In fairness, I ought to say that the direction and management responsible for these things are not the direction and management that exist to-day.

Mr. Henry Hunt, the present General Manager of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Company, was appointed to that position in September, 1916.  He came from the Great Central Railway.  This is what I said about him in my report:  “He is a good railway man, capable and experienced.  He has assumed and exercises an authority which none of his predecessors possessed, and is keen to do all he can to improve matters and develop the railway.”  Further acquaintance with Mr. Hunt has more than confirmed my high opinion of him.

In due time my report was submitted to the Privy Council, which august body, after hearing all that was to be said on the subject by the Lough Swilly Railway Company and others, made an Order which is the first of its kind—­an Order which, for a period of two years, took out of the hands of the Lough Swilly Railway Directors the management of the Burtonport Railway, and placed it in the hands of Mr. Hunt, subject to my supervision.  The Order said:  “Henry Hunt, at present the General Manager of the Londonderry and Lough Swilly Railway Company, is hereby appointed Manager of the said undertaking of the said railway under and subject to the supervision of Mr. Joseph Tatlow, Director of the Midland Great Western Railway Company of Ireland.”  Then followed various clauses defining the duties and authority with which Mr. Hunt, as Manager, was invested.

This appointment, to supervise, under the Privy Council, the management of the Burtonport line, was the pleasant surprise which Dame Fortune brought me in my fiftieth year of railway work.

The duties of the office began on the 1st of July, 1917, and the two years prescribed have expired; but Mr. Hunt’s management and my supervision have, by Privy Council Order, been extended for a further period.  My story may not go beyond fifty years, but this I may say, that what Hunt and I were able to accomplish in the first six months of our novel regime was an augury of what we have accomplished since, and that a grateful public throughout the district of North-West Donegal, which the Burtonport Railway serves, does not stint its praise.  Trains are punctual now, engines do not break down, carriages are comfortable, goods traffic is well worked, and delays are exceptional.  Much has been done, more would have been done but for difficulties due to the war, and a good deal still remains to be done.

In North-West Donegal, some two years ago, the idea of writing this book was conceived, and with North-West Donegal its pages close.  As I lay down my pen, some words which I used in my opening chapter recur to my mind.  I then expressed the hope that, in spite of all its drawbacks, my story, if faithfully told, might not be entirely devoid of interest, and now that I have finished my task, I humbly trust that the hope then expressed has been attended with some measure of success, and that my purpose has not altogether failed.