Whitehead railway station serves Whitehead in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
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.
Read more about Whitehead Railway Station: Service, Incidents
Famous quotes containing the words whitehead, railway and/or station:
“If a dog jumps into your lap it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing it is because your lap is warmer.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“Say first, of God above, or Man below,
What can we reason, but from what we know?
Of Man what see we, but his station here,
From which to reason, or to which refer?
Thro’ worlds unnumber’d tho’ the God be known,
‘Tis ours to trace him only in our own.
”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)