An Act for conferring further powers upon the Derry Central Railway Company, and for authorising the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Company to raise additional capital and to subscribe towards the undertaking of the Derry Central Railway Company; and for other purposes.
The line was authorised by the Derry Central Railway Act 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c. cxii), and constructed from Macfin Junction (between Coleraine and Ballymoney) to Magherafelt, serving Maghera, Upperlands, Kilrea, Garvagh and Aghadowey. Although nominally independent, the line was funded by the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway.
It opened in 1880, was 29.25 miles (47.07km) long, but was never a financial success.
In 1936 there were two trains a day from Belfast to Coleraine via this line and one other train from Magherafelt to Coleraine, consisting of two coaches and a 2-4-0 compound engine. The track had flat bottomed rails, followed the contour of the land and the only large structure was a lattice girder bridge over the River Bann near Macfin.
Nowadays long after the railways closure and the tracks lifted there are still stations at every town and 8 bridges that once spanned the line still intact.[2]
The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland. William Alan McCutcheon, Northern Ireland. Dept. of the Environment. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1984
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