Kingscourt railway station explained

Kingscourt railway station
Native Name Lang:ga
Borough:Kingscourt, County Cavan
Country:Ireland
Coordinates:53.9058°N -6.7875°W
Platform:1
Tracks:1
Original:Navan and Kingscourt Railway
Pregroup:Midland Great Western Railway
Postgroup:Great Southern Railways
Years:1 November 1875
Events:Station opens
Years1:27 January 1947
Events1:Station closes to passengers
Years2:30 October 2001
Events2:Goods service ends
Opened:1875
Closed:2001

Kingscourt railway station is a former railway station in Kingscourt, County Cavan, Ireland.

History

The station was built in 1875 by the independent Navan and Kingscourt Railway, as the terminus of its line from . In 1888, the company was purchased by the Midland Great Western Railway. The MGWR envisaged extending the line from Kingscourt to via,, and, but this never materialised.[1] (A line from Castleblayney to Armagh, via Keady, was eventually built in the early 1900s and operated by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland).)

Following the creation of the Irish Free State, the MGWR became part of the Great Southern Railways in 1925, which in turn became part of Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) in 1945. In 1947, CIÉ withdrew passenger services between Kingscourt and Navan. Goods services from Kingscourt to Dublin Port via Navan and were re-routed via in 1958 and then largely withdrawn in 1963, following which the section to Navan was used almost exclusively for the transport of gypsum from a terminal adjacent to the station, owned and operated by BPB Gypsum Industries.

After a strike by Irish Rail staff in 2001, Gypsum Industries decided to transfer its traffic to road. The last gypsum train departed Kingscourt on 30 October 2001.[2] The last train of all to operate to and from Kingscourt was a weed-spraying train on 7 June 2002,[3] after which the line was disconnected at Tara Junction in Navan. The line was eventually lifted to create the Boyne Valley to Lakelands Greenway, which was completed in 2024.[4]

The station building at Kingscourt remains intact today, having been partially restored in the mid-2000s. Also still extant are the station's single platform, the gypsum terminal and a goods shed.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Five Foot Three, No. 1, Winter 1965 . 5 April 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150413003730/http://www.steamtrainsireland.com/FFT/FFT01.pdf . 13 April 2015 . dead .
  2. Web site: Kingscourt Line . Irish Railway Record Society . 18 July 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150414113558/http://www.irrs.ie/Journal%20150/Journal%20147/147%20Kingscourt.htm . 14 April 2015 .
  3. Web site: Kingscourt . eiretrains.com . 5 April 2015.
  4. Web site: 30km greenway connecting Meath and Cavan completed. RTÉ. 12 May 2024. 21 May 2024.