Class 101 running north past Girvan Junction.

Local area 

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This line runs through farmed countryside (good for potatoes) from Maybole, passing a former coal mine at Bargany, to Girvan, a fishing port south of Ayr.

Chronology

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Description of route 

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The line is single track with a passing place at Kilkerran, which is a 'fringe box' on the Ayrshire signalling area. The line was formerly double track.
 
Maybole Junction

This was the junction with the Ayr and Maybole Railway which left the original Maybole station on a short branch. See the entry for the Ayr and Maybole Railway for more details.

This station is open. The fine red sandstone station building on the southbound platform remains, but the northbound platform is out of use. A footbridge remains between the southbound platform and a road to the west of the station. This was the second station in Maybole, being further south and more convenient for the town than the original terminus which was closed on the opening of the new station.

Kilkerran retains a signalbox and loop, but the station is closed. Kilkerran is a 'fringe box' on the Ayrshire signalling area. To the north all is controlled from Ayr and to the south signalboxes and semaphore signals are still used. The box has the curious facilities of a touch screen for communication with Ayr and a lever frame. The platforms have been removed, but the station building remains in use as a house.

This station is closed.

This mine was served by sidings from a south facing junction. The mine is closed and sidings removed.

This station is closed. This stretch of line is known as the Killochan bank and runs from Girvan uphill to just north of the station.

This was a two brick-built platform station for the nearby Grangeston munitions works, now a distillery. The platforms remain, unused.

At this point the Givan and Portpatrick Junction Railway left the route of the Maybole and Girvan Railway at a north facing junction. To the north of the junction the Maidens and Dunure Railway branched off from a south facing junction. There was a signalbox here, now removed, in the 'V' of the junction between the Girvan (Old) station lines and the Girvan (New) station lines.

These sidings were immediately south of Girvan Junction and immediately north of a viaduct. The sidings were accessed from the north and were located to the west of the line.

This was the terminus of the line from Maybole. When the line was extended south to near Stranraer by the Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway the terminus was left on a double-track branch and a new, but primitive, station established on the new line. This station did not take over all the workings to Girvan from the north, but simply the services continuing south to Stranraer. In time the new station was re-built and the old one was given over to freight use only. There was an engine shed here too. A freight only spur continued over a bridge to the south side of Girvan harbour, the main terminus being on the north side.

The old Girvan terminus went out of use in the 1980s (by which time the line had been singled) due to the poor condition of a bridge. The track has now been lifted and bridge removed, but on my last visit the site had not been re-developed.