Barrhill railway station

Barrhill railway station is a railway station serving the village of Barrhill, South Ayrshire, Scotland. The station is managed by ScotRail and is on the Ayr to Stranraer section of the Glasgow South Western Line, 74 miles (119 kilometres) south of Glasgow Central. A passing loop 19 chains (380 metres) long is located here on what is otherwise a single track route. As well as Barrhill, It also serves Newton Stewart located around 20 miles away.

Barrhill Scottish Gaelic: Am Bàrr[1]
General information
Location	Barrhill, South Ayrshire Scotland
Coordinates	55.0975°N 4.7822°W / 55.0975; -4.7822
Grid reference	NX225816
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	ScotRail
Transit authority	SPT
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	BRL
History
Original company	Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway
Pre-grouping	Glasgow and South Western Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
Key dates
5 October 1877	Opened[2]
Passengers
2019/20	7,144
2020/21	768
2021/22	3,430
2022/23	5,024
2023/24	3,874
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station was opened by the Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway on 5 October 1877.^[2] The station was briefly closed between 7 February 1882 and 16 February 1882,^[2] and between 12 April 1886 and 14 June 1886.^[2]

The station features in the novel Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L Sayers, first published in 1931.

The line that runs through Barrhill station was temporarily closed between August and November 2018 due to the closures of platform 3 and 4 of Ayr station. This was caused by the adjacent hotel building that was found to be structurally unsound, which was then subsequently secured and services then resumed.^[3]

Services

7 days a week, There is 5 trains per day to Stranraer and 5 trains per day to Ayr which run to an irregular 2 to 4 hour frequency (2 of which extend to Kilmarnock with 1 extending onwards to Glasgow). The Sunday service is broadly the same except all trains terminate at Ayr heading northbound and are every 2 hours instead.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Stranraer		ScotRail Glasgow South Western Line		Girvan
	Historical railways
Glenwhilly Line open, station closed		Glasgow and South Western Railway Girvan and Portpatrick Junction Railway		Pinwherry Line open; station closed

Signalling

The small signal box that houses the lever frame operating the loop was installed in 1935 after its predecessor was destroyed by fire - it was originally situated further down the line at Portpatrick but dismantled and moved to Barrhill after becoming redundant at its original location.^[4] The box only houses the frame however - the tablet instruments and block bells are in the main station building, which allows one railman to act as both stationmaster and signaller.