Ballymartin Road runs from the A57 Templepatrick Road to the Ballypalady Road, in Newtownabbey, and crosses the NIR trainline from Belfast to Antrim by way of a remote controlled level crossing.  It’s a single track line and trains cross the road every 30 minutes or so.  I first crossed it around 10 years ago, when I visited a bride’s home for photographs on her wedding day, but more recently a road closure forced me to travel along this minor road again.  I was reminded about the derelict building that sits at the side of the tracks, now covered in very professional looking graffitti.

It has chimneys and looks like it may once have been someone’s home – perhaps that of a railway worker?  At the time I made a mental note to pay it a visit again when next in the area.

UPDATE: A comment on a Facebook post in the Northern Ireland Railways Past and Present group has helped me shed some light on this.  The cottage was the home of the gatekeeper, who opened and closed the level crossing goes, before automation.  For a time this section of track was mothballed, and only maintenance vehicles travelled along it.  The woman who lived sin the cottage was called Maggie McFarland, and when a driver was going along the line the trains would stop to have a chat with her!

Sadly, the house has now been demolished.

I took the Fujifilm X-T2.  It was a cloudy enough October day and the light required an ISO around 800.  Here’s some of the images.

This one’s my ‘Image of the Day…’

F/16 @ 1/60th Sec on ISO800, focal length 16mm.

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