Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railways
The Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railways were a network of railway lines serving sparsely populated areas of south-west Scotland. The title appeared in 1885 when the previously independent Portpatrick Railway and Wigtownshire Railway companies were amalgamated by the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Railways Act 1885 into a new company jointly owned by the Caledonian Railway, Glasgow & South Western Railway, Midland Railway and the London and North Western Railway and managed by a committee called the Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Committee.
The Portpatrick Railway connected and, opened in 1861 and 1862 and was intended to revive the transit to the north of Ireland through Portpatrick, although Stranraer actually became the dominant port. The line became known as The Port Road, as nobody ever called Portpatrick anything other than 'The Port.'
The Wigtownshire Railway, which ran from a connection with the at to, opened from 1875.
The route often known as the Port Road, linked, via Castle Douglas, with the port towns of Portpatrick and Stranraer. It also formed part of a route by rail and sea from England and Scotland to the north of Ireland.
The line was single track throughout, serving a region of very low population density, but it achieved significance by carrying heavy traffic, both passenger and goods, to and from northern Irish destinations through Portpatrick and Stranraer. The line closed in 1965 apart from the short section from to Challoch Junction, which continues in use as part of the Glasgow - Ayr - Stranraer route.
History: beginnings
As early as 1620 Portpatrick had been established as the port for the short sea route between south-west Scotland and the north of Ireland, at Donaghadee in County Down. Irish cattle and horses were a dominant traffic early on, and Post Office mails developed later: by 1838 8,000 to 10,000 letters passed through the port daily, brought by road coach from Dumfries, and from Glasgow. A barracks was erected in the town to facilitate troop movements. However, the limitations of the little harbour became serious disadvantages as other more efficient rail-connected routes, via Liverpool, and later Holyhead became dominant. Portpatrick's nearest railhead was Ayr, away, and the Post Office discontinued use of Portpatrick for mails from 30 September 1849; much of the livestock traffic had already moved to other routes.The Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway
The Glasgow and South Western Railway was formed by amalgamation in 1850, on the opening of the main line which ran from Glasgow via Kilmarnock and Dumfries to Carlisle. When local interests promoted a railway branching from it at Dumfries and running to Castle Douglas, the actively supported it, in fact subscribing £60,000 towards the little company's capital. The motives appear to have been a desire to secure the territory from their rival, the Caledonian Railway, as well as the formation of a first section of a route to Portpatrick. The Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway opened on 7 November 1859 and was worked from the outset by the.The larger company soon made advances to take over the, and did so on 1 August 1865.
Plans for a railway in Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbright
On 30 April 1856, before the obtained its authorising act of Parliament, a meeting was held in Wigtown at which it was agreed that Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire needed a railway connection, and on 26 May 1856 it was decided to build a railway to Dumfries; the intention included connecting Portpatrick to the national railway network, with a view to reviving the Donaghadee route. The government indicated tentative support for such a sea connection, and for improving the harbour at Portpatrick, so the committee proceeded; on 19 September 1856 plans for the route of the British and Irish Grand Junction Railway were tabled. By now the CD&DR had obtained its authorising act of Parliament, the Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway Act 1856, and the Portpatrick line would join it at Castle Douglas instead of going independently to Dumfries. The route east of Newton Stewart took a markedly northerly course through bleak terrain, and this may have been to avoid competing with coastal steamers on a more southerly alignment.While there was much enthusiasm locally for the new venture, it was important to obtain financial support from investors elsewhere. For a while the Great Northern Railway was leading, offering £160,000. At the time the GNR was no closer than Bradford, but it sought alliances and for a time had hopes of forming its own trunk route to Scotland and the north of Ireland. This was ended when the made it clear it would refuse running powers between Gretna Junction and Castle Douglas.
Portpatrick Railway
Formation and construction
The British and Irish Grand Junction Railway Bill for the new line went to Parliament in the 1857 session, but the grand title was changed to the more modest Portpatrick Railway. With little opposition, it obtained the on 17 August 1857. Capital was to be £460,000 with borrowing powers of £150,000, and three railways were required to subscribe funds: the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, the , and the Belfast and County Down Railway. The main line was to be in length from Castle Douglas to Portpatrick, with two short branches: to the west quay at Stranraer, and to the north pier at Portpatrick.The construction process was put in hand, but the available funds were not sufficient to complete the line, and the PPR approached the other railways for further financial support; the Lancaster and Carlisle was reluctant but was urged by its sponsoring company, the London and North Western Railway to do so. The G&SWR subscribed an additional £40,000.
Towards the end of the construction period the PPR gave consideration to the working arrangements. The G&SWR were authorised to work the line by the original act of Parliament, and had offered to do so for 72% of gross receipts. This charge was considered excessive and negotiations took place which the PPR board considered unsatisfactory. On 28 March 1860, they decided that "the board should retain the working of the line under their own management" Evidently this had been foreseen, and provisional arrangements for the supply of locomotives had already been made, and this was quickly followed by contracts for rolling stock and for signalling equipment. The G&SWR had been confident that its terms for working the line would have to be accepted, and it was now angry at the emerging decision. It had subscribed £60,000 to the PPR on the assumption that the little company would effectively belong to it, and had promised a further £40,000: it now made that sum conditional on an impossible contribution by the Belfast and County Down Railway. The breach was irreconcilable, made more so by the fact that the acid correspondence between the two companies was published as a pamphlet. Dalrymple, as chairman, told his shareholders that the loss of the £40,000, though "attended with great inconvenience" need not "make any material, or at least, permanent, financial embarrassment".
Operation to 1863
So the PPR made its own arrangements, and early in 1861 Captain H. W. Tyler made the formal inspection of the line over a three-day period. His only significant adverse comment was that the rail joints were not fished. The line was single throughout, worked by telegraph order; crossing stations were at Castle Douglas, New Galloway, Creetown, Newton Stewart, Glenluce and Stranraer. A shareholders' special train ran on 11 March 1861 and a full public service started the following day, consisting of two passenger trains each way between Stranraer and Castle Douglas, and probably one goods train. The line had not yet opened to Portpatrick itself. The passenger trains conveyed three classes of passenger. In November the passenger service was augmented to three trains each way, possibly by converting the goods train to mixed operation. At this time the motive power fleet consisted of three 0-4-2 mixed traffic tender locomotives and an 0-6-0 locomotive loaned by the.In the Portpatrick Railway Act 1857, a clause had been entered penalising the company if the short branch to the north pier at Portpatrick was not completed by August 1862. The company had accepted this obligation on the understanding that the government would improve the little harbour to enable efficient working of mail and other shipping. This work was essential also to railway operation, as the available land for a terminal was very cramped. A change of government policy began to suggest that the harbour improvement works might not be funded, and the, with limited funds for building its line, was alarmed that their obligation might be to build an unusable branch line; accordingly they had not built any of the main line from Stranraer. However, in 1861 the government did in fact put the work in hand, and the PPR now accelerated the completion of their lines, and the line opened on 28 August 1862, after a Board of Trade inspection on 1 August 1862. The line ran to a town terminus at Portpatrick. To reach the harbour itself, a headshunt was provided beyond the station; a backshunt from there led to the harbour; due to the cramped site the headshunt was only sufficient for an engine and two coaches. The ordinary Portpatrick station was informally referred to as "the high station"; the line to the harbour descended very steeply, and was a plain single line without sidings.
The harbour improvement works seemed to have been suspended and there was no sign of the transfer of the Post Office mail traffic—the original motivation for the entire PPR—to the route. There is no evidence of any passenger or goods terminal building on the harbour branch and it seems likely that the PPR was doing the minimum to comply with the legal obligation, having realised that the government-funded harbour improvements were now in doubt.
There were two daily trains in each direction between Stranraer and Portpatrick, one each way conveying goods also, but in October an express, not conveying 'parliamentary' passengers, was put on between Castle Douglas and Stranraer, making connection there with an Irish ferry. The burgh of Stranraer had constructed a "north landing place" and the PPR had built a deviation to the original Stranraer Pier branch to serve it. Although the sea passage from Stranraer to Irish destinations was longer than from Portpatrick, Stranraer was naturally sheltered and there was much more space for pier and railway accommodation. The Belfast and County Down Railway was extending its line to Larne on the north side of Belfast Lough and it appeared likely that a Stranraer - Larne ferry service would be more advantageous than a Portpatrick - Donaghadee one.
The "north landing place" became known as the East Pier and rail connection with it was established, boat trains to and from Castle Douglas started on 1 October 1862. This was in advance of the Board of Trade inspection by Captain Tyler, on 2 December 1862, when he reported "that the opening of this branch would be attended with danger to the public using it by reason of the incompleteness of the works". The PPR continued to operate the short branch nonetheless. However, the ferry service was loss-making, and was discontinued from 31 December 1863.
The PPR itself was losing money too; the 1862–1863 revenue account showed a loss of £1,073 on turnover of £9,464.