The Castleblayney, Keady and Armagh Railway (CK&A) was an

Irish gauge Railways with a track gauge of fall within the category of broad gauge railways. , they were extant in Australia, Brazil and Ireland. History 600 BC :The Diolkos (Δίολκος) across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece – a grooved pave ...

railway in

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

. It linked in

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...

with in

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County C ...

. The Armagh – section was opened in 1909 and closed in 1957. The Castleblayney – Keady section was opened in 1910 and closed in 1924.

History

In 1899 a Bill was presented to

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

to build a railway linking on the

Midland Great Western Railway The Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) was the third largest Irish gauge () railway company in Ireland. It was incorporated in 1845 and absorbed into the Great Southern Railways in 1924. At its peak the MGWR had a network of , making it Irelan ...

(MGW) with Armagh on the Great Northern Railway (GNR). It was defeated. The next year Parliament passed an Act to incorporate the Kingscourt, Keady and Armagh Railway Company, but the new company was unable to begin construction. Instead it reached agreement with the GNR to build the section between Castleblayney and Armagh, and abandoned the planned section between Castleblayney and Kingscourt. A new bill in 1902 reincorporated it as the Castleblayney, Keady and Armagh Railway Company. Construction began in 1903; the first passenger services did not run until 31 May 1909, when the between Armagh and Keady was opened, although goods trains had started in March 1908. The section between Castleblayney and Keady was opened on 11 November 1910, and the GNR (which was working the line) took over the company on 1 June 1911. The line attracted some freight but passenger traffic was light. Some passenger services were worked by a

push–pull train Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not. A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via ...

formed of a single coach worked by a locomotive such as a BT class

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four ...

T dating from the 1880s. Freight trains were commonly worked by UG class

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrang ...

s. The

Partition of Ireland The partition of Ireland ( ga, críochdheighilt na hÉireann) was the process by which the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland. ...

in 1922 turned the Armagh–Monaghan county boundary between and into an international frontier that resulted in the GNR closing the Castleblaney – Keady section from 2 April 1923 (the customs border came into effect on Sunday 1 April) and withdrew passenger services from the Keady – Armagh section from 1 Feb 1932.GNR(I) advertisement ''Belfast News-Letter'' 15 January 1932 In 1957 the

Government of Northern Ireland The government of Northern Ireland is, generally speaking, whatever political body exercises political authority over Northern Ireland. A number of separate systems of government exist or have existed in Northern Ireland. Following the partitio ...

made the GNR close much of its remaining network in Northern Ireland, including goods traffic from the remaining section of the CKA from 1 October 1957.

Features

The line's summit at Carnagh was above sea level, the highest place on the GNR. The –long

Tassagh Viaduct The Tassagh Viaduct is a railway viaduct near Tassagh, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Tassagh Beetling Mill sits almost immediately beneath it. History The viaduct was completed in 1910, bridging the Callan River Valley. It was originally p ...

, north of

Keady Keady () is a village and civil parish in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is south of Armagh and near the border with the Republic of Ireland. It is situated mainly in the historic barony of Armagh with six townlands in the barony of Tirann ...

, is a composite. Its

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

s and parapets are stone, but its piers are reinforced concrete and the piers and the undersides of its 11 arches are faced with brick. This is a substantial saving in weight and construction compared with earlier purely stone or brick viaducts. The viaduct over the

Callan River The Callan River is a river in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Rising near Tullnawood lake, it flows in a generally northerly direction, past Darkley, passing within a few miles of Keady town, through Tassagh and on to Armagh. It joins the R ...

at Ballyards, by contrast, is faced entirely with stone.

References

Sources

* * * * * *{{cite book , last=McCutcheon , first=William Alan , year=1983 , orig-year=1980 , title=The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland , location=Madison, NJ , publisher=

Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (FDU Press) is a publishing house under the operation and oversight of Fairleigh Dickinson University, the largest private university in New Jersey, which has international campuses in Vancouver, British Colum ...

for the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment , isbn=0-8386-3125-8 Closed railways in Northern Ireland Closed railways in Ireland Defunct railway companies of Ireland Great Northern Railway (Ireland) Irish gauge railways Railway lines closed in 1924 Railway lines closed in 1957 Railway lines opened in 1909 Railway lines opened in 1910 Transport in County Armagh Transport in County Monaghan