Kilmainhamwood railway station

[Celtic_transport]

Hi all,

The cafe located at Kilmainhamwood railway station on the Boyne Valley to Lakelands Greenway (former Navan to Kingscourt branch) are renovating the goods shed. They've put out an appeal for any old photos or stories of the station and yard. If anyone has any and would like to share them here itd be greatly appreciated, alternatively you can contact the cafe directly:

@ GNR Christmas Trees & Cafe on Instagram/Facebook

[jhb171achill]

I'll ask Barry Carse....

 

[Mayner]

It may be worth while contacting the IRRS Librarian or visiting the IRRS on Library Night. John O'Meara published a 2 part IRRS Journal paper on the "Meath Line" during the early 50s which included details of staff and operations at the individual stations including Kilmainhamwood. The station was probabably at its busiest following its opening under Navan & Kingscourt Railway ownership when it acted as terminus for several years before the line was extended to Kingscourt, but there appears to have been little traffic under CIE ownership from the mid 40s onwards. 

One point of local interest is that a section of line alongside Whitehouse Lake was diverted away from the lakeshore as a result of a landslide during the 1950s, don't know if this diversion is noticable on the cycle track.

[cheesy_peas]

Putting on my finger-wagging jhb hat, Kilmainhamwood of course wasn't a GNR station!

[Flying Snail]

1 hour ago, cheesy_peas said:

Putting on my finger-wagging jhb hat, Kilmainhamwood of course wasn't a GNR station!

 Some of the books on the Midland Great Western Railway might have some older photos - I just had a look in Ernie Shepherd's book, 'The Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland', but it doesn't have any

[cheesy_peas]

1 hour ago, Flying Snail said:

 Some of the books on the Midland Great Western Railway might have some older photos - I just had a look in Ernie Shepherd's book, 'The Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland', but it doesn't have any

Hard to find old photos of, and no offence to the inhabitants of such places, unimportant wayside stations as opposed to those at junctions and termini.

[Flying Snail]

1 hour ago, cheesy_peas said:

Hard to find old photos of, and no offence to the inhabitants of such places, unimportant wayside stations as opposed to those at junctions and termini.

You'd be surprised - gricers will use any good viewing spot they can find.

Eiretrains has a few shots from towards the end of the branch's life here: http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/Railway Stations K/Kilmainham Wood/IrishRailwayStations.html

[Flying Snail]

Also, the Irish Railway Record Society has at least 12 shots in it's members' flickr archive, including a couple of steam.

Speaking of Steam, Ciaran Cooney from the IRRS posted this on Twitter: https://x.com/irishrailways/status/1428692043627483141

[Tullygrainey]

8 hours ago, cheesy_peas said:

Putting on my finger-wagging jhb hat, Kilmainhamwood of course wasn't a GNR station!

... and what sort of a loco is that on the poster! 

[Mol_PMB]

10 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

... and what sort of a loco is that on the poster! 

Shall we be charitable and consider it a C&L 4-4-0T?

[Jonathan Allen]

According to both "Irish Railways Today" (TRA 1967) and my 1956 edition of the AA "Road Book of Ireland", the station and townland name is Kilmainham Wood. 

[Flying Snail]

41 minutes ago, Jonathan Allen said:

According to both "Irish Railways Today" (TRA 1967) and my 1956 edition of the AA "Road Book of Ireland", the station and townland name is Kilmainham Wood. 

Back in the day,  the station was called Kilmainham Wood. Today, however, its name is Kilmainhamwood as per https://www.geohive.ie/ and https://www.eircode.ie/

Edited February 19 by Flying Snail
Focus on station (that the important bit, isn't it?)

[Jonathan Allen]

51 minutes ago, Flying Snail said:

Back in the day,  the station was called Kilmainham Wood. Today, however, its name is Kilmainhamwood as per https://www.geohive.ie/ and https://www.eircode.ie/

Well, you learn something new every day!

[Mayner]

14 hours ago, cheesy_peas said:

Hard to find old photos of, and no offence to the inhabitants of such places, unimportant wayside stations as opposed to those at junctions and termini.

The majority of older photos tend to be 3/4 front views of locos or rolling stock, photo surveys of wayside stations became more common from 60s onwards as cameras and film became cheaper.

Photos of the Meath Line before the ending of passenger services are relatively scarce, back in the 80s I bought up "Real Photograph Co" (Iain Allen) 1930s photos of 2-4-0 652 on shed Kingscourt (x426) and on the up passenger  (3-6wheelers cw oil lighting) at Navan Junction (x429), (in those days publishers like Iain Allen and groups like RCTS published photographic catalogues) more recently "Great Southern Railways" Irish Pictorial album (Donal Murray (Ian Allen) 2006) included 1939 photos of Midland Standard Goods 601 with a similar consist (possibly electric lighting) a Down Passenger at Kilmessan Junction and Kingscourt, interestingly the consist of the "Passenger" includes a single Cattle Wagon as tail traffic in the Kilmessan photo.

There are a couple of published photos of steam hauled 'Kingscourt" goods passing Gibbstown in goods only days one northbound behind a large ex-GSWR 0-6-0 (Stephenson Locomotive Society) and the second southbound behind an ex-MGW "Cattle Engine" (large powerful 0-6-0) uncredited photo Decade of Steam IRRS 1972?. With the KingscourtGoods  reduced to a 3 times weekly working after 1917 and once weekly Wed &Thurs) in the 1960s WTT something more powerful than a Standard Goods was required to work the remaining traffic. 

During the 70s-80s Herbert Richard an IRRS member and photographer was very helpful in supplying comprehensive photos surveys of Kilmessan Junction (before track lifting) and Ballymoe on the Mayo Line for modelling purposes, hopefully at some stage his photographes may be added to the archive.

In a way Kilmainham Wood is one of the more attractive Navan & Kingscourt stations from a modelling perspective with its distinctive brick station building and crossing keepers cottage and largish stone built goods shed once served by a spur siding off the goods loop, visually interesting on a slight curve.  Kilmainham Wood contrasts with other station/halts where the station buildings on the N&K which had a rendered finish and small goods shed on the passenger platform at Gibbstown & Wilkinstown with a goods loop that served a long cattle bank. By contrast the goods shed at Nobber was served by a spur on the up side behind the station platform with a goods loop and long cattle bank opposite with an overbridge crossing the line at the south end of the yard

[Branchline121]

Picture of a J5 passing the station in this RPSI magazine, taken in 1957.

[Signal Post]

That RPSI magazine, apart from showing the photo of Kilmainhamwood makes fascinating reading about the the RPSI which at that time was in it's infancy. It must have been an exciting time to be a railway enthusiast with the added bonus of minimal 'elf and safety concerns, hi-viz jackets etc....

[Mayner]

17 hours ago, Branchline121 said:

Picture of a J5 passing the station in this RPSI magazine, taken in 1957.

Interesting the yard quite grass grown possibly siding & loop removed by mid 1957 while further south Gibbstown loop/running line reasonably free of weeds and still apparrently open for goods traffic.

There is an undated SLS photop of a J4 (large ex-GSWR 0-6-0) on a north bound goods possibly dropping off/collecting a cattle wagon at Gibbstown in Donal Murray's Great Southern Railways .  There is an uncredited 4 May 1957 1957 in a "Decade of Steam" of J5 (Midland Cattle Engine) 626 southbound at Gibbstown.

Interestingly hoppers and opens are marshalled next the loco and covered wagons at the rear on the Northbound and vice-versa on the Southbound goods. At the time Kingscourt dispatched both bricks (Kingscourt Brick) and gypsum in open wagon, CIE & GNR each had approximately 6 Gypsum Hopper wagons.