Annan Shawhill railway station explained

Annan Shawhill
Status:Disused
Borough:Dumfries and Galloway
Country:Scotland
Coordinates:54.986°N -3.2505°W
Platforms:1
Original:Solway Junction Railway
Pregroup:Caledonian Railway
Postgroup:London Midland and Scottish Railway
Years:8 August 1870
Events:Station opened as Annan
Years1:1 January 1917
Events1:Closed
Years2:2 March 1919
Events2:Re-opened
Years3:2 June 1924
Events3:Station renamed Annan Shawhill
Years4:27 April 1931
Events4:Station closed to passenger traffic
Years5:1955
Events5:Station closed for freight traffic

Annan Shawhill was a station on the Solway Junction Railway at Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The branch line ran between a junction with the Caledonian Railway Main Line at, across the Glasgow South Western Line, over the Solway Viaduct into Cumberland, England. The station opened for passenger services in 1870. Passenger services were withdrawn in the early 1930s when the cost of maintaining the Solway Viaduct was deemed too high to sustain. Although the line to England was removed, the Scottish part of the branch to Annan Shawhill remained opened for freight until it was finally closed in the 1950s.

History

The station was opened by the Solway Junction Railway in 1870, a year after the completion of the line. The SJR was then part of the Caledonian Railway before becoming part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway after the Grouping in 1923.

The fate of the line was sealed in 1921 when the wooden railway viaduct across the Solway Firth was closed because it had become too costly to maintain. Its rising cost of repairs and maintenance was due to its susceptibility to damage in winter from floating ice. Falling mineral traffic from the Cumberland Coalfields also made the line through Annan Shawhill uncompetitive and loss making.

In 1931, passenger services were withdrawn when the line south of Annan across the Solway Firth was officially closed. However, the line remained open from Annan to Kirtlebridge for freight traffic until 1955 when it was closed completely. In 1965 the station's surviving goods shed along with the line's trackbed was reused for a waste water pipeline from Chapelcross nuclear power station. The station house at Annan Shawhill is now a private dwelling.[1]

The town of Annan continues to be served by the Annan railway station on the Glasgow South Western Line.

Notes

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Shawhill Station, Annan. www.geograph.org.uk. December 12, 2021.