Kilfree Junction

Kilfree Junction, Co.Roscommon, is located on the main Dublin to Sligo line between Boyle and Collooney, and was an isolated Midland Great Western Railway junction. Kilfree was the junction for the Ballaghaderreen branch, which was opened in October 1874 and had two intermediate stations at Edmondstown and Island Road. Goods on the branch were mainly agricultural; cattle was important traffic on the MGWR lines, and it had just three passenger trains a day. The branch closed completely on the 4th February 1963. The junction station, which consisted of up & down platforms, waiting room, signal cabin, turntable, water tower and brick station building, were also closed in 1963. Today, only the derelict platforms and the station building on the down side remain, now a private residence.
An ex Midland Great Western G2 Class 2-4-0, No.653, pulls into the island platform at Kilfree Junction to form a branch service to Ballaghaderreen in 1961. To the left is the typical MGWR signal cabin. ©John Camp No.653 stands at the branch platform at Kilfree Junction. The main up & down platforms were to the right opposite the wooden waiting room, No.653 was built at Broadstone in Dublin in the 1890s. ©John Camp Looking out towards the junction in 1961, the Ballaghaderreen branch diverges to the right, while the main line to Dublin can be seen curving off to the left in the distance. ©John Camp This is Kilfree Jct as it is today, with just the single island platform remaining. The station was closed with the Ballaghaderreen branch in February 1963.
The station masters house at Kilfree Jct survives, however it has been extended and rebuilt considerably. This is the only remaining structure left at Kilfree, the rest of the station buildings and the signal cabin were demolished after closure. This was the entrance onto the up side of the former Kilfree Jct station. The remains of a small gate access remains. The junction station was located largely in isolated countryside. The 112th mile post, measured from the Midland Great Western Railway's Dublin terminus at Broadstone. Behind the milepost is the end ramp of the former platform. The redundant rails recovered from the lifting of the associated track layout have been re-used as fencing. A view from the overbridge located north of the former Kilfree Jct, with the station masters house just visible in the distance. This was the location of a serious accident which occurred here in 1955 when an A Class loco, No.A44, crashed through the buffers at the headshunt south of the station on a goods train.
This is the view of the former junction site at Kilfree, located at the south end of the station. The trackbed of Ballaghaderreen branch can be seen curving away in the centre of the photo on a grassy embankment. This is the stone built railway overbridge located on the main line just south of Kilfree Jct. In the background through the arch is the embankment of the former Ballaghaderreen branch. This is the first rail overbridge on the closed Ballaghaderren branch, just west of Kilfree Jct. There were bridges on the branch and this one crossed a small country lane. One of the stone abutments of the bridge which once carried the Ballaghaderreen branch across the old R294 road west of Kilfree Jct survives, however the one on the north side has been demolished. This section of road had been closed off and the R294 is now re-aligned to cross the former railway on the level.