Railway Station

AN ATTRACTIVE TRAIN STATION

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Back in May 2016 we celebrated my mother’s ninety sixth birthday is a restaurant in Malahide has she has alway liked the coastal town as her best friend lived there. My mother will be 104 next birthday.

This is an attractive station Located in the centre of Malahide and close to Malahide Castle. A scenic road links Malahide to Portmarnock. One thing that I noticed is that while we, in Ireland, refer to them as Railway Stations the signage outside the station referred to it as Malahide Train Station.

The station opened on 25 May 1844 as part of the Dublin and Drogheda Railway. Earlier, on 6 January 1844, a special train for people including Lords Eliot and Talbot, their wives and other persons gave rides up and down a completed section of track near Malahide.

George Papworth created an elaborate design for the main station building in 1851, in the event this was not built.

A set of company amalgamations occurred in 1875-6 with the station first coming under the Northern Railway Co. (Ireland) and into the Great Northern Railway of Ireland (GNRI) on 1 April 1876. From 1 October 1958 with the break up of the GNRI the station came under the remit of CIÉ.

The main station building in the general polychromatic brickwork style of William Hemingway Mills has been attributed various dates from c. 1851 to 1905.

Malahide became the northern extent of the electrified Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) system in 2000.

Goods services were withdrawn in December 1974. In 2009, Malahide became the temporary terminus of all direct services from Dublin as a consequence of the collapse of the Broadmeadow viaduct.

The station has two through lines and two platforms, the major one being on the east side which is the southbound track to Dublin. Entrance is via yellow brick polychrome style typical of Mills although some features are Malahide specific, notably the ornate wood sliding doors to the platform.

The platform roof is supported by decorative ironwork. Access to the other platform is via a bridge with ironwork dating from the 1880s; this had to be raised high to allow for the DART electrification extension with disable-accessible lifts newly fitted to the south side.

The west platform retains a wooden shelter in mostly original condition. That platform has also been extended at some point but a standard GNR signal box has been retained, albeit boarded up.

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