Tracing the Armagh-Keady railway line on Google satellite and street view

[@mricycold]

Excellent video, Eamonn. Thank you for sharing it. I grew up about a mile away from Tassagh viaduct and walked over it a few times in my teenage years. I’ve recently been trying to locate Tassagh halt and someone in the Callan River Wildlife Group recommended your videos. Such a great resource. I’m fascinated by the remains of all the old railway infrastructure. Such a pity when we see it crumbling and not maintained.

[@eamonnca1]

Thanks! At the viaduct is the old mill, and across Dundrum Rd from it is a lane. At the end of the lane now is a farmhouse, and I believe that was the site of Tassagh Halt. The historic railmap tool is a great resource for that sort of thing. railmaponline.com/

[@martinwalsh3228]

@@eamonnca1 Reopening the railway line would cut down on Road Deaths, Traffic Jams, Car Accidents & Pollution.

[@martinwalsh3228]

Should reopened to cut down on 1) Car Accidents/Road Deaths, 2) Traffic Jams & 3) Pollution.

[@altfishmike5702]

Enjoying these videos, keep it up. btw Old Trafford Railway station has not been used for a few years. BUT they now have a tram stop on the other side of the ground.

[@paddyslevin6161]

There is a railway viaduct in Keady as well as one of the more interesting artifacts of Irish railway history, the tunnel for the Ulster and Connaught Light Railway. This was a proposal for a narrow gauge line from Greenore, County Louth to Clifden, County Galway, for which the tunnel under the railway embankment at Keady was built, but never used. Ulsterbus now use part of the tunnel as a bus garage.

[@AndalusianIrish]

This was very enjoyable. Thanks!

[@bryanmclaughlin7748]

Reference the Portadown/Dungannon line. Annaghmore Station - just across the road from Annaghmore SPAR. Verner’s Bridge Station. Close to where the line crosses the canal. Trew and Moy station. Accessed from Clonmore Road? Creamery plant nearby. Old station house, modernised, but still recognisable.

[@joshuaW5621]

This could make a good place for a heritage railway or a greenway, although it looks like there might need to be quite a number of detours made.

[@MrSleuth89]

2:00 Site of old railway tunnel on Callan St where children played In 1967 a build up of sewer gas caused an explosion that took the life of a child. A memorial has been placed on the site.

[@bryanmclaughlin7748]

Reference the Dungannon- Portadown line. About one third of a mile towards Dungannon from Dungannon Rugby Club there is a mile long tunnel that runs almost all the way into the old Dungannon station. I think that tunnel is still there.

[@richardhayes5423]

Eamonn. I love ur videos. I sort of did the same as u without and before google earth. We have so much railway history. If u need any help with lines in County Down I wud love to help

[@carolan_agriculture3376]

12.28 The station was actually on the other side of the viaduct where the factory is now located it had a Signal box and a siding

[@carolan_agriculture3376]

Sorry 13.28

[@JohnDeeres-ij1cb]

The old railway runs though my feilds in hamiltonsbawn

[@eamonnca1]

That'd be the Armagh-Markethill-Newry line

[@davidchambers7508]

Thank you again for making this film. Regarding the outline of the Armagh - Keady - Castleblayney line check out this link. There is a railway map of Britain and Ireland: railmaponline.com/ Click on this and zoom in to find Armagh - Keady. In Armagh city the bridge parapets are visible in the zoomed in views. Regarding having halts serving sports stadia in Killarney there was the Fitzgerald platform at the Tralee of that town serving a GAA grounds. In Keady besides the viaduct in the centre of the village to the north of SFM Engineering there is also a tunnel which was built for the projected but never built Connacht and Ulster Light Railway. [This would have run from Dromod to Newry connecting up various narrow gauge (3 foot/ 914mm gauge) systems.] From the early 1900s reinforced concrete came into vogue in railway civil engineering as it evident in the viaducts on this line. Reinforced concrete was also used in construction of the Rosslare Strand - Waterford line and the Strasshof locomotive depot near Vienna in Austria. As an aside in the 1840s there was a plan for a line from Dublin to Belfast via Navan and Armagh. One wonders what it would have been like if the Meath Road was extended from Kingscourt to Castleblayney to connect with the Armagh - Keady line there. Regarding buildings on the Armagh - Keady line these would need to be resolved. During the development of the Luas lines properties needed to acquired and demolished to facilitate building these lines. I will say that your film is a welcome distraction from all this blasted lockdown fear porn on mainstream media.

[@eamonnca1]

That's a fantastic tool. Thanks for sharing! This'll be helpful as I do more of these. I never knew about the narrow gauge lines. When you say Dromod, are you referring to the place in Leitrim?

[@davidchambers7508]

@@eamonnca1 Indeed I am. This is now the location of the preserved railway and museum there.

[@jwrobin21]

@@eamonnca1 www.railmaponline.com/ Try this link!

[@fczSevenzero]

Checked my copy of the GNRI Appendix to the Working Timetable 1915, and it appears that there was no public road level crossings between Armagh and Keady. The railway either went over the road or under the road by a bridge. Also, as far as I'm aware, there's a third viaduct on the line near Milford.

[@eamonnca1]

So the walls we see at 2:41 would be on a former bridge over a cutting; that would explain it. Would the Milford viaduct be the bridge over the Callan at Ballyards? I can just about get a glimpse of it through the hedges on the street view. Thanks!

[@fczSevenzero]

@@eamonnca1 Not 100% sure, but i think what was referred to as the viaduct, was the twin arch bridge over the Ballyards Rd. Most of the cuttings along the line would have been filled in after the line was closed and the land sold/given back to the farmers, which now makes it harder to follow.

[@eddieportmore1]

Most of the rail line has gone from memory and like a lot of old rail lines ,the industrial markings are also gone from memory and for gotten about. With new houses and buildings wind turbines ect, going up .With every passing year. / Makes you think if there had not been partition in ireland ,would have some of the old lines have been save. /I think now, why cant the council, cant open up in armagh city the line as a green way from station road out to as far as milford and maybe on to keady./ To get from one side of armagh city/ walking .To say the moy road. And call to the grave yard. There is no safe way to do this .With out having to walk along side busy roads that are not going were you want to go .I think that armagh station was more closer to the bus station, then at the junction of the two former lines were they met .