Kilcoe

Kilcoe, west Co.Cork, was a small village through which the Schull & Skibbereen Tramway passed through. Opened with the line in September 1886, the station at Kilcoe was located at the western extremity of the village along the N71 road. It had one platform and a single storey station building, there was no loop or sidings. Regular passenger and goods services on the Schull & Skibbereen line ceased in January 1947, but the line remained in situ until June 1953, when it was closed completely by CIE. Today the platform and station building at Kilcoe are long gone. West of Kilcoe was Crooked Bridge where the line crossed the small Leamawaddra River, and where a water tank was provided for replenishing the steam locomotives operated on the line.
This is the site of Kilcoe Station on the Schull & Skibbereen Tramway. This view is looking west towards Schull, with the site of the single platform and station building on the right. The station was sited at Kilcoe Cross Roads, located east of the small village it served. The platform would have been sited on the opposite side of the N71 road. The site of Kilcoe Station, this time looking east towards the village and Skibbereen. Today no trace of the single platform and small station building remains. There was also no loop or siding here. West of Kilcoe the line left the roadway and crossed the Leamawaddra River at Crooked Bridge, where there was a water tank used to replenish the steam locos. This view is of the trackbed on the approach to the former river bridge where the tank was sited. The famous railway photographer H.C Casserley captured one such train halted here in July 1938.
This is the remains of the former railway bridge which crossed the Leamawaddra River at Crooked Bridge, just west of Kilcoe. The bridge remained in situ until 1953, when CIE closed the line and began to dismantle its infrastructure. The stone built pier which once supported the bridge which spanned the Leamawaddra River at Crooked Bridge, west of Kilcoe. The abutments of the bridge on either side of the river bank remain, though overgrown. The trackbed of the former Schull & Skibbereen tramway can still be discerned at Crooked Bridge, just west of Kilcoe from the adjacent N71 road. The rocky cutting outline of the trackbed can still be seen, with lineside fencing still in situ some 60 years after the railway closed.