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The history of rail transport in Ireland began only a decade later than that of Great Britain.By its peak in 1920, Ireland had 3,500 route miles (5,630 km). The current status is less than half that amount, with a large unserviced area around the border area between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The Irish Railway Record Society has a library of Irish railway documents at Heuston station and charters an annual railtour. The Modern Railway Society of Ireland promoted interest in modern-day Irish Railways and charters occasional railtours, before it was wound up in 2024. Irish Traction Group based at Carrick-on-Suir.
There are a small number of heritage railways in the Republic of Ireland, reflecting Ireland's long history of rail transport. Some former operations have closed, and aspirant operations may have museums and even rolling stock, but no operating track. There are also working groups, which may run heritage rolling stock on main lines.
The Great Southern Railways Company (often Great Southern Railways, or GSR) was an Irish company that from 1925 until 1945 owned and operated all railways that lay wholly within the Irish Free State (the present-day Republic of Ireland). The period was difficult with rising operating costs and static to failing income.
The Great Southern and Western Railway (GS&WR) was an Irish gauge (1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)) railway company in Ireland from 1844 [2] until 1924. [3] The GS&WR grew by building lines and making a series of takeovers, until in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was the largest of Ireland's "Big Four" railway networks.
The D&KR was also notable for a number of other achievements besides being Ireland's first passenger railway: it operated an atmospheric railway for ten years; claimed the first use of a passenger tank engine; was the world's first commuter railway and was the first railway company to build its own locomotives.
Ireland formerly had numerous narrow-gauge railways, most of which were built to a gauge of 3 ft (914 mm). The last (non-preserved) line to close was the West Clare Railway in 1961 (though it has been partially preserved).
Although prototype diesel locomotives ran in Britain before World War II, the railways of both the Republic and Northern Ireland changed over much more rapidly from steam to diesel traction than those in Britain, due to the island's limited coal reserves and (in the Republic) an ageing steam locomotive fleet.