Maam Cross signal box destroyed.

[Ashley Hill]

I’ve not seen this reported elsewhere on the forum, but sad news that a fire has destroyed Maam Cross Station Cabin. The box is on the Connemara Railway in Ireland and was only rebuilt a few years ago. Here’s a photo from the Irish Mirror showing the building well ablaze.

 

[Forty29]

Oh lord so devastating to see and for the railway. Being recently rebuilt too but still non the less a big set back.

 

[Thewanderer]

It was an accidental fire. The stove had been lit inside the cabin and strong winds on the day meant the timber in the roof caught fire and it rapidly spread.

 

[Olivine]

It was an accidental fire. The stove had been lit inside the cabin and strong winds on the day meant the timber in the roof caught fire and it rapidly spread.

Real shame that such an unforeseen event happened to cause such devastation.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Such a shame.
I never keep a large fire in my box stove. We nearly lost a box on my preserved line when a signalman banked up the stove ready for the early turn man in the morning. When a group of us went out in the evening for refreshments the amount of green smoke from the chimney alerted us to the problem. The box was roasting and the stove was found filled to the brim. With a pair of tongs we took out as much unburnt coal as we could. The next day the Bobby got a hell of a bol**king and instructions issued that stoves must never be banked up.

 

[Rescars]

What a sad spectacle. Incidentally, I have read that the Irish translation of Maam Cross is an Teach Dóite, meaning 'the burned house'!

 

[Forty29]

Oh lord an accident waiting to happen going by the translation!