Lugton 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 prep ...

serving the hamlet 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 R ...

East Ayrshire East Ayrshire ( sco, Aest Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir an Ear) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland. It shares borders with Dumfries and Galloway, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. The headquar ...

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 ...

. The station was originally part of the

Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway The Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway was a railway jointly owned by the Caledonian Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway, completed in 1873, and giving the latter a shorter access to its Carlisle main line. A branch to ...

History

The station opened on 27 March 1871,Butt, page 151 and closed permanently to passengers on 7 November 1966. Today the line still open 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 ...

Current operations

Today the line to Beith (now singled and heavily overgrown) is still in existence until just before the site of Barrmill railway station, where it then heads south along the original route of the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway until it reaches

DM Beith 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 : ...

. DM Beith reportedly no longer require the rail connection and its removal at Lugton has allowed an extension of the proposed dynamic loop on the Glasgow South Western Line, which had been planned to run only between Dunlop and Stewarton stations. The loop allows half-hourly services to run between Glasgow and Kilmarnock.Johnson, page 1 The new 5 1/3-mile double-track loop portion was duly commissioned in September 2009, with the old Beith line disconnected as part of the work. The section is under the control of Lugton signal box and is designed for bi-directional operation.

References

Notes

Sources

*Butt, R.V.J. (1995). ''The Directory of Railway Stations'', Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford. . * Disused railway stations in East Ayrshire Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1871 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1966 Beeching closures in Scotland Former Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway stations {{Scotland-railstation-stub