page_title: Knockmore railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Knockmore railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The old platform at Knockmore halt, seen from a passing steam special.
context_page_description: Knockmore railway station was a station on the Belfast–Newry railway line. The station served the suburb of Knockmore in Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Great Northern Railway opened Knockmore station as a halt in 1932. Northern Ireland Railways closed the station on 25 March 2005.
  Knockmore station had two platforms. One platform was served by "Up" trains only on the service from Belfast Central via Lisburn to Portadown, while the other platform was served by trains in both directions on the Belfast – Lisburn – Antrim – Derry service. "Down" trains travelling from Portadown to Belfast could not serve Knockmore as it was the middle line with no platform.
context_section_description: The station is near Knockmore Junction, which came into service in 1863 for the Banbridge, Lisburn and Belfast Junction Railway (BLB) to connect with the Ulster Railway. The junction gained another branch in 1871 when the Dublin and Antrim Junction Railway (D&A, now the Lisburn–Antrim railway line) was opened. The Ulster Railway, BLB and D&A all became part of the GNR by the end of the 1870s. A halt was finally provided at Knockmore Junction in 1932, but it did not last long and was closed a year later. The GNR was nationalised in 1953 as the GNR Board, which closed Banbridge branch on 29 April 1956.
  In 1960, the Antrim branch was closed to passenger traffic, although it remained open for freight. By this point, the line was under UTA control; All GNR assets in Northern Ireland having been ceded to the UTA in 1958. In 1968, the UTA was replaced by Northern Ireland Railways, which reopened the Antrim branch and rerouted all Londonderry line services via Knockmore. A new Knockmore halt was built on a different site to the original, slightly closer to Lisburn. Instead of using a crossover as per the original setup, a 3rd line was laid directly from the former junction to Lisburn station. Unfortunately, this required the demolition of  Knockmore Junction signal cabin.
  In 2001 NIR reopened the more direct Belfast – Antrim route via Whiteabbey. An attempt was made to keep the Antrim – Knockmore line open alongside it using a skeleton service, but this was unsuccessful and NIR withdrew passenger services altogether in 2003. Due to the platform layout, this left Knockmore station with a train service in only one direction: "down" trains from Belfast to Portadown. Unsurprisingly this arrangement was not well-used, and so on 25 March 2005 NIR closed Knockmore station. 
  The Portadown-bound platform was demolished in 2012, with the branch platform following in 2014.
caption: The remains of the halt as seen from a passing steam special, December 2013.
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