Bleach Green is a

railway junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. The physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge) is provided by turnouts (US: switc ...

located in

Newtownabbey Newtownabbey ( ) is a large settlement north of Belfast city centre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is separated from the rest of the city by Cavehill and Fortwilliam golf course, but it still forms part of the Belfast metropolitan area ...

where the

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

Larne Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic Ireland, Gaelic territory)Larne/Latharna
Placenames Database of Ireland. is a to ...

railway line Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road ...

diverges from the Belfast to

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

route. The Bleach Green Junction is the only burrowing junction in the whole of Ireland.

History

Bleach Green railway station Bleach Green (also known as Bleach Green Halt) is a former station operated by NI Railways, Northern Ireland Railways in the village of Whiteabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The station sat near the viaducts at the Bleach Green, junct ...

opened in 1925 and closed in 1977. Today no trace remains of the halt, though the Larne-bound platform survived until the Antrim line was re-opened on 10th June 2001. The Junction lies 3/4 of a mile to the North of Whiteabbey Station. The Viaducts being on the Greenisland Loop line were referred to as the "Greenisland Viaducts" and were used in poster promotion campaign by London Midland and Scottish Railways in 1934.

Viaduct

There is a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

located at Bleach Green, which was completed in 1933 to allow trains to run between Belfast York Road Station and

Ballymena Ballymena ( ; from , meaning 'the middle townland') is a town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 31,205 people at the 2021 United Kingdom census, making it the List of localities in Northern Ireland by population, seven ...

without having to reverse at Greenisland (then Carrickfergus Junction). It was designed by

Freeman Wills Crofts Freeman Wills Crofts FRSA (1 June 1879 – 11 April 1957) was an Irish engineer and mystery author, remembered best for the character of Inspector Joseph French. A railway engineer by training, Crofts introduced railway themes into many of h ...

, shortly before he retired from Engineering to become a full time author. The viaduct was repainted and the junction relaid in 2001 for the reopening of the railway line between Belfast and Antrim. Three smaller concrete arches carry the lines over Glenville Road. The one carrying the Larne-bound line was completed in 1931, the one carrying the lines to and from Derry in 1932, and the one carrying the line from Larne to Belfast in 1933.

References

{{coord, 54.67778, -5.90334, display=title Rail infrastructure in Northern Ireland Rail junctions in Northern Ireland Transport in County Antrim Railway bridges in Northern Ireland Bridges in Northern Ireland Buildings and structures in County Antrim

History

Viaduct

See also

References