There have been a few questions from time to time about the railways that operated in Wigtownshire, and the following are a few notes that I put together a couple of years ago. As a shorter summary for anyone whose relatives worked for the railways, from 1946/7 until most of them closed, they were part of British Railways, Scottish Region. Since privatization in the 1990s I believe the one remaining line has been run by Scotrail, though the track itself is looked after by Railtrack. (Though there have been changes there I think.) From 1922 to 1946/7 they were a part of the LMS or London Midland & Scottish Railway, while before that date, although quite variously owned, most of the time they were run by the Glasgow & South Western Railway. The Portpatrick Railway came first and received its enabling Act of Parliament Act on 10 Aug 1857. The section from Dumfries to Castle Douglas opened in 1859, and the rest of the 54 mi. route opened on 12 Mar 1861. The important one mile branch to Stranraer Harbor and the half mile branch to Portpatrick Harbour opened in 1863. In return for operating rights the Caledonian Railway established a shipping route from Portpatrick to Donaghadee in 1864. The Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Railway was set up as a company on 6 Aug 1885 and the amalgamated railway was operated as a Joint Committee of the London & North-Western, the Midland and the Glasgow & South-Western Railways. The G&SW was the operator, although the Caledonian did also execise its running rights. The Wigtownshire Railway obtained its Act on 18 Jul 1872. The seven miles from Newton Stewart to Wigtown were opened on 3 - 7 Apr 1875 (probably 3 Apr for goods and 7 Apr for passengers). The section to Millisle on 2 Aug 1875, then to Garlieston on 2 Aug 1875. The branch from Garliestown Junction to the Town & Harbor opened 3 - 7 Apr 1876. After a delay for further financing, eventually provided by Earl Galloway and some associates, the Millisle to Whithorn section opened July 9 1877 Coming down from Ayrshire was another line. The Glasgow & South-Western operated the Girvan & Portpatrick line from its opening in 1877, and in 1892 acquired it as the Ayr & Wigtownshire Railway, which had been set up on 23 May 1887 to maintain the line from Girvan on Maybole & Girvan Ry to Pinmore, Pinwherry, Barrhill, Glenwhilly & New Luce to the East Challoch Junction with the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire. All these lines were taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the LMS, in the 1922 'grouping' and likewise they became part of the nationalized British Railways, Scottish Region after WW2. First closures were in 1950 when passenger services were withdrawn from Whithorn to Newton Stewart and from Stranraer to Portpatrick, but the axe really fell after the Beeching proposals in 1962. The original report showed the area's remaining lines carrying from 0-5000 tons of freight each week, all candidates for closure. In 1963 the first Beeching Plan proposed an end to all passenger services in the area, Ayr and Dumfries to Stranraer. This was not fully accepted and in 1965 it was proposed that the Ayr to Stranraer passenger services continue in conjunction also with the "short route" ferries from Stranraer to Larne in Northern Ireland. This line still runs today, maintained by Railtrack and operated by Scotrail. In fact the Newton Stewart - Wigtown line was finally closed in 1964 and the Dumfries - Stranraer line in 1965. Little now remains except the massive brick and stone viaduct of the Water of Fleet, and the few miles from E. Challoch to Stranraer. I also find I made some notes on the associated Irish shipping routes. The little ports of Portpatrick and Port Logan were the first terminal points for the "short route" to Donaghadee and Larne in Ulster. In the days of the cattle droving industry Portpatrick saw very considerable importation of Irish cattle, as many as 20,000 each year in 1820 and it received "vast expenditures" on breakwaters and quays, designed by Rennie, from 1820 through 1856. However, massive damage in 1839 foreshadowed the major problems predicted by Thomas Telford in an engineering survey in 1802. The harbour is wide open to the full force of storms from the South-West, and this is a stormy stretch of sea, where even in recent years the channel ferry "Princess Victoria" was lost in a storm in 1952. Official Admiralty support for services was withdrawn in favor of Stranraer in 1849. The last attempts to maintain a service from Portpatrick were in connection with rail operating rights obtained by the Caledonian Railway in 1864 and the paddle steamer "Dolphin" was put on the route in 1868-9. However, she proved to be a failure. All government support was finally withdrawn in 1873 and the harbor today sees only pleasure craft. References. An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, E. Carter, Cassell, London 1959. The Industrial Archaeology of Galloway, Ian Donnachie, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, Devon, England 1971 Discovering Galloway, I. McLeod, John Donald Ltd, Edinburgh, 1986 Crawford.

In article <Pine.SOL.4.60L.0702072127410.3026@copland.udel.edu>, Crawford MacKeand <jcbmck@udel.edu> wrote: > There have been a few questions from time to time about the railways > that operated in Wigtownshire, and the following are a few notes that I > put together a couple of years ago. <large snip> > References. > An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, E. Carter, > Cassell, London 1959. > The Industrial Archaeology of Galloway, Ian Donnachie, David & Charles, > Newton Abbot, Devon, England 1971 > Discovering Galloway, I. McLeod, John Donald Ltd, Edinburgh, 1986 To which I would add the following monographs by CEJ Fryer and published by The Oakwood Press: The Portpatrick and Wigtonshire Railways. 1991. ISBN 0-85361-408-3 The Girvan & Portpatrick Junction Railway. 1994. ISBN 0-85316-448-2 Typical for the current editions from this publisher, in addition to the railway history itself you get reproductions of historic Ordinance Survey maps for the stations, details of the passenger and freight traffic including the typical rolling stock used, and a selection of historic photographs. Alex. -- o-+-+-o alexbell@argonet.co.uk /'o'\ The Acorn StrongArm RiscPC '---' - a real windows computer.