The Old Northern Steam Railway Line – Ballacrye Gatehouse

On the old Northern Railway Line at Ballacrye just North of Ballaugh Village is the Ballacrye Level Crossing Gatehouse, this building is where the gate keeper and his family lived;

The duties of the gatekeeper were arduous, as laid down by the Isle of Man Company in 1922 (Link to Ballaugh Heritage Trust)

1. The gates were to be kept closed except to allow traffic to pass.
2. Gates to be closed to the horse road five minutes before a train was due.
3. Special trains had to give a prolonged whistle for crossings.
4. A red board by day and three red lights at night to denote that a special train followed. Two red lights denoted a light engine following. These to be displayed on read of train or engines, special to pass within 15 minutes.
5. A red board by day or red light at night hung on the front of the train denoted that a special train was to arrive shortly from the opposite direction.

The image was captured on my Sony HX20V camera, resized and cropped  in Adobe Photoshop CS6.

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