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New Galloway

PHOTO GALLERY: PORTPATRICK & WIGTOWNSHIRE JOINT RAILWAY

New Galloway

OPENED: 1891     CLOSED: 1965

Click or tap the images for enlarged views

New Galloway was one of the intermediate stations with a crossing loop on the single line west of Castle Douglas on the Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint Railway.

New Galloway SB
Dr J W F Scrimgeour, 22/7/38

Opened in 1891, luck befell it that it was erected during the Glasgow & South Western’s alternate years of responsibility for the signalling (like most boxes along the line). Architecturally, the design corresponds with that of the GSW signal box at Kilkerran.

New Galloway SB
Dr J W F Scrimgeour, 22/7/38

The box contained a 16-lever frame manufactured by Stevens & Sons, but perhaps of more interest is the instrument in the foreground which is the Tyer & Co switching-out apparatus. A lot of signal boxes along the PWJ had switching out apparatus provided  around 1924, as there was normally only the boat train (known as “The Paddy”) running during night hours. Unusually, arrangements allowed more than one intermediate signal box to close in such circumstances.

Dr New Galloway SB
J W F Scrimgeour, 22/7/38

At the bottom of the picture is one of the two Tyer & Co No7 electric tablet instruments for the single-line sections between here and Crossmichael and Loch Skerrow. When both New Galloway and Crossmichael are switched out, No6 Tablet working applied between Castle Douglas No2 and Loch Skerrow.

This view shows the emergency “Long Section Relieving Switch” mounted on the wall of the box below the bells. The switch had two positions – “Long Section Release” and “Short Section Working Restored”. It was provided with a locking pin which had to be withdrawn, and a seal broken, before use.

To restore Short Section working in emergency, the Long Section tablet had to be brought to New Galloway and placed in the special slide in the Switching Out Apparatus, which interrupted the through circuit.

The pins were then removed from the Relieving Switches at New Galloway and Crossmichael by the Station Masters, freeing the switch which is turned to Long Section Release. This could only be restored by the lineman. In sequence, normal Short Section working at Castle Douglas No2 and Crossmichael could then be resumed.

And if you understand all that, you are doing better than me!

The box remained in use right up to the line’s closure on 5th July 1965.