Tongland Railway Viaduct

Today's the day ……………………….. for a branch line

A rather grey picture taken today at very low tide on the River Dee at Tongland.

The brick arches, top right, are all that remain on that side of the river of the Tongland Railway Viaduct, once part of the branch line linking Kirkcudbright to Castle Douglas.  You might be able to make out the flat concrete base of one of the pillars in the middle of the river.  The extra shows how the viaduct would have looked in its heyday.   

The Kirkcudbright Railway, as it was known, opened in 1864, and closed in 1965 as one of the Beeching Cuts.  The 1895 public timetable shows that seven trains ran each way except Sundays.  The line was a little over 10 miles long and the journey time was 25 minutes. 

How good would it be (as with many of the lost railways) if it was still in existence today ……………………..?