Page last updated on: Friday, 7 May, 2021.

Also referred to as "The Port Line"

For railway enthusiats we now provide links to u-tube videos of trains travellng in SW Scotland. Remember to use your back button from the remote website so that you come back here.

This video shows the route as seen by the engine driver as he progresses from Dumfries to Kirkcudbright. Double-click the picture to get full screen video.

This video runs between Castle Douglas and Stranraer. Double-click the picture to get full screen video.

This video runs from Dumfries to Stranraer, via Gatehouse and is speeded up without commentary to take just 5 minutes.

This last video, courtesy of the National Library of Scotand, lasts nearly 27 mins but follows a steam train on its journey from Stranraer to Dumfries on the so-called "Port Line". It was called the Port Line because it initially led to Portpatrick, from where the Irish Ferries left. Before long the ferries changed to leave from Stranraer. Double click on the picture to make it full screen, then click the arrow in the middle to play the video.

Dromore Station & The Old

Carlisle to Portpatrick Railway.

Stations

01 Loch Skerrow Station.

02 Train at Loch Skerrow Station.

09 This is a very early photograph which we believe is taken at Dromore Station, in the 1870s.

Things to note :
(1) Both engines are on the same track facing each other.
(2) There appear to be 2 main buildings with crow-stepped gables.
The nearest could be the stationmaster's house with a doorway between 2 windows.
The other could be the ticket office / waiting room with 4 windows and a door at the near end of the building.
(3) The apex of the roof above the waiting room is lower than that over the stationmaster's house.
(4) The signal box will be out of camera shot to the right.
(5) The engines appear to be of a similar style / age to the one in the photo of the train approching Creetown Station, which is a few photos below this one.

We are not sure of the purpose of the newer-looking far away building, or the much smaller and lower light-coloured construction in front of it.

03 Train at Gatehouse Station (aka Dromore)

04 Gatehouse of Fleet Station. Only 1 set of crow-stepped gables on the main buildings. The 4th window to the left of the waiting room door appears to have been blocked up, maybe to be used as a noticeboard. The wailing room roof level is lower than that for the stationmaster's house. The nearest building does not have a peaked roof.

05 Gatehouse of Fleet Station. The waiting room has 4 clear windows. There is a small building on the platform opposite the main station buildings.

06 Gatehouse of Fleet Station. There is only one crow-stepped gable on the main building. It's hard to see windows in the waiting room end of the building.

07 Gatehouse of Fleet Signal Box (at the Station).

Single ticket from Gatehouse to Creetown

Luggage ticket from Gatehouse

08 Creetown Station. The engine looks similar to the ones in the oldest photo at Dromore station, hence the date could be c.1870s.

Big Water of Fleet Viaduct

Here's a 4-minute aerial description of The Big Water of Fleet Viaduct. Remember to come back here using your "back" button.

2. West end of the Big Water of Fleet viaduct taken from the south. Shows the level of re-inforcement.

3. West end of the Big Water of Fleet viaduct taken from the north.

4. Big Water of Fleet.

5. Viaduct from the Cairnsmore of Fleet National Nature Reserve Centre.

Royal Carriage at Dromore

Since 1947 people living in the vicinity of Gatehouse Station had been provided with a "church, village hall and social centre" in the form of an old disused 3rd class railway carriage that was sited close to the tracks at Dromore Station. By the mid-1960s this carriage had become derelict and was scrapped.
An application to British Rail resulted in the provision of a second, now disused, carriage. This carriage was not 3rd class, having been built in 1889 to be used by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) to travel between London and Scotland via the West Coast route. After Queen Victoria died, the coach ceased to have a royal function, and it became an inspection vehicle used by BR senior staff (albeit after significant modifications).

BR re-organisations meant that by 1965 the carriage, which had been kept at Edinburgh's Waverley Station, was redundant and BR agreed to donate it to the people of Gatehouse.

Click on this link to read the detailed story of the Prince of Wales' Saloon and how it was used at Dromore.

The carriage was delivered by rail. The carriage was then

separated from the bogeys before the crane lifted it into place.

The above photo may well have been taken at the inaugural church service in the new "Prince of Wales" carriage. The minister is Rev C V A McEachern. The couple as seen on the left are Mr & Mrs R Johnston (station master) and the couple on the right are the railway's general manager and his wife.