Ballymagorry Railway Station, Station Road, Ballymagorry, Strabane, Co.Tyrone, BT82 0AX

Ballymagorry Railway Station is a former rural train station built around 1900–1901 by the Donegal Railway Company to connect Strabane to Londonderry. The station now stands disused, with its railway tracks removed, but retains considerable architectural and historical interest as a rare example of a station constructed in lightweight corrugated iron cladding.

The building is a detached, single-storey, four-bay structure of rectangular plan, raised on a platform and facing south towards the former railway line, with Station Road at its rear north elevation. It is constructed with a timber frame clad in corrugated iron, topped by a pitched corrugated iron roof fitted with an iron ridge. Three tall redbrick chimneys with moulded brick cornices and terracotta pots rise from the roof. A distinctive timber canopy projects from the eaves across the entire south elevation, supported on stop-chamfered timber brackets and featuring a tongue-and-groove soffit.

The south-facing front elevation comprises corrugated iron cladding with four bays containing two square-headed window openings to the left, one to the right, and a square-headed door opening at the centre. The windows are flush timber casements with concrete sills. The central double-leaf timber doors feature stop-chamfered detailing, diagonally-sheeted lower panels, and glazed upper panels (now boarded up). The doors open onto a concrete step leading to the raised former platform.

The gabled west and east side elevations are constructed in redbrick laid in English garden wall bond, each with a rising redbrick chimney and timber fascia to the roof eaves. The north rear elevation, also gabled, has a base constructed in red brick with corrugated iron cladding above and a plastic gutter to the timber fascia. It contains two windows to the left (matching the front elevation) and a smaller timber casement window to the right.

Attached to the west elevation is a slate-constructed set of urinals and a lean-to timber-framed shelter with corrugated iron roof. The raised platform is edged with a rubblestone retaining wall topped with rounded non-slip double-baked black clay edging bricks. The platform surface is now covered in grass and gravel where the former carriageway lay. A stable block and utilitarian sheds occupy the south of the site and appear to belong to No. 31 Station Road to the east. The north elevation looks onto a lawn area enclosed to the road by a low mild-steel palisade fence.

Historically, the station was built as part of an ambitious narrow-gauge railway expansion. A railway from Stranorlar to Strabane was constructed in 1863, extended to Lough Eske in 1882 and to Donegal Town in 1889. In 1894 the Strabane to Stranorlar section was converted to narrow gauge. The line from Strabane northwards to Londonderry, of which Ballymagorry formed part, received parliamentary powers in 1896 and was completed in August 1900. The station building and its associated structures (goods shed, engine shed, and offices) were entered in Annual Revision records in 1901 and valued together at £20.

The Donegal Railway Company experienced financial difficulties from the early twentieth century. In 1906 its extensive light railway system passed under joint control of the Great Northern Railway and the Midland Railway Company of England, operated by the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee. The Strabane to Londonderry section became the exclusive property of the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee), though it was worked by the CDRJC. Ownership subsequently passed to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company by 1937. The Ulster Transport Authority assumed responsibility in 1948 and became owner by 1957. The Strabane to Derry section of the line closed in 1955, and by 1957 all buildings were empty and the railway abandoned, with a nominal value of 10 shillings recorded.

The station first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905, captioned "Ballymagorry Station" with an accompanying "Goods Shed". By the fourth edition of 1951 the railway is shown under Ulster Transport Authority ownership. The building retains most of its original external and internal features and, together with its remaining stretch of platform, evokes the era of the expansive narrow-gauge railway network that served small communities across County Donegal and County Tyrone. Its rare construction in lightweight corrugated iron and timber framing, combined with its survival and documented history, gives the station considerable industrial archaeological and local historical interest.