Annan Shawhill railway station

Annan Shawhill was a station on the Solway Junction Railway at Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The branch line ran between a junction with the Caledonian Railway Main Line at Kirtlebridge, across the Glasgow South Western Line, over the Solway Viaduct into Cumberland, England. The station opened for passenger services in 1870. Passenger services were withdrawn in the early 1930s when the cost of maintaining the Solway Viaduct was deemed too high to sustain. Although the line to England was removed, the Scottish part of the branch to Annan Shawhill remained opened for freight until it was finally closed in the 1950s.

Annan Shawhill
The site of the station in 2016
General information
LocationDumfries and Galloway
Scotland
Coordinates54.9860°N 3.2505°W / 54.9860; -3.2505
Platforms1
Other information
StatusDisused
History
Original companySolway Junction Railway
Pre-groupingCaledonian Railway
Post-groupingLondon Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
8 August 1870Station opened as Annan[1]
1 January 1917Closed[1]
2 March 1919Re-opened[1]
2 June 1924Station renamed Annan Shawhill[1]
27 April 1931Station closed to passenger traffic[1]
1955Station closed for freight traffic
Solway Junction Railway
Kirtlebridge
Annan Shawhill
Annan
Solway Viaduct over Solway Firth 
Scotland
England
Bowness
Whitrigg
Kirkbride Junction
Sleightholme
Abbey Junction
Bromfield
Brayton

History

The station was opened by the Solway Junction Railway in 1870, a year after the completion of the line. The SJR was then part of the Caledonian Railway before becoming part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway after the Grouping in 1923.

The fate of the line was sealed in 1921 when the wooden railway viaduct across the Solway Firth was closed because it had become too costly to maintain. Its rising cost of repairs and maintenance was due to its susceptibility to damage in winter from floating ice. Falling mineral traffic from the Cumberland Coalfields also made the line through Annan Shawhill uncompetitive and loss making.

In 1931, passenger services were withdrawn when the line south of Annan across the Solway Firth was officially closed. However, the line remained open from Annan to Kirtlebridge for freight traffic until 1955 when it was closed completely. In 1965 the station's surviving goods shed along with the line's trackbed was reused for a waste water pipeline from Chapelcross nuclear power station.[2] The station house at Annan Shawhill is now a private dwelling.[3]

The town of Annan continues to be served by the Annan railway station on the Glasgow South Western Line.

Services

Preceding station Historical railways Following station
Kirtlebridge
Caledonian main line
  Caledonian Railway
Solway Junction Railway
  Bowness
Solway Junction Railway

Notes

Citations

  1. Butt 1995, p. 17.
  2. Mullay 1990, p. 131.
  3. "Shawhill Station, Annan". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2021.

Sources


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