A Long-Forgotten Station on a Long-Forgotten Line

[Patrick Davey]

I stumbled upon an interesting location on my travels today - the long closed station at Croom, Co. Limerick, which last saw a service train as far back as 1934, although goods traffic lingered on until the 1960s.  The station was one of three on a short line which joined the Limerick-Tralee line to the Dublin-Cork mainline, potentially providing a more direct route from Cork to Limerick than via Limerick Junction, but for reasons which I no doubt would not fully understand, the potential of this does not seem to have been realised - knowledgeable folk here will inform!

Here’s the location of Croom:

 

Croom station, before final closure, photo by Roger Joanes:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/110691393@N07/11451633084/in/photolist-irWBxJ-2qEvnks-2qEu9AD-2qUSb1V-2qEkqFN-2qEu1Vo-2pwo2v1-2qEpsk7-2pwpX7J-2pwoJLo-2pwrbPr

 

Nice photo survey of the actual station building before demolition:

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21828022/croom-railway-station-croom-croom-co-limerick

The station area was quite cluttered, with one platform on which was the station building, goods shed and signal cabin.

 

Croom goods shed, photo by Fred Dean, not sure of the year:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/be216cd1/14008474790

 

My photo of the goods shed from today, the roof has collapsed since Fred’s photo:

 

 

The road overbridge at the Limerick end:

There was a water tower on the far side of this bridge, towards the end of the passing loop.

Just one of many interesting abandoned Irish railway locations.