With our stay in Glasgow being bookended by trips with LNER (read about the northbound one here), you’d think I’d have had my fill of trains for the weekend. However, with Beth and my in-laws attending various Folk music concerts which don’t fall within my circle of interests, I decided to spend my Saturday exploring some of the railways that fan out from Glasgow Central.
I had managed to come up with an ambitious plan that would see me ‘tick off’ all the stations south-west of the city, south of the River Clyde and west of the Kilmarnock line. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fit in all the stations on the Kilmarnock line itself and so didn’t visit Kilmarnock or Carlisle, but I did make a good effort to see most of the Ayrshire coast.
For my first train of the day I jumped onboard a pair of class 156s to head south down the Kilmarnock Line to Barrhead, where the local, all stations services terminate. This saw six new stations ticked off before 0815 and a quick change onto another pair of 156s brought me back to Central station ready to see some more of the Glasgow suburbs.
The second line of the day saw me jumping onboard some electric traction, with a 37-year-old class 318 taking me along the branch line to Paisley Canal. With 12 new stations ticked off by 0900, I decided to give myself half an hour in Paisley to grab some breakfast in a café outside the station. A slightly younger, 33-year-old class 320 took me back to Central once again, however this was the last time I’d be at Central for more than 10 hours.
It was now time to head out to the Ayrshire coast and a pair of ScotRail’s new(ish) class 380s took me on the hour-long journey out to Ayr itself. Running via the Ayrshire Coast line, this route took us past Glasgow’s secondary airport at Prestwick which unlike the main airport, has a direct rail link. Infact Prestwick International Airport railway station is the only railway station in Scotland directly connected to an airport (both Inverness and Aberdeen airports are a bit of a walk from their respective stations). Prestwick International Airport railway station is also the only railway station in Scotland not managed by ScotRail or Network Rail.
Whilst the vast majority of the Ayrshire coast lines are electrified and served by the new(ish) class 380s, the wires end at Ayr and so I had a change there from the 380s onto a class 156 for the trek out to the extremity of the rail network south-west of Glasgow, Stranraer. Since Covid, Stranraer is only served by five trains a day running at an irregular two to four hour frequency with the journey from Ayr taking around an hour and 20 minutes.
At 94.5 miles from Glasgow, Stranraer really is an extremity of the rail network, with only one service running through to Scotland’s second city. However the two-car DMU was relatively full with lots of people boarding at both Stranraer and the intermediate stations to Ayr, giving the small harbour town a key link to the more major town of Ayr.
Having spent nearly three hours enjoying a round trip out to Stranraer, I was back at Ayr and ready to continue exploring the Ayrshire coast. My first stop was the town of Kilwinning, which sits at the junction of lines to Ayr, Largs and Ardrossan and where I was able to change to tick off the rest of the lines. Kilwinning is actually the most well served station in Ayrshire, with all but one service throughout the day calling at the station.
From Kilwinning I had a few minutes to pass through the ticket office which sits in the centre of the triangular island platform to the Largs/Ardrossan bound platform. From here it was just a 30-minute run to Largs, via Ardrossan South Beach, the junction station for the Ardrossan branch. As we approached Largs I got to enjoy a sunset view out over the Firth of Clyde of the Largs Pencil Monument, erected to commemorate the 11th century Battle of Largs.
A quick reversal at Largs took me back to Ardrossan South Beach where I alighted and decided to walk the 30-minutes through Ardrossan itself to Ardrossan Harbour, the terminus of the two-station branch line. I actually walked the branch quicker than expected and ended up just missing the train ahead of the one I planned to catch and so had a half hour wait until the next train arrived to take me back towards Glasgow.
Ardrossan Harbour station sees a more limited service than its partner on the mile long branch, Ardrossan Town, with all services from 2200 terminating at the latter. The whole branch sees a very limited service a Sunday, with only 5 services in each direction throughout the day, with the town mostly being served by Largs services calling at Ardrossan South Beach.
From Ardrossan Harbour I caught the train back towards Glasgow, however alighted at the penultimate station, Paisley Gilmour Street. This is the largest of four stations serving the town of Paisley and sits at the junction of the Ayrshire Coast Line (from where I arrived) and the Inverclyde Line towards Gourock and Wemyss Bay. From Paisley its between 25 and 40 minutes run to Wemyss Bay, passing through the ‘mothballed’ station of IBM, which hasn’t had a train stop at it since December 2018.
Wemyss Bay is one of Scotland’s most beautiful and most famous stations. With its curved walkway connecting the platforms with the ferry terminal, and circular waiting area with glazed roof, the station is Grade A listed and underwent a major refurbishment between 2014 & 2016. If you are ever in Glasgow and have the time to make the 45 minute rail journey to Wemyss Bay, then I’d certainly recommend it. Plus if you head over in the evening, there’s a great chip shop opposite the station.
From Wemyss Bay I was almost on the home leg of my rail day exploring the railways around Glasgow, however to leave I decided to jump onboard a bus from outside the station. Saving me the dogleg back to Port Glasgow, the bus took me along the coast to Gourock, the terminus of the other branch of the Inverclyde line. The station here, like a lot of those on the coast, was constructed purely to connect Glasgow with the ferry terminal, however the small fishing village has grown with the railway.
Jumping onboard one of the slower services from Gourock, there were just 10 stations between me and arriving back at Glasgow Central. Over the course of the day I ticked off 58 stations, travelled on 13 trains and covered over 300 miles and saw some beautiful parts of Scotland. I certainly want to head back out to Ayr and Largs again in the future to properly explore the towns, and I’d definitely recommend a rail trip out of Glasgow if you have the time.
Flights & Times 