Location type

Name and dates

Description

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.

Access to the station was by a long footbridge crossing the western end of the station with a flight of steps down to the platform, the station being in a cutting. The station building, typical of the line, had canopies. Although of a standard design used on this line this station was larger due to its use for excursion trains, due to the association with Robert Burns.

The goods yard was to the south, approached by reversing from the southbound track onto a long headshunt which started at the east end of the station and was on the south side of the line. The signal box was on the south side of the cutting, just across the track from the platform building.

The station closed to passengers in 1930. The signal box was closed in 1936. The eastbound line was lifted and, later, the headshunt abandoned, instead the goods lines joined directly with the line (ie afterwards the goods yard was approached directly from the east without any reversal). The footbridge was modified with the northern span which had crossed the eastbound line being removed. The stairs and span over the westbound line remained.

The wooden stairs collapsed under the weight of passengers when the station was visited by an excursion train in 1948, resulting in the death of Mrs Jean Henry. The supporting timbers of the stairway were found to be rotten.

The line closed in 1968.

The cutting of the line remains and is now a walkway. The Alloway Tunnel, just to the west, can be walked through as it passes under the kirkyard of the Alloway Kirk. A little further to the west the trackbed crosses Alloway Viaduct.

Local

Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

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