Cairn Valley Light Railway

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The Cairn Valley Light Railway was built under the regulations of The Light Railways Act 1896 and was opened in 1905. It connected the market town of Dumfries in south-west Scotland to the village of Moniaive in Dumfriesshire at the end of the tranquil Cairn Valley. The line was 17.5 miles long and had stations at Irongray, Newtonairds, Stepford, Dunscore, Crossford and Kirkland. It was built by the Glasgow and South Western Railway as a subsidiary company. The line was single throughout with passing loops and some goods sidings. Plans had involved developing Moniaive into a resort, the countryside being very scenic and peaceful, but apart from the construction of a few outlying hotels little progress was made.

Trains travelled on the main line for the last mile into Dumfries.

The line was operated by a series of elderly express locomotives, often pulling a single coach; and also steam railmotors. Traffic was never heavy with between 2 and 4 trains per day in each direction. There was some goods traffic, mainly livestock and timber from Moniaive and also some road gravel stones from the quarry at Morrinton, near Stepford. Bus competition hit the revenues of the line hard and services were suspended as a wartime economy in 1943, closing entirely in 1949 with the track being lifted.

There is a little left of the railway in 2006. Moniaive station survives in use as a farm shed. Most of the other stations are intact as private houses. The beautifully graceful Dunscore Viaduct survives but is hidden by trees. Part of the old trackbed is used as a farmtrack in places.