Former Railway Station, 22 Station Road, Moneymore, Magherafelt

Former Railway Station, 22 Station Road, Moneymore

This is a conversion of a former mid-19th-century railway station into a dwelling house. Although substantially altered, much of the building's original form, detail and railway function has been retained both externally and internally.

The building is seven bays long, arranged in one and two storeys. The entrance elevation from the north end begins with a single-storey bay with a modern window and hipped slated roof under roughcast rendering. This is followed by a painted gable without windows, which abuts a two-storey section three bays long. The centre bay features a projecting hipped entrance porch with modern windows on the ground floor and the same arrangement on the first floor. The walls are roughcast rendered with painted quoins, half-round metal guttering and downpipes, slated roof, and a brick chimney stack centred on the roof. Another chimney stack sits on the south gable, which has a setback. The next three bays are single storey, each bay containing a pair of tall arched windows with four-pane double-hung sliding sashes. Walls are roughcast rendered and painted with quoins and slated roofs.

On the south gable is an open shed with a corrugated asbestos roof supported by trussed and bracketed purlins and timber columns. Against this shed is a prefabricated timber structure, three bays long with vertical and horizontal timber sheathing, containing three nine-pane windows and a corrugated iron roof with good overhang.

On the former platform side, the building comprises the same two-storey section from the north, featuring a back door, two modern windows at ground level and two windows at first floor. The three single-storey bays on this elevation become four bays and include a three-bay arcade covering a platform area. The roof of this arcade is supported by chamfered timber columns with curved brackets; the upper part of the arcade is sheeted with vertical timber. Several four-panelled doors within the arcade provide access to various rooms including the ticket office and waiting rooms. The final bay has two arched four-pane double-hung sliding sash windows. Walls are rendered and painted. The covered space adjoining features a rubble stone wall 1500 millimetres high with a wooden gate providing exit from and access to the platform for goods handling.

The dwelling house occupies the former Moneymore Railway Station, with platforms retained on both sides where four tracks once ran. A large storage shed stands opposite the dwelling, outside the property boundary. The property extends approximately the length of the station building, across the goods platform and the approach forecourt.

Moneymore station was part of the Midland line branch from Antrim to Cookstown via Magherafelt, opened in October 1856. In 1877, railway improvements established a direct connection from Moneymore to Dublin via Dungannon. The line closed in 1953, with Robert Neill serving as the last station master for eight years. The building was originally brick-faced. The current owners purchased the station from Frank Ross and converted it to residential use, removing structures to the north and altering the main station building whilst retaining the ticket office, waiting rooms, goods access and store.