Georgetown railway station

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Location
Georgetown
Location	Houston
Area	Ayrshire
Operations
Original company	Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway
Pre-grouping company	Caledonian Railway
Platforms	2
History


29 March 1841	Opened as Houston^[1]
1 May 1926	Renamed Georgetown^[1]
2 February 1959	Closed^[1]
Disused railway stations in Scotland
Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D-F G H-J K-L M-O P-R S T-Z

For the station on the former Glasgow and South Western Railway see Houston railway station.

Georgetown railway station was a railway station serving the village of Houston, Renfrewshire, Scotland, originally as part of the Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway and later owned by the Caledonian Railway.

1 History
- 1.1 The private station
- 1.2 The public station
2 The site today
3 References

[edit] History

The station opened on 29 March 1841, as Houston station. It was located just over 3 miles, (5 kilometres) from Houston, on the Houston Road.

[edit] The private station

There appears to have been two stations of the same name, on this line, 0.75 miles apart.^[2] The northern-most station existed for the duration of World war I, only. It was a private station built in 1915 to serve an explosive Filling Factory, the Scottish Filling Factory (National Filling Factory No. 4), NFF Georgetown. The factory employed over 4,600 employees in July 1916; and some 12,000 employees between December 1916 and August 1917, most of them being women.^[2] This station was linked by a covered walkway directly into the factory; which was also linked to the Caledonian Railway with interchange sidings, just north of the station. The factory was renamed the National Filling Factory, Georgetown to mark the visit of Lloyd George, the first Minister of Munitions on Christmas Eve, 1915.^[2]

The factory had a township of wooden houses adjacent to both it and the public railway station. The factory closed on 11 November 1918, after the end of World War I. The private station, along with the contents of the factory, was sold in 1920.^[2]

[edit] The public station

The township of Georgetown survived the closure of the factory, although the sub-post office was closed and much of the population removed in November 1939.^[2] The last of the wooden houses became uninhabitable in the 1970s and were later demolished.^[2]

The station was renamed Georgetown on 1 May 1926, and closed permanently on 2 February 1959.^[1]

[edit] The site today

Nothing remains of the wooden township of Georgetown, or the public railway station.

A fragment of the concrete western platform and adjoining steps survive from the private World War I station; with a matching platform in, what was to become, ROF Bishopton. A number of earthworks are also visible from the train, representing the embankments of the World War I interchange sidings. They appear to have been later used by the World War II, ROF Bishopton. The track and the connection to the main line appears to have been lifted during the 1967 electrification of the Inverclyde Line.

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Holland, Wilson (1987). Kilmacolm, Bridge of Weir and Houston in old picture postcards. European Library - Zaltbommel, Netherlands. ISBN 90-288-4559-3