacklion, County Cavan. The last trains ran through the station on 20 September 1957.
The SLNCR was one of the railways not to be absorbed into the state-owned system in 1925 since it crossed the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic (then the Irish Free State). The locomotives of the Railway had names, but were not numbered. The Railway was a pioneer in the use of railbuses.
The undertaking was never prosperous since the countryside it crossed was poor and sparsely populated, although at one time intermittent heavy cattle traffic used the line. In spite of subsidies being given by both Governments in its last days, the SLNCR finally closed on 1 October 1957 as a direct result of the Government of Northern Ireland ordering closure of the railway line through Enniskillen.
