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On to Kilmarnock – UK Rail Journeys Series 2 – Episode 16
In ‘On to Kilmarnock‘ I continue my journey through the Scottish lowlands on a ScotRail Class 156 Super Sprinter.
Please click on a thumbnail to see the photographs that go with the podcast:
Dumfries – the ‘Queen of the South’:
The red sandstone station is in an Italianate style. Opening in 1848 it it has a category B listing from Historic Scotland. In 2022 / 23 the station hosts 291,000 passengers.
In 1935 Carnation opened an evaporated milk factory. Three units produced tin cans, evaporated milk, and, more recently, Coffee mate. A private siding for arriving milk trains and departing products.
Coffee Mate production ceased in 2000.
Across from the station there is the equally magnificent Station Hotel in Lovers Walk. It is in the Gothic style, with a central wooden tower providing the ventilation for the hotel’s mechanical heating system. It dates from 1897.
On opening there were twenty-nine bedrooms and a billiard room. The hotel’s laundry went by train to the Glasgow St Enoch Hotel for washing. The hotel also has a category B listing.
Dumfries in literature:
We’re in Burns Country and Robbie Burns dominates Dumfries. A walk into the town centre takes one to Burns Statue Square with the white Carrara marble statue of the poet. Then there is the modest Burns House and the Burns Mausoleum.
J.M. Barrie, writer of Peter Pan, went to Dumfries Academy. He and his friends played in ‘Neverland’ around the Georgian house at Moat Brae.
Meanwhile Dumfries station features in John Buchan’s ‘The Thirty-Nine Steps‘. Richard Hannay flees from London and buys a ticket from St Pancras to Newton Stewart. He changes at Dumfries to catch a slow train to ‘Galloway’.
The River Nith:
We follow the winding River Nith for around thirty-seven miles. Around six miles north of Dumfries we encounter Portrack Viaduct, a notable river crossing. Today’s red viaduct, a replacement, dates from December 2013.
We pass a short section of the original track with a former National Coal Board diesel shunting engine on it. It is part of the late Charles Jencks ‘Garden of Cosmic Speculation‘. The gardens are only open to the public on one day each year.
We wind along the path of the River Nith through wooded gorges and red sandstone hamlets. It is no wonder the Thames Clyde route was renowned for its scenery.
On to Kilmarnock:
We pass through Sanquhar, Kirkconnel, New Cumnock and Auchinlek on our way to Kilmarnock.
Listen to the podcast to hear more about the journey through the Scottish lowlands.
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Music:
AKM Music licenses Steam Railway and Finding Strength for use in this podcast.