The 37-mile long narrow gauge railway originally opened in 1887 known as the Clogher Valley Tramway, and changed its legal status and its name to the Clogher Valley Railway in 1894. A 1922 commission appointed by the Government of Northern Ireland recommended that the loss-making line should be taken over by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland), but that company declined and the Clogher Valley Railway remained independent until it was taken over by a committee of management appointed by Tyrone and Fermanagh County Councils in 1928.