Foxrock railway station

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Foxrock Carraig an tSionnaigh
Double-headed Sea Breeze special passing Foxrock in 1953
General information
Location	Brighton Road, Foxrock, County Dublin Ireland
Coordinates	53°16′01″N 6°11′06″W / 53.267°N 6.185°W / 53.267; -6.185
Platforms	3
Construction
Structure type	At-grade
History
Original company	Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway
Pre-grouping	Dublin and South Eastern Railway
Post-grouping	Great Southern Railways
Key dates
1859	Temporary platform built and briefly opened
1861	Station officially opens
1888	Third platform and sidings added
31 December 1958	Station closed

Foxrock railway station was a station in on the Harcourt Street railway line. It served the suburb of Foxrock, in County Dublin, Ireland.

History[edit]

v t e Harcourt Street Line
Legend
Year closed Harcourt Street 1958 Harcourt Road 1859 Grand Canal Rathmines & Ranelagh 1958 Milltown 1958 Nine Arches Viaduct over River Dodder Dundrum 1958 80m Stillorgan 1958 Stillorgan Rd. Foxrock 1958 Carrickmines 1958 Lehaunstown Ln. Bride's Glen Viaduct over Loughlinstown River Shankill 1958 Shanganagh Junct. Dublin-Rosslare line to Amiens Street Woodbrook 1960 Bray River Quinnsborough Rd. Bray Dublin-Rosslare railway line to Wexford and Waterford

Foxrock station was opened by the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway (DW&WR) in 1861, as part of the Harcourt Street line.^[1] A temporary platform had been provided there in 1859, before the complete station was finished in 1861. The station opened as "Foxrock and Leopardstown" and retained that name until 1921, when it was shortened to Foxrock.

The station served as a connection to Leopardstown Racecourse and was very busy on race days, with many special trains running there. Renamed "Boghill", it was a major setting for Samuel Beckett's 1957 radio play All That Fall.

Closure[edit]

Use of the Harcourt Street line had declined during the early 20th century and it had become run down in the 1940s and 1950s. The station was closed by Córas Iompair Éireann on 31 December 1958, along with the whole Harcourt Street line, despite opposition from the community.

The disused station building remained until the 1990s, when it was demolished to make way for a housing development. A small, disused ticket office remains in the grounds of Leopardstown Racecourse, directly adjacent to the site of the old station house. The office was operated not by the railway but by the racecourse, to cater for patrons travelling by train on race days.

The Luas green line has reused most of the route of the Harcourt Street line, but it bypasses Foxrock in favour of the busier suburbs of Stepaside, Leopardstown and Ballyogan, rejoining the former track bed at Carrickmines, which is the nearest Luas stop to Foxrock. Most of the alignment has not been built on however, making an extension possible, although that is not currently planned.

Layout[edit]

Foxrock was quite a large station, boasting three platforms. The third platform was nicknamed the "racecourse" platform, as it was adjacent to Leopardstown Racecourse and connected to it by a pathway. The platforms were all linked by a typical, but long, DWWR/DSER footbridge. The station building, was also a typical DWR structure, and was located on the down platform, along with the DSER brick signal cabin. There were additional sidings to both the north and south of the station.

See also[edit]

• List of closed railway stations in Ireland

References[edit]