Tralee and Dingle Light Railway

The Tralee and Dingle Light Railway and Tramway was a 51 km (32 mi), 914 mm (3 ft) narrow gauge railway running between Tralee and Dingle, with a 10 km (6.2 mi) branch from Castlegregory Junction to Castlegregory, in County Kerry on the west coast of Ireland.

The railway was built as cheaply as possible, largely following adjacent roads, resulting in some very tight curves and severe gradients.

In March 1893, the Board of Trade held an inquiry into poor management and operating practices on the railway; nevertheless a fatal accident (involving a runaway train) took place at Curraduff in May of the same year.

The line was closed in 1921 on the orders of the British Army (during the struggle for independence prior to the creation of the Irish Free State).

The line was 31 miles long, broken into approximately 10-mile sections at Castlegregory Junction and Annascaul, where the locomotives would take water if required, and where trains could pass each other.

In 1910, at the peak of the line's usage, there were two return passenger trains, morning and evening, which on market days, Tuesday and Saturday, made a third midday trip.

Despite the rundown in the line's usage over time, all the timetables required three locomotives to operate the passenger services each day.

The road between Tralee and Dingle was improved in the 1930s, allowing buses and lorries to effectively compete with the railway.

A single daily goods train continued to run until 1947, when coal shortages forced its temporary withdrawal.

A German spy named Walter Simon arrived at the station and asked when the next train would depart (not realising that only freight services were still operating).