Rail gauge in Ireland

Rail gauge in Ireland

The track gauge adopted by the mainline railways in Ireland is RailGauge|63. This unusual gauge is currently otherwise found only in the Australian states of Victoria, southern New South Wales (as part of the Victorian rail network) and South Australia (where it was introduced by the Irish railway engineer F. W. Shields), and in Brazil. Historically, this gauge was also used by the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway, between 1840 and 1845 and in the early years of the Canterbury Provincial Railways in New Zealand.

The first three railways all had different gauges: the Dublin and Kingstown Railway, RailGauge|56; the Ulster Railway, RailGauge|74; and the Dublin and Drogheda Railway, RailGauge|62. The Board of Trade, recognising the chaos that would ensue, asked one of their officers to advise. After consulting widely he eliminated both the widest and narrowest gauges (Brunel's RailGauge|84 and Stephenson's RailGauge|ussg), deciding on a compromise Irish gauge of RailGauge|63.

The Ulster Railway was re-gauged in about 1846, and the Dublin and Kingstown Railway in 1857, the alteration costing the latter company £38,000.

The Hill of Howth Tramway, the Dublin and Blessington Steam Tramway and the original Dublin tram system all adopted the RailGauge|63 gauge. However, Dublin's Luas tram system opened in 2004, uses standard gauge RailGauge|ussg

Numerous narrow-gauge systems were built, usually to a gauge of RailGauge|36: see the list below. Most are now closed, including the largest narrow-gauge system in Ireland or Great Britain: the "County Donegal Railways Joint Committee". The Irish narrow gauge today survives as heritage railways in both the Republic and in Northern Ireland. Bord na Móna uses narrow gauge in the Midland's bogs as part of its peat transport network. There is also a private peat railway on the southern shores of Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland, operated by the Sunshine Peat Company

ee also

*History of rail transport in Ireland
*List of narrow gauge railways in Ireland
*Rail gauge
*List of rail gauges


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