Symington railway station

Symington railway station served the village of Symington in Scotland between 1848 and 1965. It was on the main line of the Caledonian Railway and for most of its life was the junction for the branch to Peebles.

The original system of the Caledonian Railway was authorised on 31 July 1845, and the main routes were three lines radiating from a junction at Carstairs.^[1] The southern of these lines, that to Carlisle, was opened in two stages: the section south of Beattock opened first, on 10 September 1847;^[2] and the remainder opened on 15 February 1848.^[3] The station at Symington also opened on 15 February 1848.^[4] Originally, it was situated immediately north of the underbridge carrying the railway over the Biggar Road (present A72 road), at grid reference NS991358. There were two platforms, a goods shed and some sidings; the station building was on the western (northbound) platform.^[5]

The station became a junction with the opening of the first section of the Symington, Biggar and Broughton Railway, as far as Broughton, on 5 November 1860; this line was extended to Peebles in 1864.^[6] In the meantime, on 30 November 1863, Symington station was re-sited at the junction, which was to the north of the original site.^[4] The new station had three platforms and a turntable.^[7] The main line curved from north-west to south through Symington; the line to Broughton and Peebles began at a junction facing Carstairs and ran eastwards then north-eastwards towards the first station at Coulter.^[8]

In 1904 the station was able to handle all classes of traffic (goods, passengers, parcels, wheeled vehicles, livestock, etc.) and there was a goods crane capable of lifting 2 long tons (2,032 kg).^[9]

The Peebles line closed on 5 June 1950.^[6] Symington station was listed for closure in the first Beeching report,^[10] and duly closed on 4 January 1965.^[4]

The remaining infrastructure at Symington consists of two crossovers 66 miles 2 chains (106.3 km) from Carlisle.^[11]

• Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing. CN 8983.
• Beeching, Richard (27 March 1963). The Reshaping of British Railways, part 1: Report (Report). London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
• Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations. Yeovil: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-508-1. R508.
• Conolly, W. Philip (January 1976). British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer (5th ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. EX/0176.
• Lewin, Henry Grote (1968) [1936]. The Railway Mania and its Aftermath. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4262-2.
• Nock, O.S. (1964) [1963]. The Caledonian Railway (2nd ed.). Shepperton: Ian Allan.
• Yonge, John (December 2007) [1987]. Jacobs, Gerald (ed.). Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (5th ed.). Bradford on Avon: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-3-6.
• Lanarkshire (Map). 1:2500. Ordnance Survey. 1859.
• Lanarkshire (Map). 1:2500. Ordnance Survey. 1897.
• The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. 1970 [1904]. ISBN 0-7153-5120-6.

• Symington Station on navigable 1946 O.S. map
• Photographs of Symington at Railscot