The story
Incorporation
The Finn Valley Railway Company was incorporated by the Finn Valley Railway Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. xl) on 15 May 1860 with capital of £60,000 (equivalent to £6,310,000 in 2025).
Personnel
The Chairman of the directors was The 4th Viscount Lifford, whose seat was Meenglass Castle, just south-east of Ballybofey, and the Deputy-Chairman was James Thompson Macky of the Bank of Ireland in Derry.
The other directors were:
Robert Collum, 1 Chester Place, Hyde Park Square, London
Edward Hunter, The Glebe, Blackheath, Kent
Maurice Ceely Maude, Lenaghan, Enniskillen
Sir Samuel Hercules Hayes, 4th Baronet, Leuaghan, Stranorlar
Robert Russell, Salthill, Mountcharles
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Major Humphreys, Milltown House, Strabane
The other offices of the company were:
James Alex Ledlie, Stranorlar, Secretary
Peter W. Barlow, 26 Great George Street, Westminster, Consulting Engineer
John Bower, Engineer
Opening
A 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge rail line between Stranorlar and Strabane was opened on 1 October 1863.
Operation
The directors entered into a contract with the Irish North Western Railway to work the line for a period of 10 years. This company became amalgamated with the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1876.
Merger and gauge conversion
In 1892, the line merged with the West Donegal Railway into a new company, the Donegal Railway Company. The line from Stranorlar to Strabane was reconstructed to (3 ft (914 mm)) gauge shortly afterwards.
From Wikipedia’s article on Finn Valley Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3