Londonderry Foyle Road 1900 to 1944

On 1 August 1900 a rival company, the Donegal Railway (DR), opened a line between Strabane and Waterside. The DR station, called Victoria Road, was located directly opposite Foyle Road station on the east bank of the River Foyle and to the south of the Carlisle Bridge. The DR line was a 3ft gauge railway which connected into their 75 mile long system at Strabane (by 1909 that system had finally expanded to be 124 miles). The line had been opposed by the GNRI as it took traffic away from its Strabane – Derry/Londonderry route. Mixed gauge track on the Carlisle Bridge allowed DR wagons to reach the city in the same way as BNCR ones did over the LP&HC lines which had been converted to mixed gauge in 1885. The opening of Victoria Road completed the main line railways of Derry Londonderry as shown on the Railway Clearing House map below.

The 1904 Handbook of Stations listed Londonderry Foyle Road as being able to handle general goods, parcels, furniture vans and livestock. The station had a 3-ton lifting crane.

On 1 July 1903 the BNCR was taken over by the English Midland Railway (MR) company. The MR had aspirations for its Ireland operation and sought access to County Donegal through the acquisition of the DR. The GNRI were very concerned about this development and set out to block it. In the end agreement was reached that both the GNRI and the MR would take over the DR as equal partners. On 1 May 1906 they set up the County Donegal Railway Joint Committee (CDR). As the GNRI had a route between Derry/Londonderry and Strabane the act authorising the merger vested the Victoria Road – Strabane line wholly with the MR. Trains along that route were however operated by the CDR.

In 1907 the single line between Derry/Londonderry and St Johnston was doubled. As part of the works the two signal cabins were replaced with standard GNRI structures. Londonderry North was re-sited onto the western side of the line adjacent to the goods shed. The new Londonderry South cabin was also positioned on the east side of the line. The new South Cabin was beside the former locomotive works, closed in 1899, which had been located beside the Letterkenny Road (the South Cabin was also often called ‘loco works’ cabin).

In 1900 over 90% of railway goods traffic for the port of Derry/Londonderry was using the GNRI line to Foyle Road. Passenger traffic was also growing after 1900 and the April 1910 timetable shows improved passenger services to and from the station. There were 8 departures on weekdays including local services to Strabane and Clones with a through train to Belfast. There were 5 trains to Dublin including an express leaving Foyle Road at 12.15am arriving in Dublin at 5.35pm. In 1910 there were 7 arrivals on weekdays with local services from Omagh and Enniskillen, and 5 trains from Dublin including an express service leaving Dublin at 3.00pm arriving in Foyle Road at 8.09pm. In 1910 there were no Sunday services except for the mail train which ran 7 days a week. Since 1908 the mail train had included a sleeping car service which ran to and from Dublin. This was the only sleeping car service provided on any Irish railway and it lasted only until 1914.

By 1911 there must have been an issue with the train shed roof because on 25 April that year achitects drawings were signed off for a replacement. The works that followed saw the complete demolition of the 1870 train shed and the erection of a completely new structure that enclosed the same area as the original. The walls of the new train shed were pierced by five broad arches, partially glazed, with hipped, glazed roofing sections topped with ventilators, corresponding to the arches. Work was underway within two months and it was reported by the Londonderry Sentinel in its morning edition of 6 June 1911. The article included a sketch (see below) that showed readers how the new train shed would look. They reported the cost of the works as being £7,000 and stated that they were 'being carried out without inconvenience to the traffic'.

The completion of the new train shed roof was the last major reconstruction that the station went through and it would remain in this form until closure.

On 4 August 1914 the British Empire declared war on Germany and entered the Great War. From 1 January 1917 the GNRI was taken into British Government control (along with all of the other Irish railways). The GNRI system was used intensely during the war years. Almost as soon as the fighting had stopped, on 11 November 1918, the Irish War of Independence broke out in January 1919.  In early 1921 the British Government relinquished control of the GNRI and it was put back into the hands of its directors. The line’s problems had not gone away however as by the end of 1921 Ireland was partitioned into two separate countries. As a company the GNRI now found itself operating in both. The line between Londonderry Foyle Road and Strabane was particularly problematic. Four and a half miles to the south of Foyle Road station the line passed into the Irish Free State only to return to Northern Ireland about 2 miles to the north of Strabane.  The three intermediate stations between Derry/Londonderry and Strabane lay wholly within the Irish Free State. This meant that customs checks had to be made for passengers and goods that were passing between the two countries. A solution to the problem was to run long distance services non-stop between Foyle Road and Strabane with dispensation being given for these trains to be exempt from customs checks. Customs offices were provided at all stations between Strabane and Carrigans but not at Foyle Road. Goods trains from the Free State to stations in Donegal had their wagons sealed to avoid customs checks and St Johnston handled most of this traffic.

As if this wasn’t bad enough a Civil War broke out in The Irish Free State in June 1922. This caused further disruption to the railway in County Donegal and it went on until May 1923.

On 1 July 1921 the GNRI unveiled a War Memorial within the station concourse to commemorate its employees who had fallen in the Great War.

In 1922 the Day and Night Mail service to and from Dublin ceased.

The July 1922 passenger timetable showed 6 departures and 7 arrivals Monday-to-Saturday as shown in the table below. There were no Sunday services at this time.

The 1920s and 1930s were difficult for the GNRI because of having to operate in two countries,  increasing competition from road vehicles, and industrial unrest. Many of the freight services to Derry/Londonderry carrying cattle and other agricultural produce had been re-routed via Portadown to avoid customs checks on the Clones line after 1922. A railway strike in 1933 didn’t help matters with even more traffic being lost and partition only worsened the trading position of the GNR.  Despite these problems during the 1930s about 10 to 12 steam locos were allocated to Derry/Londonderry shed to deal with the traffic to and from Foyle Road.

In 1932 the GNR offered the fastest ever journey times on services that ran between Derry/Londonderry and Dublin.  The train from Dublin took 4 hours and 20 minutes to travel to Foyle Road. One of the services from Foyle Road to Dublin was only allowed 3 hours and 55 minutes to reach its destination.

In 1933 the Carlisle Bridge was replaced by the Craigavon Bridge. The new structure was built just to the north of the old which meant that it passed over the southern end of the platform. As with the 1863 bridge the lower deck was for rail use by wagons only, using a rope and capstan to winch the wagons across the bridge.

The timetable of May 1936 showed that on a Sunday there were now 2 arrivals and departures for Bundoran and Clones with an arrival from Strabane in the morning only. On weekdays there were 6 departures for Belfast, with 4 trains having through coaches or connections for Dublin via Clones. There were also 2 trains for Enniskillen. There were 7 arrivals in Foyle Road on weekdays with 4 trains from Belfast, 2 trains from Enniskillen plus a train in the morning from Omagh. Most trains to and from Foyle Road had connections at Omagh with trains to and from Dublin. On Saturday evenings only, there was an additional train from Victoria Bridge to Londonderry Foyle Road and 2 late evening trains from Foyle Road to Victoria Bridge, bringing people back from the dance halls in Derry/Londonderry.

By 1939 the Day Mail train was timed to leave Belfast Great Victoria Street at 8.25am and arrived at Foyle Road at 11.00am after attaching the TPO at Portadown. This was the quickest schedule in the inter-war period and the overall time of 2 hours and 35 minutes was 10 minutes quicker than the fastest NCC service between Belfast York Road and Londonderry Waterside at that time (the GNRI having a longer 100 miles route via Portadown).

Because of its geographic position during the Second World War (1939 – 1945) the city of Derry/Londonderry was of major strategic importance as a port, a military base and a manufacturing centre. The strategic role brought a great deal of additional traffic to the city’s railways but less so for the GNRI. The reason for this was because the line passed through the Irish Free State which declared its neutrality throughout the conflict. The neutral stance meant that war materials or military personnel could not pass along the GNRI route.  Some consideration was given to converting the CDR line from Strabane to Victoria Road to mixed gauge to deal with this issue in 1940/1 but it was not approved.

The Portadown TPO service which had been running for 55 years was withdrawn on 11 June 1940 because of the war.