Maidens and Dunure Light Railway (Glasgow and South Western Railway)

Introduction

This light railway line is closed. The line involved a number of large viaducts and featured an electric brae at Croy Brae (a location which gives the impression of going uphill while going downhill and vice versa in the reverse direction). The famous Turnberry Hotel and golf course was built in association with this line.






Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This was a junction south of Ayr. It was the junction between the 1906 Maidens and Dunure Light Railway (Glasgow and South Western Railway) (Carrick Coast line) and the 1856 Ayr and Dalmellington Railway.
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See also
Ayr and Dalmellington Railway
Black 5 no 45489 seen near Alloway Junction on 25 July 1960 with a down Stranraer boat express. ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 25/07/1960
Nibbling has now started on the old M&D embankment north of the Maybole Road in Ayr to allow a new roundabout on the A77. See image 50406. ...
Colin Miller 29/03/2015
Horwich Mogul 42809 passing Alloway Junction on 15 August 1959 with a Girvan goods. ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 15/08/1959
The MDLR trackbed between the hedges looking west from Dunure Road on the south side of Ayr on a murky 26 December 2014. Sustrans is said to be ...
Colin Miller 26/12/2014
4 of 7 images. more


This was an island platform station in Alloway just to the east of Alloway Tunnel, Alloway Kirk and across the River Doon from the Burns Memorial.
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Memorial window in Alloway Parish Church to William Smith Dixon of 'Dixon's Blazes', which once lit up the sky on the south side of Glasgow... as ...
Colin Miller 08/08/2015
With the Alloway Tunnel below me, this is the view east towards Ayr at the former Alloway station. The island platform was just ahead, the bridge seen ...
Ewan Crawford //1997
Spring in 1997 at the former Alloway station. This view is west from the west end of the station, whose island platform was on the right, looking to ...
Ewan Crawford //1997
Former railway workers' housing beside the site of the goods yard at Alloway in 2015. The 1909 OS map shows this building and another smaller one - ...
Colin Miller 22/02/2015
4 of 13 images. more


This tunnel is directly west of the former Alloway station. It is a single bore tunnel passing under a roadway and the kirkyard of Alloway Kirk. To the west the former line passes over the Alloway Viaduct.
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This view was taken of the construction of the Dunure tunnel roof - cut and cover. Difficult lighting here confused the camera - hence black and ...
Colin Miller 19/06/2016
View west through the refurbished Alloway Tunnel on 6 February 2010. ...
Colin Miller 06/02/2010
The refurbished Alloway Tunnel, recently cleaned up, re-lit, resurfaced and reopened as a cycle path see image 25400. View into the tunnel looking ...
Colin Miller 06/02/2010
Looking back into Alloway tunnel from the Doon Viaduct on 19 November 2000. See image 27555 for the refurbished version ...
Colin Miller 19/11/2000
4 of 4 images.


This disused single track four arch viaduct over the River Doon is west of Alloway Tunnel (and the former Alloway station).
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Leaving Alloway tunnel on 6 February and about to cross the Doon Viaduct. See image 22004 ...
Colin Miller 06/02/2010
Heading over the Doon viaduct from Alloway Tunnel on 19 November 2000.
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Colin Miller 19/11/2000
The Doon Viaduct at Alloway on the former Maidens and Dunure Light Railway, photographed on 3rd January 2009. ...
Colin Miller 03/01/2009
3 of 3 images.


This pair of sidings was to the east of Heads of Ayr [2nd]. The sidings were served from the east.
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A box bridge is currently being installed on the A719 where it crosses the Maidens and Dunure light railway just south of Ayr. This section of line ...
Stephen Wilson 26/03/2023
At the end of the trackbed path looking west. Ahead the infilled bridge under the Ayr - Dunure A719 - from the other side of the blockage, see image ...
Colin Miller 28/12/2014
Revealed by the die-back of vegetation, the ramp of the loading bank at Greenan Siding between Alloway and Heads of Ayr in February 2015. The location ...
Colin Miller 27/02/2015
46233 'Duchess of Sutherland' was purchased by Butlins in October 1964. The locomotive was delivered to Greenan Goods on the Maidens and Dunure line. ...
Bill Hamilton /10/1964
4 of 4 images.


This station was opened in 1947 to serve Butlin's Ayr holiday camp. It was to the east of the original Heads of Ayr [1st] station which had closed in 1930.
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A mid 1960s image at Heads of Ayr, with Hurlford's Class 4MT 2-6-0 76024 ready to depart. The service was probably one of the summer Saturday locals ...
Brian Haslehust //1965
Extract from the Scottish Region timetable winter 1960-61 showing services in the north of Ayrshire. Heads of Ayr (for Butlins) got a Saturday only ...
David Panton 12/09/1960
Marsh 0-6-0 Terrier tank no 32662 of 1875, on display at Butlins Holiday Camp, Heads of Ayr, in August 1965. Withdrawn from Eastleigh shed in ...
G W Robin 18/08/1965
6233 Duchess of Sutherland on display at Butlins Camp, Heads of Ayr, in August 1965. ...
G W Robin 08/08/1965
4 of 5 images. more


This station opened as a single platform station. The station was named for the Heads of Ayr, a prominent headland to the north. The platform was on the south side of the single track railway. The station building, typical of the line, had a platform side canopy.
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Dunure was an island platform station located in a cutting about 3/4 of a mile north east of the village itself.
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The former house of the stationmaster at Dunure, confusingly at Fisherton. The station was also here, a fair distance from and height above Dunure. ...
Colin Miller 17/06/2016
View north over the island platform of Dunure station in 1997. The goods yard was at high level to the right where housing now stands. ...
Ewan Crawford //1997
A surviving truss girder bridge spanning a burn south of Dunure on the former Maidens and Dunure Light Railway. Photographed on 8 February 2011. ...
Colin Miller 08/02/2011
Although the station closed to passengers in 1930, the entry to the long-gone stairway to Dunure's island platform remains in 2011. The cutting below ...
Colin Miller 08/02/2011
4 of 6 images. more




C.R. 18 1/2 0.6.0 17633 on the Rancleugh Viaduct. ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 26/09/1949
Remains of Rancleugh Viaduct see image 6749 looking south on 9 February 2011. The higher piers supported plate girders and the lower ones the ...
Colin Miller 09/02/2011
3 of 3 images.






This station was east of Culzean Castle, about a mile by road. Unusually for this line it was a single platform station. The platform was on the east side of the line. A small building, typical of the line, had a canopy on the platform side. (An example of this style of building survives at Moniaive.) A footpath, crossing the Glenside burn, approached the castle's Glenside Lodge.
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Morriston Overbridge south of Culzean, constructed in the same manner as Alloway Tunnel. View looks south. ...
Colin Miller 02/06/2016
Looking south at Glenside on the M&D in January 2015. The yard and loading bank stood to left, with the single track main line dropping down on the ...
Colin Miller 30/01/2015
The station at Glenside stood at the entrance to Culzean Castle, seat of the Marquis of Ailsa, and he had his own private waiting room. Nothing ...
Colin Miller 30/01/2015
The trackbed south of Glenside station passes over a culvert, seen here on 30 January. To the north, the single 'main line' has been infilled and ...
Colin Miller 30/01/2015
4 of 5 images. more




This station was uphill and about a third of a mile to the east of the village of Maidens, at Jameston.
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The northern abutment of the old railway bridge that once carried the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway over the A719 north of Maidens station see ...
Colin Miller 03/01/2015
Morriston bridge, north of Maidens, showing the construction of the deck - girders with brick arches between, the same method as used in the ...
Colin Miller 02/06/2016
The east facing view of light railway engineering at the Morriston farm bridge, north of Maidens, on 29 February 2012. ...
Colin Miller 29/02/2012
A January 2015 view showing the surviving southern abutment of the double track bridge that carried the railway over the A719 north of Maidens station ...
Colin Miller 03/01/2015
4 of 9 images. more


This was a single platform station. It was the largest station on the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway (Glasgow and South Western Railway) and its fortunes were entirely bound up with the Turnberry Hotel which was developed, along with its golf courses, by the railway company at a greenfield site.
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Another 'light railway' underbridge for a farm road immediately south of Turnberry Station site in May 2014. ...
Colin Miller 11/05/2014
The northern abutment of the MDLR bridge over the A77 just south of Turnberry Station in 2010. See image 42756 ...
Colin Miller 09/04/2010
The southern abutment of the MDLR bridge over the A77 just south of Turnberry Station in 2010. See image 42784 ...
Colin Miller 09/04/2010
Turnberry looking north under the canopy in LMS days. ...
Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland //
4 of 7 images. more


These sidings were north of Dipple itself. The sidings were on the west side of the line and approached from the north. There was a short loop within the goods yard. The yard had an office and a water tank.
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Carrick Coast freight at Dipple. C.R. 18 1/2 0.6.0 17633 ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 26/09/1949
Driver Nick Armstrong (cap in hand).
Fireman - McMillan.
Guard Chas Tyeson. ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 26/09/1949
2 of 2 images.


Girvan Grangeston is a proposed intermodal rail depot to be built north of Girvan station and loop on the closed former Maidens and Dunure Light Railway.
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This siding was located on the Maidens and Dunure Light Railway. Access was from the north. The siding served ICI Grangestone which had both a standard gauge and narrow gauge network. See that entry for more details.
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This signal box controlled the junction for the Maidens and Dunure Railway (1906) where it met the Maybole and Girvan Railway (1860).
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See also
Maybole and Girvan Railway


A 101 runs north past Girvan Junction. The train is approaching from Girvan (New) station on the line to Stranraer. The original terminus was to the ...
Ewan Crawford //
DMU passing Girvan goods branch. ...
Ian Dinmore //
Looking south at Girvan Junction. The line in the distance to the right ran to the original Girvan terminus. ...
Ewan Crawford 19/03/1988
3 of 3 images.