Gree Goods station or Gree Depot as it was listed in the Caledonian Railway Working Timetable was a relatively short lived railway freight facility located approximately one miles south of

Lugton Lugton is a small village or hamlet in East Ayrshire, Scotland with a population of 80 people. The A736 road runs through on its way from Glasgow, to the north, to Irvine in North Ayrshire. Uplawmoor is the first settlement on this 'Lochlibo Ro ...

on the A736 Lochlibo Road,

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 ...

. Gree Goods served the industrial and agricultural requirements for transportation in the vicinity, with the village of

Burnhouse Burnhouse, sometimes known locally as The Trap from "Man Trap", is a small village or hamlet in North Ayrshire, Parish of Beith, Scotland. It lies on a crossroads of old B706 and the more recent A736 Lochlibo Road, between Lugton and Auchenharvie ...

not far away, sitting on the crossroads to

Barrmill Barrmill is a small village in North Ayrshire, Scotland about east of Beith on the road to Burnhouse and Lugton. Locally it is known as the ''Barr''.Reid, Donald L. (2009). ''Discovering Matthew Anderson. Policeman-Poet of Ayrshire''. Beith : C ...

, Dunlop and

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

. Over Gree, High Gree, Nether Gree, Gree and Brownhills Farms were located nearby. Gree Goods was close to the Lugton East Junction, just south of the 11 arch Gree Viaduct. The nearest passenger station on the line north was Lugton High and to the south was Giffen. Although a rather remote location today, the facility would have had freight transport business in the form of lime for the fields, cattle, horse and sheep movements, milk and cheese delivery, mining and quarrying related items, etc.Wham, Page 187

Infrastructure

The OS maps of 1896 does not show the goods station or main line and it was not until 1910 that a fairly basic infrastructure is indicated with the double track main line and a single siding running off to branch twice, two sidings running to a loading dock and a single siding running past a second loading dock to a point near the road access off the A736. A signal box was not present and only a possible ground frame and a lone signal post at the siding are shown. A crane is shown.1910 25 inch to the mile OS Map
/ref> The site was located in a cutting which had been expanded to contain the two loading docks, etc. By 1958 the tracks had all been lifted, including the main line.

Netherton Goods station Netherton Goods station or Netherton Depot was a railway public freight facility located between Neilston railway station and Patterton railway station just west of the proposed site of Lyoncross railway station, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. Net ...

was a similar goods only depot located near Netherton Farm on Springhill Road between

Neilston Neilston ( sco, Neilstoun, gd, Baile Nèill, ) is a village and parish in East Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the Levern Valley, southwest of Barrhead, south of Paisley, and south-southwest of Renfrew, at t ...

and Patterton.

History

Opened by 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 ...

, 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. Gree Goods station lay down the line that ran towards

and the station and junction of Giffen.Wham, Page 187 It was supervised by staff at Lugton High Station. Trains ran along this line until 17 December 1950 when the line from Lugton High via Gree to Giffen Junction was taken out of use.Wham, Page 186 By 1958 the Gree sidings had been lifted. The goods station at Gree opened 1 May 1903 and had closed by 1950. A similar goods station was located down the line beyond Auchenmade station at Lissens.

Workings details

In 1907 the Caledonian Railway Working Timetable (WTT) shows that the 12.10pm goods from Gushetfaulds to Ardrossan via Cathcart worked Gree siding. The May 1915 'appendix' to the WTT states that - ''The Siding must only be worked during daylight and not during a Fog or Snowstorm. The Points Locking Frame is secured by a padlock. The Key of the Box in which the Points Locking Frame is placed, is in the custody of the Signalman at Lugton Station.'' ''Brakesmen of Trains having work to do at this place must get the Key from him and hand it in on arrival at Giffen to the Station Master, who will return it by first train. The Signalman at Lugton Station Box will signal the train forward as per clause (b) of Block telegraph Regulations''.

The site today

Railway workers cottages were never built at the site probably as the facility was small and this area had good transport being located on the A736 Lochlibo and the village of

was nearby. The Gree Goods station site was located partly in a cutting and the whole site became an infill in the later 20th century so that nothing remains visible apart from the two typical 'Concrete Bob's' McAlpine's concrete road overbridges and the railway cutting on the other side of the minor road to Brownhill Farm. Gree Viaduct was demolished in 2002.

References

Notes

Sources

* * * Wham, Alasdair (2013). ''Ayrshire's Forgotten Railways. A Walker's Guide''. Cranborne : Oakwood Press. .
RAILSCOT on Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gree Goods station Archaeological sites in North Ayrshire History of North Ayrshire Demolished buildings and structures in Scotland