Signal box, Poyntzpass Railway Station, Railway Street, Poyntzpass, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 6SN

Poyntzpass Signal Box is a two-storey timber and brick structure erected by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in the 1890s, and one of an extremely rare group of surviving signal boxes in which the original lever mechanisms remain intact and in their original context. It stands at the north-west end of the level crossing over the double track at Poyntzpass Station, just south of the Belfast-bound platform, aligned north–south parallel with the railway line. It was designed under the direction of William H. Mills, appointed Chief Engineer to the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1877, who was responsible for modernising the entire GNR signalling network in the decades either side of 1900. The box is first recorded on the 1906 Ordnance Survey map. A valuation document of February 1896 records its dimensions as 15 feet by 12 feet by 16 feet high, with 12 levers.

The ground floor is of brick, with a chamfered brick base course and slightly recessed panels to all four sides. Set within the recess on the south gable is a three-panel timber door, and on the east elevation a 3x2-paned timber window with a segmental head and a flush granite cill. The panels on the north and west sides are blank. An advanced brick chimney breast runs up the centre of the west elevation and through the roof, terminating in a single stack. Originally there was a slit opening along the base of the east wall to accommodate the signal and point linkages running outside to the track; this was bricked up after those mechanisms were removed. The ground floor housed the mechanical linkages connecting the levers above to the points and signals along the track.

The first floor is timber-framed and clad in white-painted overlapping horizontal boards, with the bottom string and corner members of the frame exposed and painted in contrasting grey. Multi-paned timber-framed windows are provided to all elevations: a 2x3-paned window to the north; a 2/3 window flanked on each side by a pair of 1x3 horizontally-sliding windows to the east; a 3x3 window to the south; and a 1x3 window to the west. These windows gave the signalman clear views up and down the line and across the road crossing. The first floor is reached via a six-panel timber door on the north gable, at the head of a replacement steel staircase. A narrow single-plank balcony runs from the small landing at the top of the stairs around the north, east and south sides of the cabin to facilitate window cleaning; it is fitted with a metal handrail and is supported on metal brackets fixed to the base of the timberwork. Metal capital letters spelling 'Poyntzpass' were formerly affixed to the gable apexes; at the time of survey they had been removed for cleaning and painting and were to be reinstated.

The roof is pitched and covered with replacement hexagonal felt tiles over plywood, with plain bargeboards and drop finials to both gables. Rainwater goods are half-round black plastic.

The signal box retains virtually all its original fabric, the principal exception being the replacement steel staircase. Critically, all the internal workings survive, which greatly enhances its significance. It remains in its original context, in contrast to the preserved signal box at Moira Station, which has been relocated some distance from its original position. Most signal boxes across the network have either been demolished or had their mechanisms replaced with automated electrical signalling equipment. Poyntzpass is now an extremely rare survivor; the only comparable example at the time of survey was Castlerock, where levers were still in use, though that too was expected to be superseded by automation. The Poyntzpass box did not itself become fully redundant until 1997, when the level crossing it had controlled was automated.

The wider station complex covered by the listing comprises the signal box together with the former weighbridge room (now used as a toilet), the platforms with their waiting canopies and stone walling, the goods siding, and the roadside boundary walls.

The former weighbridge office, now converted to a toilet, is a small single-storey building aligned north–south a short distance west of the signal box, with a small return at its north end. It has a monopitched concrete roof and no rainwater goods. The southern section is built in purple engineering brick; the remainder is a later addition in yellow brick. On the east elevation there is a plain timber doorway and an infilled window opening with a brick head and flush concrete cill; on the east gable of the return there is a small door with a concrete head. The south elevation has a 1/1 top-opening timber casement window with a brick head and concrete cill. The west elevation is blank, and the north elevation has an infilled window opening with the cill removed and a concrete head. A valuation document records that the weighbridge office was enlarged in 1947: it then measured 11 feet by 5 feet by 8 feet high and had a slate roof. It was extended northwards by 2 feet, a return of 8 feet by 5 feet by 8 feet was added, and the whole was re-roofed in concrete when the walls were complete. Immediately north of the toilet is a relatively recent fenced-off area originally erected to contain LPG tanks.

The double-track line is served by a platform to the east and west. Both are tarmacked and edged with concrete over rubble masonry walls that have been heightened with brick. Each platform is served by a modern steel-and-glass waiting shelter. There is also a defunct earlier waiting room on the up platform, with a monopitched felted timber roof and rubble masonry walls embellished with brick quoins; its platform elevation is now entirely sheeted over in timber, with a double-leaf door set within it, though it would originally have been glazed or open. Both platforms are bounded along their backs by walls of random rubble brought to courses and coped with both irregular and vertically-set stones. A modern signal post stands at the north end of the down (west) platform and another at the south end of the up platform. Towards the north end of the down platform stood the former station building and integral stationmaster's house, both long demolished; their former positions are still evident from a timber wall that fills the gap in the boundary wall left by their removal. Towards the south end of both platforms, the walls are punctuated by pedestrian access paths from the road, each with a painted timber fence along one side.

A single track leads south from the down line into the former goods yard, bounded to the west by a rubble stone platform coped with engineering brick, which was also used for loading livestock. This line originally ran to a roadside goods shed, now long gone; it is currently used by ballast wagons maintaining the line, with crushed stone stored in heaps between the siding and the down platform.

Along the road, two sunbeam-style wrought-iron gates — one on each side of the line — are hung from square brick piers capped with concrete. Most of the original stone walling has been removed or replaced with modern steel fencing.

The station stands on the Portadown to Newry section of the Belfast to Dublin railway. This section was opened in 1852 by the Dublin and Belfast Junction Railway; the complete line from Belfast to Dublin opened in 1855 following the completion of the Drogheda Viaduct, while the Belfast to Portadown section had been opened by the Ulster Railway in 1842. Following the amalgamation of the various companies operating in the north of Ireland, the line came under the control of the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland) in 1876. In 1958 the GNR(I) passed to the Ulster Transport Authority, which was succeeded by Northern Ireland Railways and subsequently by Translink, which continues to operate the line. A minor road runs along the south side of the station premises, with automated barriers at the level crossing. To the west is modern housing; fields lie to the north and east.