The Ayr and Maybole Junction Railway (A&MJR) was a railway in
Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
, Scotland that provided services between
Ayr
Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...
and
Maybole
Maybole is a town and former burgh of barony and police burgh in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It had an estimated population of in . It is situated south of Ayr and southwest of Glasgow by the Glasgow and South Western Railway. The town is bypass ...
. It opened in 1856 and was seen as a link in providing a through line between
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and
Portpatrick
Portpatrick is a village and civil parish in the historical county of Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the west coast of the Rhins of Galloway. The parish is about in length and in breadth, covering .
History ...
, then the ferry port for the north of Ireland.
Although a short line it succeeded in achieving profitability, eventually being absorbed on generous terms by the
Glasgow and South Western Railway
The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railway ...
.
The line is still in use today as part of the
Glasgow South Western Line
The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride.
History
The line was built by several railway compan ...
.
History
False starts
The
Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway
The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&AR) was a railway in Scotland that provided train services between Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Ayr. It opened its first line, between Glasgow and Ayr, in stages from 1839 to 1840. The section b ...
(GPK&AR) was opened as far as Ayr in 1840, but its Ayr station was on the north bank of the
River Ayr
The River Ayr (pronounced like ''air'', ''Uisge Àir'' in Gaelic) is a river in Ayrshire, Scotland. At it is the longest river in the county.
The river was held as sacred by pre-Christian cultures. The remains of several prehistoric sacrificial ...
. (The GPK&AR was a predecessor company of the
Glasgow and South Western Railway
The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railway ...
.) At this early date, thought was given to reaching
Portpatrick
Portpatrick is a village and civil parish in the historical county of Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the west coast of the Rhins of Galloway. The parish is about in length and in breadth, covering .
History ...
, which was the port for a short sea route ferry service to
Donaghadee
Donaghadee ( , ) is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor. It is in the civil parish of Donaghadee and t ...
in the north of Ireland.
For a time the GPK&AR had other priorities, but during the frenzy of railway schemes that arose in 1845, a ''Glasgow and Belfast Union Railway'' (G&BUR) was promoted; it was supported by the GPK&AR, and its parliamentary costs were partly funded by that company.
Portpatrick seemed to be an important destination for a line, although there was much wild and difficult territory to be crossed to get there: in the same year the ''British and Irish Union Railway'' (B&IUR), an independent concern, was proposed to run from Dumfries via
Castle Douglas
Castle Douglas ( gd, Caisteal Dhùghlais) is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It lies in the lieutenancy area of Kirkcudbrightshire, in the eastern part of Galloway, between the towns of Dalbeattie and Gatehouse of Fleet. It is in the ...
to
Portpatrick
Portpatrick is a village and civil parish in the historical county of Wigtownshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the west coast of the Rhins of Galloway. The parish is about in length and in breadth, covering .
History ...
.
The G&BUR was to run by way of Patna, and a third line was proposed to cross the wild country of Galloway, the ''Ayrshire and Galloway Railway'' (A&GR); it would form a junction with the G&BUR at Smithston, near Patna, and run through Dalmellington to Castle Douglas, there linking with the British and Irish Union Railway.
The frenzy of railway schemes lasted for a while but then the bubble burst in 1846, and ambitious and expensive proposals found that they could not get the financial support they needed. The B&IUR announced that it was not proceeding on 21 April 1846, and the A&GR scheme was cut back drastically, to run from Smithston to Dalmellington only, a tiny fraction of its intended extent. It was to have running powers over the G&BUR to reach Ayr.
The G&BUR was authorised in the face of grave financial difficulty, and when the shareholders considered the reality of the situation, the decision was taken not to proceed with construction, and the expensively-won powers were allowed to lapse.
[David Ross, ''The Glasgow and South Western Railway: A History'', Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2104, ]
The A&GR scheme had been heavily cut back in Parliament, and with the G&BUR now dormant, it was unable to connect to Ayr, so the promoters put forward a revised scheme in the next Parliamentary session. It won approval and the Ayrshire and Galloway (Smithstown & Dalmellington) Railway received the Royal Assent on 8 June 1847. It would connect with the GPK&AR at Falkland Junction, a short distance north of their terminal station on the north shore of the River Ayr.
[Campbell Highet, ''The Glasgow and South Western Railway'', Oakwood Press, Lingfield, 1965][
]
The Glasgow and South Western Railway
In October 1850 the GPK&AR merged with another company and the Glasgow and South Western Railway
The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railway ...
(G&SWR) was created. The new concern had pressing problems elsewhere, but was happy to encourage local initiatives to promote new lines. The lure of reaching Portpatrick remained, and at the end of 1852 the prospectus for an ''Ayr, Maybole and Girvan Railway'' was published. Although it was supported by the G&SWR, this scheme too failed to attract sufficient support, and it came to nothing.
Yet another truncated scheme was presented to Parliament in the 1854 session, and this time it was authorised: the Ayr and Maybole Junction Railway was incorporated on 10 July 1854. Capital was to be £33,000 for the line of 5¾ miles (9.3 km). The line was to diverge from the (as yet unbuilt) Ayr and Dalmellington line at Dalrymple Junction. The G&SWR was authorised to work the line for 35% of gross receipts for a period of five years, thereafter at a rate to be determined by arbitration.[E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959] The charge for working the line was considered low by some GS&WR shareholders.
Actual subscription for shares was disappointing, and the G&SWR was obliged to subscribe £10,000 to the scheme.[
]
Opening at last
The line opened to goods trains on 15 September 1856, but the Inspecting Officer was not satisfied with the ballasting, and opening to passengers was accordingly delayed until 13 October 1856.
In 1863 the working arrangement between the owning company and the GS&WR was due to expire. Much work remained to be done in completing the stations, and the A&MJR had been paying its shareholders handsome dividends but had failed to generate capital to complete the works. An impasse arose over the renewal of the working arrangement, and negotiations to absorb the A&MJR into the G&SWR also failed. The negotiations dragged on and the G&SWR agreed a "perpetual working agreement" with a sliding scale of charges between 39% and 45% of gross receipts. The G&SWR may have been motivated to concede better terms by the fear that the Caledonian Railway might step in. The new terms were ratified by Act of Parliament of 13 July 1863. The A&MJR chairman was Rigby Wason
(Peter) Rigby Wason (1797 – 24 July 1875) was a Scottish barrister and farmer, and a Whig politician. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ipswich in Suffolk from 1831 until his defeat at the 1835 general election. However, the election was ...
, and his tenacity is credited with getting good terms for his company.[Awdry, page 59][Stephenson Locomotive Society, ''The Glasgow and South Western Railway 1850–1923'', London, 1950, .]
Reaching Stranraer
When the company was originally promoted, a direct rail connection between Glasgow and Portpatrick was contemplated; the A&MJR saw itself as a link in that chain. In the event the harbour at Portpatrick was not developed as had been thought, although Stranraer took over as the dominant ferry port. The Portpatrick Railway
The Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint RailwaysThe final word is in the plural. was a network of railway lines serving sparsely populated areas of south-west Scotland. The title appeared in 1885 when the previously independent Portpatrick Rai ...
had expended its meagre resources in reaching Portpatrick from Dumfries, but Rigby Wason launched an attack on the PR for failing to build a line northwards from Stranraer, as he considered had been promised. The word "fraud" was used.
The Portpatrick Railway had no funds to build such a line, but the idea remained as an objective. The gap was closed by two nominally independent companies.
The Maybole and Girvan Railway
The Maybole and Girvan Junction Railway was a railway company that constructed a line between Maybole and Girvan. Although promoted independently, it was supported by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, and was seen as part of a trunk line con ...
opened its line on 24 May 1860. The A&MJR terminus at Maybole was at Redbrae, and it was unsuitable for conversion to a through station, so the M&GR by-passed it, building a new through station further west. The old terminus served as a goods yard. The M&GR company succumbed to absorption into the G&SWR in 1865.
The wild territory between Girvan and Stranraer took longer to traverse; the Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway
Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway (G&PJR) was a railway company in Scotland. It opened in 1877 between Girvan and Challoch Junction, where it joined the Portpatrick Railway, which had already reached Stranraer from Castle Douglas. Portpat ...
opened its line across challenging terrain in 1877. It joined the Portpatrick Railway at Challoch Junction, entering Stranraer over that company's line. It was always in financial difficulties, and however desirable it was to have a direct line between Glasgow and Stranraer, the income generated hardly paid for the outgoings. After an unsuccessful capital reconstruction the line was sold to the G&SWR in 1892.[David L Smith, ''The Little Railways of South West Scotland'', David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969, ][H D Thorne, Rails to Portpatrick, T Stephenson and Sons Ltd, Prescot, 1976, ]
Absorbed by the G&SWR
The A&MJR had long held out for better terms if absorption by the G&SWR was to take place. A guaranteed 5% on capital had been rejected, and in 1871 terms were finally agreed. An Act of 29 June 1871 confirmed the absorption of the A&MJR, which had effectively taken place on 1 February 1871. The terms were a remarkable guaranteed 7%. The G&SWR Vice Chairman was asked to explain the generous terms at the Extraordinary General Meeting called to ratify the deal, and he replied that "we could not get it for less".[Reported in Glasgow Herald (newspaper), 2 February 1871, quoted in Ross]
In 1911 the company was finally dissolved and vested in the G&SWR, the 7% dividend guarantee being sustained.[
]
The present day
The Ayr and Maybole Junction line continues in use at the present (2014) as part of the line between Ayr and Stranraer. Passenger services are operated under the brand Glasgow South Western Line
The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride.
History
The line was built by several railway compan ...
. The original Maybole terminus has long been closed.
Topography
The Ayr and Maybole Junction Railway line opened to passenger traffic on 13 October 1856.
The line diverged from the Ayr and Dalmellington line at Dalrymple Junction; from that date there was a station immediately south of the junction, serving both lines, named Maybole Junction, but it closed on 1 December 1859.
The next station was Dalrymple, followed by Cassillis. Both those stations closed to passengers on 6 December 1954.[R V J Butt, ''The Directory of Railway Stations'', Patrick Stephens Limited, Sparkford, 1995, ]
The Maybole terminus closed to passengers on 24 May 1860 when the Girvan line opened; it remained in use as a goods depot until closure in 1965.[Col M H Cobb, ''The Railways of Great Britain -- A Historical Atlas'', Ian Allan Publishing Limited, Shepperton, 2003, ]
Connections to other lines
* Ayr and Dalmellington Railway
The Ayr and Dalmellington Railway was a railway company in Scotland, which connected the growing ironworks community around Dalmellington with Ayr, in Ayrshire, Scotland. Its route was originally planned by the ''Ayrshire and Galloway Railway'' ...
at Dalrymple Junction
* Maybole and Girvan Railway
The Maybole and Girvan Junction Railway was a railway company that constructed a line between Maybole and Girvan. Although promoted independently, it was supported by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, and was seen as part of a trunk line con ...
at Maybole
References
Sources
*
External links
Railscot on Ayr and Maybole Railway
{{Historical Scottish railway companies
Glasgow and South Western Railway
Pre-grouping British railway companies
Early Scottish railway companies
Railway companies established in 1854
Railway lines opened in 1856
Railway companies disestablished in 1871
British companies established in 1854
British companies disestablished in 1871