Dundalk, Newry, Greenore Railway

A clattering noise attracted our attention and a train appeared from behind us, on its way to the port of Greenore.  Some forty years before a similar train had ferried passengers bound for England and ports beyond to Greenore for disembarkation on the Connemara – all of whom perished in the cold, stormy waters at Cranfield when that liner collided with the coal-importing Retriever, a boat out of Newry!

This train was drawn by an old saddle-tank engine made – as far back as 1873 – in Crewe.  It still hauled the white-panelled carriages bearing the letters D.N.G.R.   These initials once puzzled David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England.  He was travelling through the English Midlands in a first-class carriage of the London, Midland and Scottish.  He noticed a white cushion cover on the carriage wall opposite but neither he, nor his companions could decypher the letters D.N.G.R. on it. 

A car attendant explained that they stood for Dundalk, Newry and Greenore Railway, a branch of the old London and North Western system incorporated in the L.M.S.  The Great Northern Railway (G.N.R.) runs that line today.  Live cattle too are transported to Greenore by rail for export to England, there to be slaughtered and processed before consumption.”