Ardrossan Harbour [1st]

Location type

Station

Names and dates

Ardrossan Pier (1840-1909)
Ardrossan Winton Pier (1909-1967)
Ardrossan Harbour [1st] (1967-1986)

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Opened on the Ardrossan Railway.
Opened on the Glasgow and South Western Railway [Piers].

Description

This was a terminus on a steamer pier in Ardrossan Harbour. The pier and station were not part of the original Ardrossan and Johnstone Railway but opened with the Ardrossan Railway, replacing Ardrossan Town as the passenger terminus in the town. With the opening of this station further goods lines also opened on the neighbouring piers.

The station had an island platform and an overall timber roof. This roof was cut back and by the end only the platform and seawall remained.

There were two signal boxes. One at the station's south east, on the north side of the line, No 2 box. This box controlled station enty and exit, the sidings on the east side of the station (west side of Eglinton Tidal Dock) and to the west (south side of the Old Tidal Dock). No 1 box was further south east, closer to Ardrossan Town where the Ardrossan Winton Pier station line met the approach to the Western Breakwater (and connection to Ardrossan North. The boxes opened in 1892. The No 2 box was taken over by the No 1 box in 1939 and the approach to the west and east sidings (above) modified to run to that box, now renamed just 'Ardrossan Harbour Signal Box'.

Connecting steamers ran to a number of locations including Brodick Pier on Arran.

The pier competed with the later opened Ardrossan Montgomerie Pier until 1923 when both came into joint London, Midland and Scottish Railway ownership.

The line was cut back to a new station immediately to the south, Ardrossan Harbour, in 1986. At the same time the box was reduced to a gate box. Only a single track line to Ardrossan Harbour from Holm Junction now remained.

The west side of the pier, (the Old Tidal Basin where infilling has taken place), is the Arran Berth and the east side, (Eglinton Tidal Basin), is the Irish Berth.

Local

The town and harbour of Ardrossan were laid out in 1806 for the 12th and 13th Earls of Eglinton.

Tags

Station terminus

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map




Chronology Dates

27/07/1840Ardrossan Railway
Stevenston, Saltcoats [1st], Ardrossan Pier stations opened.
27/07/1903City of Glasgow Union Railway
A busy Isle of Man boat train from Ardrossan Winton Pier over-runs the buffers at platform 8 in Glasgow St Enoch and two carriages are telescoped and hit the stations glass roof. 16 were killed and 27 injured. The train was apparently terminated in a shorter platform than usual due to renovation work and the driver, Henry Northcott, had assumed a greater braking distance.
02/06/1924Ardrossan Railway
Ardrossan Pier re-named Ardrossan Winton Pier.
  /  /1987Ardrossan Railway
Ardrossan Winton Pier closed when line is cut back to a replacement station; Ardrossan Harbour.

Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Scotland - The Lowlands and the Borders v. 6 (Regional railway history series)

Ardrossan (North) 1895: Ayrshire Sheet 16.01 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Ayrshire)

Ardrossan (South) 1895: Ayrshire Sheet 16.05 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Ayrshire)

Ayrshire and Renfrewshire's Lost Railways

Ayrshire's Last Days of Steam

London, Midland and Scottish Railway Engine Sheds: Glasgow and South Western v. 7: Their History and Development

Old Ardrossan

Passenger Steamers of the Glasgow and South Western Railway