Ken's 2019 All Lines Rail Rover
Day 1 - Saturday 27th July 2019

I only had 20 minutes until my next train, to Stranraer. I’ve always wanted to go there by train, and always failed. Last time I got as far as Girvan before I spent too long over a splendid Full Scottish Breakfast and missed the onward train. This time there would be no breakfast so no excuses.

The Glasgow suburbs were quickly left behind as we passed oddly named stations such as Crossmyloof and Pollockshaws West. After Barrhead the line is mostly single, running down through Dunlop and Stewarton to Kilmarnock. Kilmarnock is a lovely station, with ornate buildings and a partly-glazed roof spanning not just the platforms but also the tracks of the bay platforms there.

The line continues to Dumfries and Carlisle, but we reversed in Kilmarnock and branched to the left, heading for the coast and joining the Glasgow – Ayr line at Barassie. We passed Troon and Prestwick Airport before arriving at Ayr, passing golf links with the sea behind. The line from Glasgow to Ayr is a double track electric commuter line. Beyond Ayr its character changes. It becomes single track, unelectrified and very rural indeed. The line heads inland to Maybole then back to the coast at Girvan. It’s back inland again as we go to Barrhill and finally, back on the coast, Stranraer Harbour, the station overhanging the sea.

The views on this line are great. Rolling hills with streams and stone bridges. There are few building or other signs of habitation. It’s lines like this that make me do these trips. I just love rattling along through the countryside.

Rattling? Yes, parts of the line still have jointed track, making the once-familiar clicketty-clack noise as the wheels pass over the joints. That’s a bit of a throw-back, but other aspects of the line are even more so. The final two stations on the line, Barrhill and Stranraer Harbour, are 25 miles apart. The line between them is single track with passing places at Glenwhilly and Dunragit. The stations and passing places have traditional signal boxes, those at the passing places possibly the most isolated signal boxes left on the network. These signal boxes keep us safe using a system called electric token block, the last such installations on the national rail network.

I’ll explain how this works, so if you’re geek-averse skip this and the following couple of paragraphs. Most railway signalling keeps trains safe by breaking up the line into a series of blocks (or sections) and ensuring that only one train can be present in each block. But single track lines, where a train can travel in either direction, complicates this. A common solution was to have a physical object, a token, that the driver must have in his possession before entering the section. This is safe but is only a partial solution because of the problem of trains travelling in both directions. What if a second train wants to pass through in the same direction as the first? The token is now at the wrong end of the block. Various solutions have been used including, in extreme cases, the token being ferried by road to the other end of the block. Electric token block is the elegant solution used here.

When a train is approaching the entrance to a single line section the signaller releases a token from a token machine, which may contain up to 30 tokens. He/she can only release a token if the signaller at the far end cooperates by pressing a release their end. The signaller then leaves the box and stands in the rain, handing the token to the driver. The driver checks that it’s the correct token for the section in point, the signaller clears the signal and the train proceeds. Now that a token has been issued the token machines at each end automatically lock and will not release another token, keeping the train safe despite there being multiple tokens in existence for the block.

At the far end of the single-line section the driver hands the token to the signaller there who places it in his token machine. Now the machines are unlocked and another token may be issued allowing another train to pass through, whichever direction it is travelling in.

As you’d expect from such an antiquated line it’s still got proper semaphore signals, including yellow and black distant signals. They’re becoming quite rare.

The weather continued to be atrocious. The poor old signallers were getting soaked. The train was taking a hammering, too, as lineside foliage, weighed down with rain, kept thumping the carriage corners to the extent that I’m sure damage must have occurred. The view from the window was spoilt by the rain, but it did ease off from time to time showing rivers and burns in spectacular full spate.

Eventually we reached Stranraer. There are few passengers by this point. Stranraer no longer has the Belfast ferry service as that has moved along the loch to Cairnryan. Foot passengers now leave the train at Ayr and travel by coach to the ferry. Yet Stranraer Harbour station survives. It no longer has trains to Carlisle, as it did until recently, let alone the services that once ran deep into England. All that’s left is a train about every two hours, mostly going no further than Kilmarnock.