Description
Donegal Railway Museum is delighted to announce the arrival of a new Donegal railway bus book, titled the “County Donegal Railways Bus Services”, by Hugh Dougherty.
This 50-page paperback publication is a collection of terrific colour and black & white photos, many of which have not been published in book form before. The railway buses which once operated across Donegal were unique, and we are delighted to be offering new material celebrating this important part of Donegal’s heritage, with all profits going towards telling the story of the railways and buses that once operated across County Donegal.
Transport journalist Hugh Dougherty, got to know the CDR buses, management and crews very well while on holidays in Donegal as a teenager in the 1960s. He felt that the story of the CDR, after the railway closed, should be told, and wrote ‘The Bus Services of the County Donegal Railways’, published in 1973 by Transport Research Associates of Dublin, and now long out of print. His new book, ‘County Donegal Railways Bus Services’, published this summer, by Stenlake, tells the story of the buses in more detail as the result of new research by Hugh.
A proud member of the Glasgow-Donegal diaspora, Hugh contributes to transport magazines and local and national media, including the Irish papers in Scotland. As a father of four grown-up children and a grandfather for five, he lives with his wife, Patricia, who has suffered, patiently, for the last 48 years, from his life-long fascination with all things CDR, including building a working, 4mm scale model of the railway, and its buses(!), in their Glasgow home.
In this new book Hugh covers not only the vehicles and routes themselves, but more importantly tells the story of the crews who ran them, the passengers they carried, the very different world from today’s Donegal that they ran in, and what it was like to travel on a bus owned and proudly operated by the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee, until it was taken over by Coras Iompair Eireann. During those post-railway years, from 1960 to 1971, the fiercely-independent CDR still thought of itself as a railway company, even if it didn’t have a train!
The County Donegal Railways Bus Services is available through this website and at our museum directly. This is another welcome addition to the Donegal Railway archive and is a must-have for anyone interested in our local heritage and in the County Donegal Railways and buses.
The new book is just €14 + Postage €4 = €18
(Current Members receive a 10% Discount; contact [email protected] for Membership Discount)
For orders outside Ireland and the UK contact [email protected] for additional postage cost.
ADDITIONAL TALK – As part of Heritage Week, on Saturday 12th August, 1:30pm, Hugh will be giving a talk about the County Donegal Railway Buses and will also officially launch his new book. The event will also be streamed live; details to follow
