Dumfries railway station: Difference between revisions

Dumfries railway station serves the town of Dumfries in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located on the Glasgow South Western Line and is managed by First ScotRail who provide all passenger train services. It is staffed on a part-time basis throughout the week.

Opened by the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway in 1848, the line serving it was extended northwards to Kilmarnock and Glasgow two years later (the GD&CR became part of the Glasgow and South Western Railway at the same time). It subsequently became the junction for branches to Castle Douglas and Stranraer (opened between 1859 and 1861), Lockerbie (opened in 1863 and taken over in 1865 by the Caledonian Railway) and latterly to Moniaive (Cairn Valley Railway, opened in 1905). All of these later lines have now closed (the Port Road to Stranraer being the last to go in June 1965), leaving only the original G&SWR main line open to serve the town.

Carnation built a condensed milk factory in Dumfries that opened in in 1935, eventually constructing three units producing tin cans, condensed milk and latterly CoffeeMate. The original factory had prvate siding access to the station's good yard, which gave access for milk trains to the facility, in both delivering raw product as well as distribution to London. Milk trains stopped in the mid-1970s. The US-parent company was bought by Nestle in 1985, after which a decline in the facility began. CoffeeMate production ceased in 2000, after which the site was fully redeveloped as an industrial estate.^[1]

The service from the station is somewhat irregular - currently there is roughly one train per hour to Carlisle for most of the day (with some extra trains on Saturdays) and one every two hours to Kilmarnock and Glasgow.^[2] Four southbound trains continue to Newcastle via the Tyne Valley line, but the two through northbound services that formerly ran to Ayr and Stranraer no longer operate (having been withdrawn at the December 2009 timetable change).

Sundays see five services to Carlisle and two to Glasgow (two trains from Carlisle also terminate here).

Racks, Ruthwell and Cummertrees stations once existed between Dumfries and Annan.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Annan		First ScotRail  Glasgow South Western Line		Sanquhar

• 
  The station in 1960
• 
  The station pilot at the rear of an Up express in 1960

• 
  Looking north with the site of the old Port Road line bay platforms to the left
• 
  Looking south towards Annan with the site of the old goods station beyond the road bridge

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 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 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.

• RailScot - Glasgow, Dumfries & Carlisle Railway

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