Weston Bridge Platform railway station or Weston Bridge Halt railway station was opened to serve miners travelling to the Ayr Colliery No. 9 Pit that stood near
Annbank and those from the village that worked at other pits in the area,
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 on the line that was originally part of the
Ayr and Cumnock Branch of the
Glasgow and South Western Railway. The location was well chosen as it lay close to the village, the hamlet of Burnbrae and at the busy crossroads at Weston Bridge.
History
Little is recorded about the station however it is known to have been operational in July 1936 and July 1938. Wham states that it was used by miners travelling to work at collieries in the 1920s and 1930s. The
London, Midland and Scottish railway opened the station as Weston Bridge Halt and had renamed it as Weston Bridge Platform by July 1926. The platform has been demolished and no signs of the station remain at the location.
The now solely freight line running through the station site is still operational (datum 2018), serving the Killoch Washery that lies to the south-east, beyond the village of
Drongan
Drongan is a former mining village in East Ayrshire, some east of Ayr and west of Cumnock. It had a population of 4686 in 2011.https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-analyser/jsf/tableView/tableView.xhtml
History
The earliest references to Dr ...
.
Auchencruive Colliery Platform was a similar station built for the sole use miners and it was located a short distance to the East of Mossblown Junction, serving the workers of the colliery from 1898 to 1926. Miner's platforms were not unusual and another existed as Bargany Colliery Platform near
Killochan on the line to
Girvan
Girvan ( gd, Inbhir Gharbhain, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ay ...
.
The next station south on the Ayr - Cumnock branch used to be
Trabboch
Trabboch is a hamlet in East Ayrshire, Scotland. Built as a miners village in the 1880s, it was owned and leased by Wm. Baird & Co., Ltd. and at one time had 94 dwellings. The miners rows stood, until demolition in 1969, on the Stair and Littlemill ...
, now closed and demolished, near
Stair
Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...
and the hamlet of that name and the colliery served by the railway.
Annbank and its junction lay to the north.
Infrastructure
The station consisted of a single platform located on a curved section of track in a cutting on the eastern side of the single track line below the Weston Bridge opposite the old smithy. The halt was reached via a short footpath and steps running from the road above with vehicular access. Once this track lay close to a crane and siding running from Ayr colliery No.9.
OS 25 inch Scotland, 1892-1949
/ref> The lodge house at the entrance to Enterkine House still stands near by. The platform is not shown to have had a shelter or any other facilities and in addition no signalling appears to have been provided although a signal was located at the junction for Ayr Colliery.
A slight raised area is all that remains of the station together with the path that once led to it.
See also
* Annbank railway station
Annbank railway station was a railway station serving the villages of Annbank and Mossblown, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was part of the Ayr to Mauchline Branch of the Glasgow and South Western Railway.
History
The station opened on ...
References
;Notes
;Sources
*
*
* Wham, Alasdair (2013). ''Ayrshire's Forgotten Railways. A Walker's Guide''. Cranborne : Oakwood Press. .
External links
Video footage of part of the Auchencruive to Annbank Waggonway.
Video footage of the Enterkine Viaduct.
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Disused railway stations in South Ayrshire
Former London, Midland and Scottish Railway stations
History of South Ayrshire
Demolished buildings and structures in Scotland
Buildings and structures in South Ayrshire