Tracing the Navan to Kingscourt railway line on Google satellite and street view

Opened in stages from 1872 to 1875, the Kingscourt branch line was intended to connect with the Great Northern Railway, ultimately connecting to Cookstown. This would have meant coal from the mines around Coalisland making its way to Dublin via Navan, but this was never completed. The result was a branch line serving a sparsely populated part of the country, and its primary use was freight, principally moving Gypsum from Kingscourt to Drogheda for processing at the Platin cement works. Gypsum is still mined at Kingscourt today, but after an Irish Rail strike in 2001 the mining company switched to using road transport and never went back to rail.

Today it would be good to see this kind of freight running on the rails again.

The tracks were never fully lifted, so reopening this line would not be the most difficult or most expensive project. The crossing gates were manually operated by the train crews, I'm sure they could be automated now. The viability of this line would be boosted if it could be extended farther north to the likes of Castleblayney, assuming that town could be reconnected by rail to Armagh, which in turn would be predicated on getting the Portadown-Armagh line reopened. Reopening this line for passenger use is very much a long term proposition.

Gibbstown station
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/R...

Wilkinstown station
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/R...

Nobber station
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/R...

Kilmainham Wood station
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/R...

Kingscourt station
http://eiretrains.com/Photo_Gallery/R...