The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was a railway company in Scotland built in the late 19th century that provided services between Ardrossan and Glasgow, with branches to Irvine and Kilbirnie. The line was operated by the Caledonian Railway with an aim to compete with the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR). The line was extended in 1905 from Giffen to Newton, and in 1923 the line was merged, along with its G&SWR counterpart, into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSR).
As a result of a single company now owning two lines travelling to the same locations, the L&AR lines were closed off in stages, starting with the branches to Irvine and Kilbirnie in 1930. The last section of the line to close was from Stevenston to Ardrossan in the late 1960s. Only the line north of Neilston is still open today, as part of the Cathcart Circle Lines. Although the rest of the L&AR has long since been lifted, various embankments, viaducts, former station houses and abandoned platforms mark the route on which train passengers were once carried.
Read more about Lanarkshire And Ayrshire Railway: Company Directors, Railway Map, Connections To Other Lines
Famous quotes containing the word railway:
“Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)