Drybridge 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 ...

serving the village of

Drybridge Drybridge is a small village in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Drybridge is thus named because of the "dry bridge" over the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway, opened in 1812. The nearby "wet bridge" is the Laigh Milton Viaduct, the oldest surviving railway ...

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 ...

History

The station was opened on 6 July 1812 by the

Kilmarnock and Troon Railway The Kilmarnock and Troon Railway was an early railway line in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was constructed to bring coal from pits around Kilmarnock to coastal shipping at Troon Harbour, and passengers were carried. It opened in 1812, and was the f ...

.Butt (1995), page 83 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 ...

took over management of the station on 16 July 1846, while its successor, 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 ...

, took over full ownership in 1899. The station closed on 3 March 1969. The station named '

' in

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

was renamed ' Letterfourie' by 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 u ...

who had acquired both stations.Wilkinson, Page 58 Today Drybridge station has its platforms intact (although overgrown), and the station building is now a private residence. The line is still open as the 'Burns Line', 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 ...

. The village of 'Drybridge' is so named after the fact that most bridges up until the era of the railways were built over watercourses and were therefore 'wet bridges'; a name applied to the nearby

Laigh Milton Viaduct Laigh Milton Viaduct is a railway viaduct near Laigh Milton mill to the west of Gatehead, Ayrshire, Gatehead in East Ayrshire, Scotland, about west of Kilmarnock. It is probably the world's earliest surviving railway viaduct on a public railway ...

. Visible from the station is the only surviving

standing stone A menhir (from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large human-made upright rock (geology), stone, typically dating from the European middle Bronze Age. T ...

on the mainland in

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * Wilkinson, Brian (1988). ''The Heilan Line. The Portessie Branch of the Highland Railway.'' Dornoch : Dornoch Press. . {{end box

External links

YouTube video of Drybridge Railway Station

YouTube of the hidden 1812 'Dry Bridge'
Disused railway stations in North Ayrshire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1812 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1969 Former Glasgow and South Western Railway stations Beeching closures in Scotland Irvine, North Ayrshire