Springside Railway Station

Springside railway station was a railway station serving the village of Springside, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was originally part of the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway.

History

The station opened in 1890,<ref name="wham">Wham, page 57</ref> and closed permanently to passengers on 6 April 1964.<ref name="Butt218">Butt (1995) page 218</ref><ref name="Springside">Springside's Auld Lang Syne (2002). Springside Women's Health Group. P. 2.</ref> Also known as Springside Halt, this station had no freight facilities.<ref name="wham"/> The line between Irvine and Crosshouse continued to be used by trains until October 1965.<ref>Stansfield, page 26</ref> The last passenger train through the station was a Kilmaurs Sunday Schools special train to Ardrossan (South Beach) on Saturday, 20 June 1964.<ref>Fowler, Page 15</ref>

Originally Springside had a siding and a signal box, operated by a signalman who came down from Crosshouse on the shunt; once the day's work had been completed the signalman would catch the next available train back to Crosshouse. Springside was linked to Springhill collieries numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as Cauldhame colliery. All these single track lines linked to the siding and were worked by the usual 'Pug' engines. Latterly the station was an unstaffed halt.<ref>Fowler, Pages 16 & 17</ref>

About 300 yards from the station was another siding known locally as 'The Hurries', serving Springside Number 10 colliery. A horse-operated line, 'The Bogie Line', ran up from the pit, conveying the hutches to be unloaded into trucks waiting at the siding.<ref>Fowler, Page 17</ref>

Preceding Station	Historical Railways			Following Station
Crosshouse Line and station closed		Glasgow and South Western Railway Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway		Dreghorn Line and station closed

Views of the station

• 

  The station looking towards Dreghorn in the 19th century.

• Springsidestation2.jpg

  An 'occasion' at the station in the 19th century.

• 

  The station in 1957.

References

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Fowler, Richard. The Busby Branch. G&SWR Society
• Template:Stansfield-AyrRenfrew
• Template:Wham-Ayrshire