Machrihanish railway station explained

Machrihanish railway Station
Status:Disused
Borough:Machrihanish, Argyll and Bute
Country:Scotland
Grid Name:Grid reference
Original:Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway
Years:16 August 1906
Events:Station opened
Years2:November 1931
Events2:Station closed
Years3:January 1932
Events3:Station re-opened
Years4:May 1932
Events4:Station closed to passengers
Years5:1934
Events5:Track lifted

Machrihanish was a railway station in the village of Machrihanish, Argyll and Bute, serving the town. The Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway was a 2 ft 3 in (686 mm) narrow gauge railway in Kintyre, Scotland, between the towns of Campbeltown and Machrihanish.

History

The station had a small wooden station building with a corrugated iron roof that slightly projected at the front to provide shelter,[1] [2] no platforms and only a run round loop for the locomotive. It was situated near the seaside village and the local hotel, now largely built over.[3] [4] The station site remains largely undeveloped .[5]

Upgraded from a coal carrying mineral lined and opened for passenger traffic in 1906, the railway did not have stations as such, just places where the train halted to pick up passengers. Many of the passengers were day trippers from Glasgow as a turbine steamer would bring passengers to Campbeltown early enough to catch a train to Machrihanish and allow a return journey all in one day.[6] The next stop on the railway was Trodigal Halt.

Only three other passenger-carrying lines in the UK operated on the same gauge, all of them in Wales - the Corris Railway, the short-lived Plynlimon and Hafan Tramway and the Talyllyn Railway.

References

Further reading

External links

55.4225°N -5.7332°W

Notes and References

  1. Wham, Page 119
  2. Wham, Page 124
  3. http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/158962/details/kintyre+machrihanish+machrihanish+station/Machrahanish station
  4. http://maps.nls.uk/os/6inch-2nd-and-later/view/?sid=75721309#sid=75721309&zoom=7&lat=5626&lon=1637&layers=BT OS Map 1914
  5. http://www.railbrit.co.uk/Campbeltown_and_Machrihanish_Light_Railway/frame.htm History of the line.
  6. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Railway_Cutting_in_Campbeltown_-_geograph.org.uk_-_618505.jpg Railway Details