Ferns Lock

Ferns Lock station, Co.Kildare, is located adjacent to the Ferns Lock on the Royal Canal which runs parallel to the Midland Great Western Railway's Dublin to Sligo line as far Mullingar. Serving a sparsely populared area, the wayside station was located between Kilcock and Enfield, opened in August 1848 and closed to passenger and goods in 1947 and closed in 1963. The station remained a block post however until 1963. The platforms (and possibly station buildings) remained intact until the mid 1990s, when they were demolished to allow the track to be relayed and re-aligned. Today, only part of the up platform remains, buried under gravel.
This is the site of Ferns Lock Station, which once had up & down platforms, but today only the up one partially remains. A view looking east towards Dublin from the former up platform at Ferns Lock. The station closed to passengers in November 1947, but remained a a signalling block post until 1963. This is the half barrier automatic level crossing at Ferns Lock, as it was in 2003. The level crossing has since been upgraded to have barriers that stretch the width of the road. The line between Dublin and Mullingar was once double track, but this was singled by the Great Southern Railway in 1931. folderimage
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