Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway

The Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway was a railway in south west Scotland which linked Castle Douglas to Dumfries.

It opened in 1859. Other companies' lines extended westwards and southwards, and the CD&D line formed a key link in opening up the agricultural area of south-west Scotland. When Stranraer and Portpatrick were reached by the contiguous lines, the CD&D line was the eastern section of the Port Road, which provided an important route from English originating points to the north of Ireland by ferry between Portpatrick and Donaghadee. Much later the ferry route was from Stranraer to Larne.

The CD&DR was absorbed by the larger Glasgow and South Western Railway in 1865.

The line closed in 1965 except for a stub from Dumfries to Maxwelltown Oil Terminal, which continued until 1994, although it was dormant in the latter years. Nothing now remains of the rail activity on the line.

In the middle of the nineteenth century the counties of Galloway, Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire were devoted to agriculture, but lacked efficient land communications links with the rest of the United Kingdom. Mail from the northern part of England, and Scotland, to Ireland passed this way through the ports of Portpatrick and Donaghadee, but the poor roads made the passage difficult.

The Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway (GD&CR) was authorised in 1846 and the authorisation appears to have included a branch from Dumfries to Kirkcudbright, but the shortage of money at that time led to abandonment of the plans for the branch.

The opening of the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1850 induced the Post Office to transfer the mail to that route. In the same year the GD&CR merged with other lines to form the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR). The directors of the G&SWR sought to open up the area, with a view to regaining the mail traffic in due course. The G&SWR also wished to forestall any incursion into the area by the rival Caledonian Railway.

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