Lartigue Restoration

The Lartigue Monorailway

Listowel - Ballybunion Railway

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Lartigue Restoration:

1988 saw the centenary of the opening of the Lartigue and several initiatives were taken to celebrate the event, among the most valuable of these was a history of the Lartigue written by local politician and Lartigue enthusiast Michael Guerin. Michael Barry of Lisselton had already assembled 50 metres of salvaged track and an original carriage and Michael Foster had written a valuable book on the Lartigue. From this time a feeling emerged that a restoration of the Lartigue should be attempted in some form. As a result, in the mid 1990's a Lartigue Restoration Committee was set up under the Chairmanship of Jimmy Deenihan TD, with Jack McKenna, who had traveled on the footplate of the original Lartigue, as President

After much work and fundraising by the committee, work started on the building of the new Lartigue on the site on John B Keane Road in November 2000. The construction work was carried out by an excellent team of FAS employees under the direction of members of the restoration committee and the train went in to operation in June 2003.

The railway has about 1000 metres of monorail track, three switches, two turntables and three platforms representing Listowel, Lisselton and Ballybunion. There is one engine, which is an exact reproduction of the original engines, save that the present engine is diesel driven. There are two third class carriages, which are as closely modeled on the originals as is possible using photographs and the memory of those who traveled in them. The engine, carriages, switches, turntables and the track A-frames were built by Alan Keef Ltd of Ross on Wye in Monmoth. Alan Keef are the builders of many theme railways in Britain and round the world and they have surpassed themselves on this occasion in producing these stunning Lartigue replicas.

The final touch of authenticity is the site itself, the present journey on the Lartigue starts less than 100m from the point where the original Lartigue commenced its journey to Ballybunion. The site of the original Lartigue Listowel Terminal is preserved in a park adjacent to the new Lartigue, the bases of two switches are preserved and the foundations of the Engine House. Lartigue President Jack McKenna most generously presented this park to the Lartigue Company.