Giffen Station

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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Lucky Poet » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:18 pm

What a weird thing to do. Maybe I'm missing something, but spending shed loads to demolish a fine old piece of industrial architecture, minding its own business in a field? Tsk!
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby maxpower » Wed Apr 30, 2008 5:55 pm

Their excuse was that it would cost something like £1.3 million to repair the bridge, or £500k to blow it up.
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby gap74 » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:17 pm

It seems to be becoming a habit, I think the cost of keeping them safe was the reason they wanted to demolish the piers of the former viaduct over the Clyde between Blantyre and Bothwell.

But the Gree and the nearby Barrmill viaducts were both B-listed, and for good reason, bit of a cheek to turn round and say we haven't looked after these properly and now they're unsafe, can we demolish them? If Kilmarnock can make a tourist attraction of an old disused railway bridge...
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Lucky Poet » Fri May 02, 2008 9:47 pm

Ach, I smell pish. Makes a mockery of the whole listing system, that kind of shenanigans. Besides, what would it matter if it had started to fall down? It's in a field :roll: Fence the thing off, and Bingo! - instant romantic ruin. The compensation for the odd sheep getting clocked would be cheap by comparison.
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Vintagebuff » Fri Dec 19, 2008 1:06 am

Only just discovered this site and spent the last 4 nights reading a lot of very interesting posts. I registered to post on this topic but hope i can contribute some interesting pics in the future.

Giffen station was also called Kilbirnie junction. the Caley line and the G.S.W.R shared the line between Barmill and Giffen station before going their separate ways again at Giffen. The line predates the DMC Beith depot, as its now known, and I'm wondering if that had an influence on the demise of the line as the depot was built around the line. The original munitions depot was actually adjoining Giffen station. The 3 Nissen huts behind Gate End Farm are the original depot.

as you know the Giffen station platforms are still present and a platform was actually kept serviceable for possible troop movements up until the late 80's.

There was a station between Giffen and kilbirnie called Brackenhills. As far as I know the platforms are still there as are the platforms at Kilbirnie. As you leave Beith on the A737 heading to Dalry you hit a right handed bend at the end of the long straight. Exiting the bend you'll notice that the next straight has a rise about half way along it. This is the old bridge over the line and the station is right next to the road on the left hand side.

You can actually drive on part of this line as part of the old track bed was converted to a road in the early 80's. Head from Beith to Glengarnock and before descending to Longbar take the road on the right. This is the old line. I seem to remember the line went over a small bridge about 50 to 100 yards from the Beith-Kilbirnie road but this was filled in during construction of the road. The line between here and brackenhills has been pretty much filled in and what is still original is almost totally reclaimed by nature. I also remember being told this part of the line had a nickname either the clickety clack or the clackety clack because of the noise in the carriages when going through the cutting.

I walked over the Gree viaduct about 88 or 89 and was surprised at how far you could see. At the giffen end of the viaduct you could still make out the sleeper marks in the ballast and the camber of the track as the viaduct curved to the left at this end. There was a 15 foot section of the retaining wall missing at the highest point of the viaduct so you can imagine where I kept away from. Couldn't believe they demolished this listed building. The Barmill viaduct was a different story as it was subsiding and in danger of demolishing itself. There were rumours a few years ago about relaying track on part of the Caley line and part of the old Dalry-Kilmarnock line to increase rail traffic between Glasgow-Kilmarnock and beyond. Can anybody shed any light on this.

Also if you drive from barmill to Beith just after you cross the bridge over the Beith spur you go over another small bridge. This is an old horse drawn mineral line going from Baremailing to just inside DMC Beith.

Sorry to go on at length here.

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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Dexter St. Clair » Fri Dec 19, 2008 8:50 am

Simon.

You're our kind of guy. Welcome aboard. Get the camera out the next time and maybe one of us will illustrate with a map.

Thanks
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby onyirtodd » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:44 am

Dexter St. Clair wrote:Simon.

You're our kind of guy. Welcome aboard. Get the camera out the next time and maybe one of us will illustrate with a map.

Thanks


Dex is too shy to say it but he'd appreciate a photo of your anorak too.
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Vintagebuff » Fri Dec 19, 2008 7:56 pm

You don't want to see my anorak.....Its boggin from some of the places I get into. I work for an access equipment hire company and get into a load of demolition and building sites when carrying out plant safety tests or attending breakdowns. As my username suggests I'm into just about everything ancient. Even my cars 25 years old (Fraz13 will confirm this when he figures out who I am).

As you can see I'm an Ayrshire man originally from Beith hence the local Knowledge.
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Vinegar Tom » Fri Dec 19, 2008 9:35 pm

Vintagebuff wrote: I work for an access equipment hire company and get into a load of demolition and building sites when carrying out plant safety tests


That is gold dust - welcome to HG. Keep your camera about you at all times :)
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Lucky Poet » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:33 pm

I can see you being rather popular round here, Vintagebuff!

Excellent first post :D
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Re:

Postby br-cmr » Fri Dec 19, 2008 10:44 pm

maxpower wrote:Image
Gree viaduct


have a look at http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=55.728403,-4.55231&spn=0.005957,0.019312&t=h&z=16which is a "google maps" image of the gree viaduct. It has obviously been taken when the sun was low in the sky - the shadows cast by the viaduct are very distinct
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Vintagebuff » Sun Dec 21, 2008 5:26 pm

Thanks for the welcome. I usually have a camera or PDA on me and I take pics wherever possible. Some of the best pics I have are from when I worked out of Welwyn Garden City. I have loads of pics and vids of the Vauxhall plant at Luton in various stages of demolition. I also have a few pics of some of the damage caused by Buncefield. Unfortunately I've lost a lot when I reformatted my hard drives a couple of months ago. I was browsing the thread about the old signs and went today to get pics of a couple of old cast iron signs that were in use in Beith only to find they had both disappeared. They were located at each end of Spiersland Way (very few Beithites will know this road) and were forbidding the passage of locomotives and self propelled carriages etc. They were there untill recently but I reckon they were worth a fortune.

Anyway I'm way off topic here.

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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Sandpiper » Sat Jan 17, 2009 12:21 pm

Vintagebuff wrote: I was browsing the thread about the old signs and went today to get pics of a couple of old cast iron signs that were in use in Beith only to find they had both disappeared. They were located at each end of Spiersland Way (very few Beithites will know this road) and were forbidding the passage of locomotives and self propelled carriages etc. They were there untill recently but I reckon they were worth a fortune.

Anyway I'm way off topic here.

Simon.


Hi Simon,

I remember these signs and know Spiesland Way (SW) very well (runs along the back of the Marshalland rugby pitches). I seem to recall they've been gone a while and may well tie in with the extensive use of locomatives and self propelled carriages belonging to contractors which used that road frequently during the upgrade works on the Hunterston - Nielston power lines.

I use SW as a running route and so will look around the next time I'm along that way just in case they've been uprooted and flung over a hedge by contractors.
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby ty1000 » Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:17 pm

Hello,

We recently moved to the area and we live close to what used to be the Giffen to Lugton line.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any old photos of "Gree Goods" station that was and of the surrounding area; ie what is now "Gree Farm", South and West of the former Gree Viaduct. I believe that a lot of the line and sidings around Gree Goods have been filled in, but I would be interested to know how it looked back then.

Also, when do you think the last trains ran along that line between Giffen and Lugton? I gather from the postings here that the line was lifted in 1950? Is that correct?

Thanks in advance,

TY
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Re: Giffen Station

Postby Vintagebuff » Wed Sep 29, 2010 12:00 am

Been a bit of a lurker lately and not posted much. here's a wee google earth pic of the horsedrawn mineral line I mentioned.

Image

And the demolished viaduct in Barmill

Image

The platforms of Giffen station are obscured by the trees. The three nissen huts are the original munitions depot at Beith now part of Duskview Garage. The farm is Gatend Farm which is opposite one of the earliest gates into what is now DM Beith.

Image
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