Cairn Valley Light Railway
The railway was built 1901-1905 to link the small towns of Moniaive, Dunscore and Irongray with Dumfries, with stopping points at Kirkland, Crossford, Stepford and Newtonairds. There had been earlier proposals as early as 1865, such as a link between Moniaive and Thornhill (1872-1880) or with Auldgirth (1896), but local financial subscription was lacking. Initially, surveyors had planned to link the line to the main Glasgow & South Western railway line at Holywood Station, but the eventual location was about a mile south at Broomrigg farm. This 'Cairn Valley Junction' was not a stopping point, so residents near the school and church had no direct access to the Cairn Valley line except by travelling by rail from Holywood Station to Dumfries, and then back up the line.
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The railway line was built at about the same time as the Panama Canal, and the technology of the day initially employed gangs of some 200 Irish navvies (later doubled), a steam engine and 9 horses, supplemented after a few months with two 'steam navvies' (steam-shovels rolling on temporarily-laid tracks). At first, the men were housed at Dumfries, and later at timber lodging huts erected along the route.
The planned 16-mile route was problematic, and construction took two years longer than budgeted. At Broomrigg farm, about a quarter-mile from Holywood Church, the mossy bog land was so spongy that some 10,000 tons of material had to be laid for an adequate foundation. Alongside Holywood Church and glebe, a cutting up to 15m deep had to be excavated. The route followed the Cluden River and Cairn Water closely, making the embankments vulnerable to flooding and erosion.
Bryden's Coaches at Moniaive operated for 40 years until the opening of the Cairn Valley Railway.
1903 Steam navvy and workers.
'Railmotor' about 1910, and engine at Dunscore, 1931.
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The railway carried passengers (usually up to 5 carriages) and separate goods trains. The freight was usually lumber, quarry rock, grain and sheep, with trains between 10 and 30 wagons long. Both passengers and freight declined over the decades as a result of growing competition from buses and trucks. Passenger service ended in 1943, and freight traffic ceased in 1949. The closure of the line coincided with the construction of the 'new' post-war Holywood Village. The railway was dismantled in 1953, but the remaining bridges over the rail line remained in use for farm traffic until they became unsafe and were dismantled within a decade. The original railway banking and cutting remains particularly visible around the new Holywood village.
Ian Kirkpatrick, The Cairn Valley Light Railway: Moniaive to Dumfries, Oakwood Press, 2000
1940 Ordnance Survey map showing route of the railway line near Holywood Church