1 Upper Strabane Road, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7BG

1 Upper Strabane Road, Castlederg, Co Tyrone

Former Railway Station Structure

This is a detached, multi-bay former railway station structure built around 1880, situated on the north side of Upper Strabane Road in Castlederg, County Tyrone. It was built as the Stationmaster's house, offices, stores and waiting rooms for the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway, and its exterior is well preserved, making it an important surviving example of railway architecture in the county. The building is designed in a polychromatic brick style typical of the period, reflecting the architectural influence of the writings of John Ruskin.

Architectural Description

The building comprises a single-storey, east-west aligned block to the west and a two-storey gabled block to the east. The roofs are pitched and covered in natural slate, with terracotta clay ridge tiles to the single-storey block and crested ridge tiles with finials to the two-storey block. The eaves are deep and overhanging, with timber sheeting, plain bargeboards supported on timber brackets, and replacement UPVC rainwater goods throughout, though a small number of original cast-iron downpipes and hoppers survive. The chimneystacks are replacement red brick corbelled examples.

The walls are built in stretcher-bonded red brick with contrasting blue brick cill courses. Segmental-arched hoodmoulds form a continuous string course across the façade, and there is a projecting plinth at the base. Windows are generally square-headed, vertically divided two-over-one timber sliding sashes set within segmental-arched openings with red brick voussoirs above and projecting masonry cills below. External doors are replacement vertically sheeted timber, set within the same type of surrounds as the windows.

Elevations

The south elevation is divided into two sections. The left-hand, two-bay single-storey section has an entrance door to the left of the left bay, with two windows to its right, and a central entrance door in the right bay flanked by paired windows on each side. The two-storey gabled block to the right (east) is one bay wide and contains an entrance door to the right and a window to the left at ground floor. At first floor there is a central one-over-one timber sliding sash window set within a round-arched opening with a contrasting round-arched hoodmould over.

The west elevation has a centrally placed, vertically divided two-over-two sliding sash window set within a round-arched opening.

The north elevation of the single-storey block to the right contains two windows, while the two-storey gabled block to the left features decorative carved bargeboards, two windows at ground floor, and a central round-arched one-over-one timber sliding sash window at first floor, detailed in the same manner as on the south elevation.

The east elevation is obscured by a series of single- and two-storey extensions. At ground floor, a single-storey block with roughcast rendered walls and a flat roof is surmounted by two smaller smooth-rendered blocks. The block that immediately adjoins the east wall of the gabled section contains a replacement stairwell and is covered by a continuation of the original roof; the block to its right has a flat roof. All extensions are fitted with timber casement windows throughout. A replacement red brick corbelled chimneystack sits at the party wall with the two-storey gabled block.

Interior

Internally, the building has been subdivided and much of the original detailing has been removed.

Historical Context

The Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway was opened in 1884, having been constructed under the terms of the baronial guarantee system — a distinctively Irish financial arrangement whereby an agreed rate of interest on government-issued capital was to be repaid over a fixed term by the principal baronies served by the new railway. The tramway was a narrow gauge roadside line stretching 7¼ miles, linking Castlederg with the Derry line of the Great Northern Railway at Victoria Bridge. It was one of four such narrow gauge railways or roadside tramways constructed independently of the Great Northern system in the last quarter of the 19th century, and has been described as one of the first narrow gauge adjuncts in the Irish railway network to succumb to competition from road transport. The line closed in 1933.

The station building first appears on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map, along with the tramway itself and a visible station platform around the building. By the 1939 map the tramway had gone, and the building appears somewhat shorter in plan, possibly due to the loss of the platform. Annual Revision fieldbook records from 1882 to 1890 list the associated buildings as a station house, store, manager's house, carriage shed and offices, valued together at £45 and occupied by the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway Company, who held them in fee.

Contemporary accounts describe the headquarters of the Company as a substantial red brick building in Castlederg. The living accommodation for the only stationmaster on the line occupied the single-bay two-storey section, with abutting ranges of single-storey construction housing offices, stores and waiting rooms. Close to the west end of the station building, a bell hung from a bracket on a post and is believed to have been rung to warn passengers of the imminent departure of a train.

The station building at Castlederg is now recognised as the most tangible surviving evidence in the landscape of the former existence of this prosperous roadside tramway in west Tyrone.

Setting

The building is set within the town centre. The railway line to the north no longer exists, and the former station is now separated from its garden to the north by timber fencing. The former line has been redeveloped, with a house now situated to the east. Despite its alterations, the building continues to make a positive contribution to the architecture and history of Castlederg.