Fairlie Pier Railway Station

This article is about a Closed Railway Station in North Ayrshire

Fairlie Pier Railway Station was a train station serving the village of Fairlie. The station allowed train passengers to link with ferry sailings to Great Cumbrae and the Isle of Bute.

History

The station was opened on 1 July 1882 by the Glasgow and South Western Railway as part of the Largs Branch extension of the former Ardrossan Railway to Largs. As well as shipping services to Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae and Bute, the pier also handled services to and from Brodick during the winter months until the 1960s. The station officially closed on 31 July 1972, however the last train to operate on the line was on 1 October 1971.

Part of the railway line structures survived till the late 1990s although in a severe derelict state.

Factual Account

This is from John Cunningham who came to Fairlie in 1960, from St Monans in Fife, to be station master.

There were times when I wondered if I had done the right thing in moving to Fairlie, we were strangers in a strange, for us, place. The village was even smaller than St Monans, we knew nobody, but things gradually improved. Our nearest neighbour, Winnie Hogarth, a war widow, ages with ourselves lived in the end house of a terraced row, just across the street, or rather lane as it was, from us, who became a good friend. We then made very good friends with a couple (Aileen and Bill Miller) whose children were ages with our two. Not only that, I found that I was a lot busier at work than I ever had been at previous stations, having two places to supervise. Fairlie High station which served the village had a frequent train service on the line between Largs and Glasgow St Enoch station and the station was well used both by commuters to Glasgow and day trippers from the city. There was also a small goods yard, where the local coal merchant, Willie Allan, ran his business.

The pier station, of course was only busy on the arrival and departure of the steamers. Just before I took over at Fairlie, the Caledonian Steam Packet Company had put their first 'roll on, roll off' ferry, the Glen Sannox, on the Fairlie/Arran run, in 1957. Before that cars were run on to the ferry over two planks of wood - a precarious business! The passenger train service consisted of two trains in each direction for every Arran ferry, Fairlie Pier from and to Glasgow and Kilmarnock. Many of the trains from Glasgow consisted of two portions, one part for the Pier and one for Largs. Of course at that time the steam trains were still running and an engine would arrive at Fairlie High to await the arrival of the boat train where it was split in two, the front portion going on to Largs, then the 

other engine was attached to convey the other half to the Pier. It was all quite complicated and a bit laborious. The biggest problem was ensuring that all the passengers were in the correct part of the train; and, on occasions someone, despite our efforts landed up at the wrong destination.

The advent of diesel and later electric trains, cut down on a lot of this work. The Arran ferry wasn't the only steamer service at Fairlie. There was a regular parcels and freight service to Millport, on the Isle of Cumbrae, and, during the summer months there was a Campbeltown service on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays as well as various excursion sailings.

In addition to the parcels traffic by passenger train, Fairlie Pier was the tranship point for freight. Every morning, at 5 am, the freight train arrived, mostly with traffic in containers (which had been specially designed for this job) containing 'sundries' traffic. These containers were off-loaded from the wagons by means of a mobile crane and placed on to trolleys, which were hooked together and towed down the pier on to the steamer, by means of a small Lansing Bagnall tractor. These trolleys, cars, etc. were driven up a ramp, which was dropped down from the side of the vessel, on to a turntable, which allowed the vehicles to be parked in its bowels. The Glen Sannox also had its own wee tractor for towing the trolleys on to the pier. As well as the 'sundries' traffic, there were some peculiar and sometimes awkward loads to be handled plus lots of fertilisers in wagonloads for the farms on Arran. There was also a considerable amount of livestock movement (mainly sheep). As you can imagine, that had problems of its own.

The goods staff consisted of a foreman, a crane driver, a tractor driver and a porter, while on the passenger side there were two shifts of a station foreman and two porters. In the booking office were Jimmy Jones, the senior clerk and Willie Kindness the junior. Jimmy appeared to have very little ambition as he stayed at the pier until he retired, never seeking promotion. Willie, on the other hand was keen to get on. He was interested in the shipping side of things and soon we began to lose him during the summer months while he went and 'did his stint' as Purser on the Maid of the Loch on Loch Lomond. Eventually he got a permanent job with Caledonian McBrayne at Gourock and did quite well for himself in that establishment. The Pier Junction Signal box was manned by two real characters, both first class signalmen, Willie White and 'Sanny' Lewis, completely different in their ways but united in always trying to catch me out on my knowledge of the Rule Book and train signalling regulations.

The staff at Fairlie High station (as it was called then, now, just Fairlie) consisted of the Clerkess, Isa Mackie, junior clerk Dave MacFarlane, two porters, Willie Reid and John (Bobby) Howes and one signalman, John Boyd. The station offices, waiting rooms, etc., on the 'down' platform were lit by electricity, but the station platforms still used paraffin lamps. They were large Tilley type lamps, which were hoisted up the lampposts. It was quite a large part of the porter's duties looking after these lamps, as well as all the signal lamps. On the 'up' platform was a small brick built waiting room, with a small coal burning stove for heating purposes, and woe betide us if there was not a good going fire there on the cold winter mornings. My time was spent between the High station and the pier and as it was at bit over a mile between the two points, I was supplied with a bicycle as a means of transportation. In 1960, when I arrived at Fairlie two large projects were under way. The nuclear power station at Hunterston was being built and most of the traffic originally came via West Kilbride station but the steelwork was delivered from the Pier station, making use of the mobile crane, as did tons and tons of Georgian wired glass, which was used in the construction. I got quite friendly with the foreman of the company doing the glasswork and he gave us glass, cut to size, from his offcuts and breakages to build a greenhouse for the station. We, my porter Stan Gardner and I, grew our own bedding plants developed plots on the embankment on the up platform, and, I am pleased to say that we won prizes for the Best Kept Station Garden competition.

The other project was the construction of a NATO Boom Defence base, right next to Fairlie Pier. This, I think, was to be a base to provide a defence against any future enemy underwater boats from gaining access up the Firth of Clyde. The place was fully equipped to cope with an emergency, living quarters for permanent staff was provided for such an occasion. All the Boom Defence equipment was stored and maintained there, huge chain-link nets, outsize anchors, mooring buoys etc. and had new pier built to accommodate the Boom Defence vessels. The depot was built on land on which at one time were the engine sheds and sidings, as the Pier station had been the terminus for several years before the line was extended to Largs. The people of Largs were not at all pleased not to get the railway to their town, but the Earl of Glasgow at that time owned most of the land between Fairlie and Largs and would not allow the Railway Company to build a line on his land, Eventually the Railway people had to reclaim land from the sea and as a result a large part of that line runs right next to the sea, or perhaps to be more accurate, the Firth of Clyde.

Before, during and immediately after World War II, the old engine sheds were used as a storage place for various small craft during the winter months, there had also been a kippering kiln, used at the height of the herring-fishing season in days gone by.

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Line Information

Preceding Station	Historical Railways			Following Station
Terminus		Glasgow and South Western Railway Largs Branch		Fairlie High Line closed; station open