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Description

This is a two platform station with a pair of fine station buildings on each platform. The larger, on the southbound platform, has a long glass canopy on the platform site. The smaller, largely timber built, on the northbound platform, also has a canopy platform side.

Early history of the station has a number of openings and closures. It opened in 1839 and closed in 1839, re-opened in 1841 and closed again at an uncertain date. Finally it opened permanently in 1846. Prestwick was very small when the railway first arrived, perhaps leading to its early chequered history. The golf club was formed in 1851.

The original station had no goods yard and a small building on the southbound platform close to Station Road which passes under the line to the immediate south of the station.

A building was provided on each platform by the 1890s and a goods yard provided on the east side of the station, served from the north. A loading bank was on the west side. A signal box opened in 1880 at the north end of the station and on its east side.

A new much larger station building was built on the southbound platform around 1900 (which probably involves no part of the original building, which was immediately south of the present building). The building is of a design found elsewhere, with some resemblance to West Kilbride.

In 1949 a new curve opened from the goods yard to the Monkton and Annbank Branch (Glasgow and South Western Railway) which allowed Monkton Junction, and its box, to close. This new curve provided access to Prestwick Oil Siding [1st] and Auchincruive 4,5,6,7 [Glenburn]. It closed in 1973.

The signasl box closed in 1985, replaced by a temporary box at Ayr station.

The enclosed footbridge was replaced and a new open version for electrification of the line in 1986. Otherwise the station is an excellent example of a traditional mid sized station. The timber building is one of the very few remaining Glasgow and South Western Railway timber station buildings.

The goods yard no longer exists, it is now the car park.

The suffix 'Town' was added in 1994 to distinguish the station from the new Glasgow Prestwick Airport to the north.

Local

The clubhouse of the Prestwick Golf Club , noted for the Open Championship, is to the immediate west of the station and the course itself runs northwards between the beach and the railway line.

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