Giffen railway station
| Giffen | |
|---|---|
The remains of Giffen station in 2006
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| Location | |
| Place | Near Barrmill |
| Area | Ayrshire |
| Coordinates | 55°43′13″N 4°36′45″W / 55.7202°N 4.6125°WCoordinates: 55°43′13″N 4°36′45″W / 55.7202°N 4.6125°W |
| Grid reference | NS359505 |
| Operations | |
| Original company | Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway |
| Pre-grouping | Caledonian Railway |
| Platforms | 3 |
| History | |
| 3 September 1888 | Opened as Kilbirnie Junction |
| 1 October 1889 | Renamed Giffen |
| 4 July 1932 | Closed |
| Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom | |
| Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z |
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Giffen railway station was a railway station approximately one mile south-west of the village of Barrmill, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was part of the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway.
The station opened on 3 September 1888 and was known as Kilbirnie Junction, however it was renamed Giffen on 1 October 1889. Giffen had three platforms, a small station building, and at one point at least seven members of staff. A one time station master was Mr Willie Haining and his son Billy was born in the station master's house in April 1934. The station had large concrete letters spelling out the name with, oddly, a triskelion or Isle of Man symbol set between the two words. Sunday school pupils would walk to the station from Barrmill for a day out in Saltcoats. Giffen station closed on 4 July 1932.
Today (2011) the three platforms of Giffen station still exist (although overgrown and in disrepair), and a single intact railway line runs through the station from Lugton to DM Beith. This track was used regularly to transport supplies into the base, however the track became disused in 1996 and the majority is now overgrown. The connection with the main line at Lugton was lifted in 2008 as part of the track doubling operations on the Lugton to Stewarton section of the Glasgow to Carlisle via Dumfries railway line.
The track near Lugton did see one more recent use on 2 September 2000 when it was used in a rail crash simulation in order to test emergency response times as a result of the Paddington rail crash in 1999.
A footpath on old OS maps as running from the nearby Nettlehirst house down to the station and then to the Gatend and South Barr road via an overbridge.
A feature of WWII was the use of the line for what locals called the night time 'Ghost Trains' that carried injured service personnel to the Glasgow hospitals from where they had been landed at the port of Ardrossan.
Giffen station in the late 19th century
Looking towards Barrmill from the Giffen overbridge
Giffen station from the overbridge
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Wikipedia