Portrush railway station

Infobox NI station
name = Portrush


locale = Portrush
borough = Coleraine Borough Council
years = 1855
2008
events = Opened
Station refurbished
platforms = 2
usage0405 =

Portrush railway station is the terminus of the Northern Ireland Railways Coleraine-Portrush line serving the seaside town of Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Current service

As of summer 2007, the branch line sees twenty trains each way on weekdays (one each through to/from Belfast and Derry), worked by diesel multiple units.

History

The station, which is 67¾ miles from Belfast, was opened on 4 December 1855.cite web | title=Portrush station | work=Railscot - Irish Railways | url=http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf | accessdate=2007-08-28] To accommodate excursion and holiday traffic, extensive reconstruction by the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway, under the direction of its engineer and architect Berkeley Deane Wise, was completed in 1893. Three platforms were provided (only one is now in regular use) together with a train shed (demolished) and a station building in a "half-timbered" Mock Tudor style with a clock tower, described by Currie as "certainly one of the most handsome railway buildings in Ireland"; [cite book|author=Currie, J. R. L.|title=The Northern Counties Railway, vol. 1|date=1973|publisher=David & Charles|location=Newton Abbot|isbn=0-7153-5934-7] it is now occupied by the Traks nightclub complex, [cite web|title=Club soi|url=http://www.traks-complex.com|accessdate=2007-07-22] with a small newer concrete block ticket office behind it serving as the current station building. Goods traffic to the station closed on 20 September 1954.

The large 1892 grandfather clock from the station was returned to Portrush in 2007 and is displayed in Barry’s Amusements complex [cite web|title= Barry’s Portrush|url=http://www.barrysamusements.com|accessdate=2007-07-22] adjacent to the station. Other survivals from the past are some semaphore signals (of the "somersault" type) and an early water tank.

Formerly the railway owned the Northern Counties Hotel, the principal such establishment in town. A line once continued beyond the station to serve the harbour, and the Giant's Causeway Tramway began in Eglinton Street alongside the station.

References

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