Whitehead railway station

Whitehead
Two NIR Class 450 trains at Whitehead.
Location	Whitehead Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Coordinates	54°45′10″N 5°42′34″W / 54.75278°N 5.70944°WCoordinates: 54°45′10″N 5°42′34″W / 54.75278°N 5.70944°W
Owned by	NI Railways
Operated by	NI Railways
Platforms	2
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
Key dates
1863	Station opened
2008	Station refurbished
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Whitehead railway station serves Whitehead in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

NIR 8068 at Whitehead

The station has two platforms with a waiting room on each and the station is signalled in both directions and remains manned during commuter hours by a Senior Porter, who luckily for the commuters is a fully trained signalman, capable of fixing points and signalling issues when they arise.

Previously the line was double towards Belfast and Whitehead was where the track narrowed to the single track section to Larne. However, in the 1990s the up line was removed from here to Kilroot due to safety reasons, leaving the line Whitehead station as a passing loop.

Whitehead actually comprises two stations, thanks to its history as a railway excursion town. The through station is still part of the Northern Ireland Railways network, whilst the terminus Whitehead Excursion Station is the headquarters of the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland.

Whitehead station was originally opened on 1 May 1863 and the Whitehead Excursion Platform was opened on 10 July 1907. The present station was opened in 1877 and is the third station to serve the town. It has been modernised, but unlike many stations on the NIR network still retains much of its Victorian character.^[1]

Service

On Mondays to Fridays, there is a half-hourly service from Great Victoria Street. These trains alternate every half an hour between terminating here at Whitehead, and continuing on to Larne Harbour. In the other direction, there is a half-hourly service to Great Victoria Street, with the trains alternating between being through services from Larne, or starting at Whitehead.

On Saturdays, the service still runs half-hourly in the same alternating manner, but with less peak trains.

On Sundays, the service reduces to hourly operation in each direction. Services alternate each hour between terminating here, and continuing on to Larne Harbour.

Incidents

On 26 September 2008, part of the platform collapsed, blocking the Larne bound line. It is not clear whether this was a result of the recent construction work which had been carried out at this station.^[2] According to NI Railways nobody was hurt in the incident.

References

1. "Whitehead (Antrim)" (PDF). Railscot - Irish Railways. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
2. "Platform collapse delaying trains". BBC News. 26 September 2008.