Auchenmade railway station was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

approximately three miles north-east of

Kilwinning Kilwinning (, sco, Kilwinnin; gd, Cill D’Fhinnein) is a town in North Ayrshire, Scotland. It is on the River Garnock, north of Irvine, about southwest of Glasgow. It is known as "The Crossroads of Ayrshire". Kilwinning was also a Civil Pa ...

on the B707,

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It served the hamlet of

Auchentiber The hamlet of Auchentiber (Scottish Gaelic, ''Achadh an Tiobair'') is in North Ayrshire, Parish of Kilwinning, Scotland. Auchentiber is northeast of Kilwinning on the Lochlibo Road, from the hamlet of Burnhouse and from the village of Barrmil ...

and the surrounding rural area as part of the

Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was an independent railway company built to provide the Caledonian Railway with a shorter route for mineral traffic from the coalfields of Lanarkshire to Ardrossan Harbour, in Scotland. It opened in st ...

. The station was 6.75 miles from the Lugton East Junction.Wham, Page 191

Infrastructure

The OS maps of 1896 and 1910 show a substantial infrastructure with a double track mainline and four sidings running off to a loading dock and a goods shed with a crane, a signal box at the far end of the southern end of the eastern platform, signal posts, weighing machine, pedestrian overbridge and several platform buildings. In 1946 the main platform buildings were still substantially intact. Until around 1909 the Auchenmade Quarry and Brickworks company operated a private siding here. The old clay quarry near South Auchenmade Farm is at now flooded and little evidence of the brickworks and associated railway sidings remains. Lissens Goods was the next railway site, a goods station, down the line towards Ardrossan, supervised by staff at Auchenmade Station and closed on 30 March 1953. Railway workers cottages, similar to those at Auchenmade, still survive at Lissens. The sidings operated at Lylestone Quarry were supervised by staff from Auchenmade Station. Goods trains ran along this line until 30 March 1953, however in 1958 the sidings were still present.old-maps

History

The station opened on 3 September 1888.Butt, page 21 It closed between 1 January 1917 and 2 March 1919 due to

wartime economy A war economy or wartime economy is the set of contingencies undertaken by a modern state to mobilize its economy for war production. Philippe Le Billon describes a war economy as a "system of producing, mobilizing and allocating resources to ...

, and closed permanently on 4 July 1932. Boat trains to Ardrossan ran along this line until 1939.Geograph Opened by the

, then joining the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

it became part of the

London Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

during the

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

of 1923. It was then closed by that company. A feature of World War II was the use of the line for what locals called the night time 'Ghost Trains' that carried injured service personnel to the Glasgow hospitals from where they had been landed at the port of Ardrossan.

The site today

The platforms of Auchenmade station remain intact today as do the railway workers cottages and the loading dock. The railway fencing and gate survives however the bridge abutments have been removed.

References

Notes

Sources

* * *Wham, Alasdair (2013). ''Ayrshire's Forgotten Railways. A Walker's Guide''. Cranborne : Oakwood Press. .
Station on navigable O.S. map

External links

{{commons category, Auchenmade railway station
Auchenmade Railway Station & Workers Cottages

Lissens Sidings

Disused railway stations in North Ayrshire Former Caledonian Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1888 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1917 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1919 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1932