Dumfries railway station serves the town of Dumfries in Dumfries and Galloway,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It is located on the Glasgow South Western Line. The station is owned by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

and managed by ScotRail who provide all passenger train services. It is staffed on a part-time basis throughout the week.

History

Opened by the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway in 1848, the line serving it was extended northwards to Kilmarnock and

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 ...

two years later (the GD&CR became part of the Glasgow and South Western Railway at the same time). It subsequently became the junction for branches to

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 th ...

and Stranraer (opened between 1859 and 1861), (opened in 1863 and taken over in 1865 by 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 ...

) and latterly to

Moniaive Moniaive ( 'monny-IVE'; gd, Am Moine Naomh, ''"The Holy Moor"'') is a village in the Parish of Glencairn, in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. It stands on the Cairn and Dalwhat Waters, north-west of the town of Dumfries. Moniaive has ...

( Cairn Valley Railway, opened in 1905). All of these later lines have now closed (the ''Port Road'' to Stranraer being the last to go in June 1965), leaving only the original G&SWR main line open to serve the town. The Beeching Axe cutting the Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway and

Portpatrick and Wigtownshire 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 ...

has resulted in adverse mileage to connect Stranraer with a longer line via Kilmarnock and

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 ...

. The journey by railway and ferry via Stranraer to Larne Harbour or since the line closed to the

Port of Belfast Belfast Harbour is a major maritime hub in Belfast, Northern Ireland, handling 67% of Northern Ireland's seaborne trade and about 25% of the maritime trade of the entire island of Ireland. It is a vital gateway for raw materials, exports and c ...

is much longer.

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment ...

have designated the station and separately the adjacent station hotel as category B listed buildings.

Carnation ''Dianthus caryophyllus'' (), commonly known as the carnation or clove pink, is a species of ''Dianthus''. It is likely native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.Med ...

built an

evaporated milk Evaporated milk, known in some countries as "unsweetened condensed milk", is a shelf-stable canned cow’s milk product where about 60% of the water has been removed from fresh milk. It differs from sweetened condensed milk, which contains adde ...

factory in Dumfries that opened in 1935, eventually constructing three units producing

tin can A steel can, tin can, tin (especially in British English, Australian English, Canadian English and South African English), steel packaging, or can is a container for the distribution or storage of goods, made of thin metal. Many cans ...

s, evaporated milk and latterly Coffeemate. The original factory had private siding access to the station's goods yard, which gave access for milk trains to the facility, in both delivering raw product as well as distribution to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Milk trains stopped in the mid-1970s. The United States parent company was bought by Nestle in 1985, after which a decline in the facility began. CoffeeMate production ceased in 2000, after which the site was fully redeveloped as an

industrial estate An industrial park (also known as industrial estate, trading estate) is an area zoned and planned for the purpose of industrial development. An industrial park can be thought of as a more "heavyweight" version of a business park or office park ...

In fiction

The station features in the novel '' The Thirty-Nine Steps'' (1915) by John Buchan. Richard Hannay, fleeing from German secret agents, travels from

London St Pancras St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a London station group, central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Bor ...

to Galloway, changing trains at Dumfries. In 1939, T.S. Eliot included Dumfries in his ''

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' (1939) is a collection of whimsical light poems by T. S. Eliot about feline psychology and sociology, published by Faber and Faber. It serves as the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical ''Cats'' ...

''.

Skimbleshanks Skimbleshanks is a character in T. S. Eliot's 1939 book of poetry ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' and in Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 musical ''Cats'', which is based on Eliot's book. The character is portrayed as a bright and energetic ora ...

, the Railway Cat, speaks with the police at Dumfries Station during the night.

Services

ScotRail

The service from the station is somewhat infrequent with trains running to different patterns during the day, these are as follows: In the December 2021 timetable, There is an uneven hourly to 2 hourly service southbound to Carlisle and there are 9 trains per day northbound to Kilmarnock and Glasgow Central (these operate to a mostly 2 hourly frequency but there can be uneven gaps of up to 4 hours at certain points of the day). On Sundays, There is a 2 hourly service to/from Carlisle (5 trains per day in total) and 2 trains per day northbound to Glasgow. Extra trains run at peak times to both Carlisle and Glasgow. Services running through Carlisle to Newcastle were stopped at the May 2022 timetable change.

Gallery

1960

File:Dumfries railway station 2064451 4f127e3a.jpg, The station in 1960 File:Dumfries 2 railway station geograph-2194711.jpg, The station pilot at the rear of a Down express in 1960

2009

File:Dumfries station north.JPG, Looking north with the site of the old Port Road line bay platforms to the left File:Dumfries station, south.JPG, Looking south towards Annan with the site of the old goods station beyond the road bridge

References

Notes

Sources

External links

RailScot - Glasgow, Dumfries & Carlisle Railway

Video of the Dumfries Incredible Edible Group's station gardens project.

Video footage and history of Dumfries railway station.
{{Railway stations served by Abellio Scotrail Railway stations in Dumfries and Galloway Former Glasgow and South Western Railway stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1848 Railway stations served by ScotRail Listed railway stations in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Dumfries and Galloway Buildings and structures in Dumfries 1848 establishments in Scotland