Irish Railway Architecture

Knowledge exchange. Basically pseudo-academic lingo for telling each other stuff. My last post about Clontarf Station resulted in some fantastic photographs and information shared with me that I would love to share with you. (Maybe read the original post first to know what on earth I’m going on about). Firstly, thank you to Colin Hedderly who sent wonderful photographs. The first is of the smaller ‘brutalist’ bridge which Colin suggested may show start of renewal because of the train and taking down a piece of the parapet. Ciaran Cooney's EireTrains website also states that the bridge was renewed in 2000s (brutalist version methinks) replacing the original 1850s incarnation. Perhaps this photograph shows the original bridge was already replaced? Or was it just the parapets?  Clontarf Station Bridge - source unknown I also like the ‘Reliable Shoe Repairs’ kiosk to the bottom-left of the bridge. Maybe the bridge needed a bit of ‘cobbling’ together, eh?  Keeping with th...

Deadlines aplenty and blog posts not. So busy am I enriching my knowledge that I have neglected yours. But soft, what enlightenment beyond yon window breaks? My findings about Clontarf station, obviously. To begin, the current Clontarf Road DART station is not located where the original station was. The original GNRI station, along with its platforms and station master’s house, lie further north of the current site on Howth Road. It is now a private residence, so discretion must be applied to its current residents. The single-storey station building is of the archetypal pre-GNRI style of red-brick main with yellow frames and quoins. Built as part of the Dublin and Drogheda Railway (DDR), it opened on 25 May 1844 and finally closed on 3 September 1956. The entrance is a gabled wood and glass projection, and it is worth noting two out of the three south-facing windows have twin-arches. The yellow semi-architrave window frames can be seen glowing through the ivy in the adjoining two...