Cairn Table

The line is closed and lifted. There was little left of the railway in 2011. The wood and brick station building at Moniaive survives in use as a farm shed but is slowly disintegrating. The Moniaive station goods shed, used as a farm store, was badly damaged by fire in 2012. Most of the other stations are intact as private houses. The graceful brick built three-arch Dunscore Viaduct survives but is partly hidden by trees. Part of the old trackbed is used as a farm track in places though much has been ploughed up. Near Dunscore a deep cutting has been filled in with stone waste.

The directors planned an official opening of the line for 31 December 1904, but this proved impossible as the Board of Trade inspecting officer was unable to schedule his visit to approve the opening; a celebratory dinner took place nonetheless. In fact the ceremonial opening took place on 28 February 1905 and the full public opening of the line followed the next day, 1 March 1905. There were three passenger trains each way daily, four on Wednesdays an Saturdays, and none on Sundays. At this time the main line railways were introducing railmotors, light vehicles in which a small steam engine is closely coupled to a passenger coach with through driving controls, as an economic means of…