Construction and Operation of The Kilmarnock & Troon Railway
In 1807, William Bentinck, the Marquess of Titchfield (later the Duke of Portland) commissioned William Jessop to survey the line. Jessop had already been involved with early railways, notably the Surrey Iron Railway. The contractor was John Simpson. Formerly coal had been taken by road to the harbour at Irvine, some for export to Ireland (8000 tons in 1790). The line was authorised in 1808 and in 1809 the marquess became the 4th Duke of Portland, the largest landowner in Ayrshire. In 1811 the 10 mile (9 miles and six furlongs) long line opened with two tracks of 4 ft gauge worked by horses, with frequent communications from one road to the other, so as to not only allow carriages or waggons to go both directions, but also to allow one carriage or waggon to pass another when both are travelling in the same direction. The 3 ft long flanged 'L' section rails, 4 inches in breadth, weighing 40 lbs each, were mounted with iron spikes driven into wooden oak plugs within stone blocks, 9 to 12 inches in thickness and rather more than a foot square at base and surface. 70,000 stone 'sleepers' were required at 6d. each, and a similar number of cast-iron rails, transported from Glenbuck at an estimated £20,000. The wagons' wheels had no flanges. The ground on which the blocks and rails were laid was first beaten solid and then stones were beaten down. Where the line crossed Shewalton Moss, sand was first laid on the moss surface and then broom, whin, branches of trees or brushwood were laid over the sand. Two deep drains were cut either side of the rail-way. The tramway cost around £4,000 a mile to build.
The gap between the rails was described as the 'horse path', filled high with road metal, and that between the two tracks as the 'attendants' path'. An ambiguous reference states that the distance between the rail roads or courses being the same as the width of each, a horse may travel in the middle space, with a wheel on the inner range of each of the roads. During restoration a layer of small broken stone was found at about the former track level, and presumably formed the 'attendants' path'. Three broken plate rails were also found at this level. Ordinary carts could use the route on payment of a toll, much like the Haytor Granite Tramway and therefore strictly speaking the line was a tramway. Men were employed to sweep the rails clean of ballast kicked up by horses. The line was laid with a gentle 1 in 660 gradient, the total rise being 80 – 84 feet over the length of the entire line, equally divided over the whole course of the road. The horses could pull 160-220 cwts uphill and 200-240 cwts downhill. In 1839 130,500 tons were carried over the railway. There was a passenger service operated with at first just trucks filled with straw for passengers, but later two 'true' carriages, 'Caledonia' and 'The Boat', both built in Dundonald, South Ayrshire, were purchased, with a through journey costing a shilling. Horses were changed at a stable at Gateside. In 1824, the salt pans on the Troon North Shore were acquired by Mr. Archibald Finnie, Kilmarnock, and he converted the buildings at the Pans into dwelling houses and stables for the men and horses employed on the rail-way (sic).
The Advertiser Times Herald of Troon advertised on 15 June 1812, The Caledonia, to carry passengers and goods from Kilmarnock to Troon upon the Iron Railway, will start on Saturday the 27th of June, from Gargieston, until the road is forwarded to Kilmarnock, and every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, afterwards at quarter past nine in the morning; and will leave Troon at six o’clock the same evening. Tickets of one shilling will be had of William Paterson, the proprietor – Croft; of Mr Begbie – Angel Inn, Kilmarnock; and of Mr S. Thomson, Troon. Proper attention will be made to passengers and goods The journey took something in the region of two hours.
In 1846 the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway, which from 1843 connected with the line at both ends, leased and rebuilt the line with standard gauge track capable of taking locomotives. It was purchased outright in 1899 by the Glasgow and South Western Railway.
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