Downpatrick Loop Platform railway station (often shorted to The Loop Platform or simply The Loop) is a junction station owned and operated by the

Downpatrick and County Down Railway The Downpatrick and County Down Railway (DCDR) is a five-foot, three-inch (1,600 mm) gauge heritage railway in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is operated by volunteers and runs passenger trains using steam and diesel locomotives, diesel ...

, heritage railway in Northern Ireland. The station is on the only operational railway triangle on a

preserved railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

. It can only be accessed by train - similar to

Manulla Junction Manulla Junction railway station is a transfer point for train passengers in County Mayo, Ireland. Description Passengers cannot enter or leave the station; it is only for passengers travelling to or from Foxford or Ballina, who transfer to ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the yew trees") is a county in Ireland. In the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Coun ...

or Smallbrook Junction on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the List of islands of England#Largest islands, largest and List of islands of England#Mo ...

History

Belfast & Co. Down Railway

The original

Downpatrick railway station Downpatrick railway station was on the Belfast and County Down Railway, which ran its longest route from Belfast to Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. Today it is the headquarters of the Downpatrick and County Down Railway. History Downpatrick ...

was constructed as part of the

Belfast and County Down Railway The Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR) was an Irish gauge () railway in Ireland (later Northern Ireland) linking Belfast with County Down. It was built in the 19th century and absorbed into the Ulster Transport Authority in 1948. All but th ...

(BCDR) mainline from

Queens Quay, Belfast Queen's Quay is a section of the River Lagan, in the western Titanic Quarter of the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. As its name suggests, it originally located the southern section of the Belfast docks complex. But, as ships grew, it becam ...

Downpatrick Downpatrick () is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is on the Lecale peninsula, about south of Belfast. In the Middle Ages, it was the capital of the Dál Fiatach, the main ruling dynasty of Ulaid. Its cathedral is said to be th ...

. However, with growing railway expansion in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edward ...

and the connecting Downpatrick, Dundrum and Newcastle Railway being subsequently built with a junction north of Downpatrick for through trains between

and Newcastle railway station (County Down). The awkward

permanent way A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepe ...

with

being on a branch necessitated the construction of the triangle and Loop platform. Therefore, trains could call at Downpatrick or use the avoiding line with connections for passengers and goods at the Loop Platform, thereby making the railway operationally from a

signalling In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

point of view, more efficient using a railway triangle. Downpatrick Loop Platform was opened on 24 July 1892 and closed on 16 January 1950.

Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway

Because the Loop Platform had no road access, it was spared demolition unlike most of the BCDR mainline from Belfast Queen's Quay to

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

. It remained derelict from its closure in 1950 until the Autumn of 1987, when the Downpatrick & Ardglass Railway (since renamed the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway) reached the Loop Platform with rebuilt track from Downpatrick town. The first train to call at the Loop Platform since its closure was a works train hauled by a former

CIÉ Córas Iompair Éireann (''Irish Transport Company''), or CIÉ, is a statutory corporation of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, answerable to the Irish Government and responsible for most public transport within the republic and jointly with its Nor ...

E Class diesel on 10 October 1987. Passenger services began on 5 December 1987. In January 1993, the canopy was restored with funding from the International Fund for Ireland. In Spring 2014, the ''Loop Line'' (The former mainline which avoided Downpatrick) was re-laid and the platform refurbished. During 2015, relaying commenced on the ''South Line'' (The direct line to Downpatrick). Due to its isolated nature and simplistic features, it is a popular filming location and was used as Polegate Junction in Agatha and the Truth of Murder, as well as

Derry Girls ''Derry Girls'' is a British teen sitcom created and written by Lisa McGee that premiered on 4 January 2018 on Channel 4. The channel's most successful comedy since ''Father Ted'', the series was inspired by McGee's own experiences growing u ...

Season 3 episode ''Strangers on a Train''.

Services

Gallery

File:Atlas, Loop Platform.jpg, A road-rail digger being used to relay the line at the Loop Platform. File:Downpatrick Loop Platform - geograph.org.uk - 350091.jpg, View of the Loop Platform looking south. File:Approaching the South Junction - geograph.org.uk - 346742.jpg, Approaching the Loop Platform from the south.

References

{{reflist Railway stations in County Down Railway stations opened in 1882 Rail junctions in Northern Ireland 1882 establishments in Ireland