Annan Shawhill railway station

Annan Shawhill was a station on the Solway Junction Railway at Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The branch line ran between a junction with the Caledonian Railway Main Line at Kirtlebridge, across the Glasgow South Western Line, over the Solway Viaduct into Cumberland, England. The station opened for passenger services in 1870. Passenger services were withdrawn in the early 1930s when the cost of maintaining the Solway Viaduct was deemed too high to sustain. Although the line to England was removed, the Scottish part of the branch to Annan Shawhill remained opened for freight until it was finally closed in the 1950s.

Annan Shawhill
The site of the station in 2016
General information
Location	Dumfries and Galloway Scotland
Coordinates	54.9860°N 3.2505°W / 54.9860; -3.2505
Platforms	1
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	Solway Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping	London Midland and Scottish Railway
Key dates
8 August 1870	Station opened as Annan
1 January 1917	Closed
2 March 1919	Re-opened
2 June 1924	Station renamed Annan Shawhill
27 April 1931	Station closed to passenger traffic
1955	Station closed for freight traffic

Solway Junction Railway
Caledonian Railway Main Line Kirtlebridge Annan Shawhill Annan Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway Solway Viaduct over Solway Firth  Scotland England Bowness Whitrigg Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway Kirkbride Junction Sleightholme Abbey Junction Carlisle and Silloth Bay Railway Bromfield Maryport and Carlisle Railway Brayton (M&CR) Maryport and Carlisle Railway

History

The station was opened by the Solway Junction Railway in 1870, a year after the completion of the line. The SJR was then part of the Caledonian Railway before becoming part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway after the Grouping in 1923.

The fate of the line was sealed in 1921 when the wooden railway viaduct across the Solway Firth was closed because it had become too costly to maintain. Its rising cost of repairs and maintenance was due to its susceptibility to damage in winter from floating ice. Falling mineral traffic from the Cumberland Coalfields also made the line through Annan Shawhill uncompetitive and loss making.

In 1931, passenger services were withdrawn when the line south of Annan across the Solway Firth was officially closed. However, the line remained open from Annan to Kirtlebridge for freight traffic until 1955 when it was closed completely. In 1965 the station's surviving goods shed along with the line's trackbed was reused for a waste water pipeline from Chapelcross nuclear power station. The station house at Annan Shawhill is now a private dwelling.

The town of Annan continues to be served by the Annan railway station on the Glasgow South Western Line.

Services

Preceding station	Historical railways			Following station
Kirtlebridge Caledonian main line		Caledonian Railway Solway Junction Railway		Bowness Solway Junction Railway

Notes

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• Mullay, A. J. (1990). Rails across the border: the story of Anglo-Scottish Railways. Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 1-85260-186-8.
• Railways of the Solway Plain
• Station on navigable O.S. map Route of line crosses open railway line to the east of current station (Start of former Solway Bridge can be seen)

External links

• Video footage of the station in 2016
• RAILSCOT on Solway Junction Railway