Giffen Station

[maxpower]

Hey guys, long shot but does anyone have any pictures/photographs of Giffen Station in Ayrshire from when it was operational? I've visited the station a couple of times in the last few months and I'd be interested in seeing what it looked like in it's heyday.

Would appreciate anything anyone has!

[Alycidon]

Hi

Had a trawl through the collection and couldn't find anything, however I don't have a copy of Ayrshire's Last Days of Steam published by Stenlake and written by W.A.C. Smith, could be something in here. Have a look through that if you can find a copy at Waterstones or the Library. Found a couple of photographs of Barrmill though.

JBH

[maxpower]

Hey, thanks for looking anyway.

I found out there's a picture in a book called "Lost Railways: Scotland", so went down to the local library today to have a look, only to find that someone has ripped that single page out! Reserved it at another library, hopefully this one will be complete!

Will also have a look for the book you mentioned too.

[Spaniard]

[maxpower]

Only just noticed your post Spaniard, thanks very much! That's the "Forgotten Railways: Scotland" book isn't it? The page I was looking for!

Thanks again

[Spaniard]

Indeed it is max. Written by John Thomas.



Spaniard

[maxpower]

For anyone who's interested, here's how Giffen Station looks today...

[e2wufos1]

For anyone who's interested, here's how Giffen Station looks today...

Where does that line run to today Maxpower?[/quote]

[My Kitten]

Some info here

http://www.railscot.co.uk/Glasgow_and_Kilmarnock_Joint_Railway/body.htm

[maxpower]

Yeah, as the Railscot page mentions, the line that runs through Giffen comes off of the Glasgow-Kilmarnock line at Lugton and goes to the MOD Base at Beith (though formerly the line also continued down to Kilwinning and beyond).

Just south of the station's remains, where the line curves heading in the base, is completely overgrown.


Photo by Chris Court

I'd say there hasn't been a train down this track in at least a decade. The rest of the line from Giffen to Lugton is mainly intact, though there are some light weeds in places.

Interestingly, the line has seem some use in the last decade, for some kind of training exercise after the Paddington rail incident. This probably took place closer to the main line than Giffen.

Probably more info than you wanted to know! Basically, it's now a 2-3 mile stretch of track that goes nowhere. I'm not even sure who owns it, there's a modern looking sign on the track at Giffen that says "private locomotives beyond this point only", so the MOD probably own part of it. I tried asking the British Rail Board as I was wanting to shoot a film down there at one point, but they never got back to me.

Incidently, does anyone know of any other locations like this, with old track still running through an abandoned station?

[MacotheIsles]

No station, but the Mossend - Ravenscraig line is still intact, double track, but beginning to get properly overgrown, and could be good for a spot of general filming where a railway setting is required. The line is truncated just where the yard started on the former steelworks site and disconnected from the main line at Mossend by a six foot gap and buffer stop. Still quite a bit of concreted-in line on on the works site too - just beware the manholes!
[/img]

[Alycidon]

Another overgrown section in Coatbridge, just off Sunnyside road

The way it looked while still in use, (use the signal as your reference point)

And before most of the track was ripped up


Other photographs in this montage on http://www.jhowie.f9.co.uk/sunnyside.htm

There are also a few old branch lines in Edinburgh with track intact and closed stations.

[Pgcc93]

From lastnights Evening Times Four arrested at torpedoes' storage site RNAD Beith is at the end of the Giffen branchline.

[Renfrew Ross]

On the road from Lugton, heading west towards Irvine, there is a large viaduct on the left hand side visible from the road. it can be no more than 1-2 miles from Lugton.

Does anyone know if this was part of the Beith branch ?

[Alycidon]

Yes and no! There are two lines that crossed the Lugton Water and both went to the RNAD facility at Beith. The viaduct you are referring to carried the Caledonian Railway route to Ardrossan and Irvine, this line now stops at Neilston. The Beith Branch and the main access to the RNAD site was from the GSWR line, which crossed the valley via an embankment and smaller bridge furhter to the north. The access to the RNAD site left the GSWR branch and used the formation of the Caledonian line to reach the depot. See the OS map for the area for better detail.