Before the local railway In the first years of the nineteenth century, the area round Lochmaben was agricultural. The Burgh of
Dumfries was dominant in the area, and the stage route between Carlisle and Glasgow and Edinburgh ran through Lockerbie. There had traditionally been significant trade movement along the Lockerbie - Lochmaben - Dumfries road. In 1847 the
Caledonian Railway (CR) opened its main line through Lockerbie. In 1848 a line between Carlisle and Dumfries was opened, and was extended to complete a Carlisle - Dumfries - Kilmarnock - Glasgow route in 1849; the company building that route became the
Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) in 1850. The arrival of the railway brought cheap coal to the communities served, and helped farmers by cheaply bringing fertiliser in and farm produce away. Lochmaben felt itself at a disadvantage to its neighbours, four miles (Lockerbie) and six miles (Dumfries) away. The populations in 1850 were Lochmaben: 3,100; Dumfries: 11,000; and Lockerbie (in 1851) 1,569.
The line authorised Local interests promoted an independent line between Lockerbie and Dumfries, and the '
(23 & 24 Vict. c. lxxxiii) authorising the Dumfries, Lochmaben and Lockerby Junction Railway' received
royal assent on 14 June 1860; the authorised capital was £85,000 in £10 shares, with borrowing powers of £28,300. The promoters wished to have an independent passenger station in Dumfries, but the G&SWR opposed this and the House of Lords committee agreed, obliging the DL&LR to use the G&SWR station. It was 14½ miles (23 km) long. At Dumfries passenger trains crossed the G&SWR main line on the flat to join the
Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway (CD&DR), which ran parallel to the G&SWR line and on its west side; the CD&DR lines ran to north-facing bay platforms on the west side of Dumfries passenger station, and local passenger trains ran to a bay platform at Dumfries. The DL&LJR set up an independent goods station, named St Mary's, on the east side of the G&SWR line. The Caledonian Railway worked the line from the outset. There were five return passenger journeys a day stopping at all stations at first.
An early interlocking When the CD&DR line opened, the points and signals at Dumfries were operated by a "pointsman" on the ground there. When the DL&LR line was constructed, a very early interlocking was installed. The opportunity was taken to relocate the pointsman's place of duty at the summit of the slope at the deep cutting north of Dumfries station. The Castle Douglas and Lockerbie railways formed junctions with the G&SWR line in the cutting opposite the pointsman's tower... The points at the sidings and junctions will be worked from the top of this bank by means of rods and levers... The semaphores for each line will be connected with the levers which work the points, and consequently when the pointsman shifts the points, the semaphore is made by the same movement to show the proper signal.
The Caledonian Railway takes over In 1861 the
Portpatrick Railway (PPR) opened its line from Castle Douglas to Stranraer, and arranged for the Caledonian Railway to work their line. Although the G&SWR was strongly opposed, a parliamentary bill was prepared by the PPR, seeking running powers over the Castle Douglas and Dumfries Railway and the short section of the G&SWR at Dumfries, so as to enable through running from Lockerbie to Stranraer, with a reversal at Dumfries G&SWR station. (Portpatrick had been reduced in importance in favour of Stranraer as the port for the north of Ireland.) The bill was passed by Parliament and became the
Portpatrick Railway (No. 1) Act 1864 (
27 & 28 Vict. c. cccxvii) on 29 July 1864, and the working arrangement with the CR took effect on 4 December 1864. This gave the CR access to the traffic from the north of Ireland, which was the shortest sea route, between
Donaghadee and Stranraer. The CR were able to insist that traffic from Stranraer to Glasgow and Edinburgh was routed over their own line via Lockerbie, using the DL&LR. It was an obvious next step to absorb the DL&LR, and the '''''' (
28 & 29 Vict. c. ccxcvii) became effective on 5 July 1865. The CR also wanted a share of the lucrative ferry traffic going to Ireland via Portpatrick. At this period, the CR proposed to build a line from Lochmaben to Dinwoodie, on the West Coast Main Line several miles to the north of Lockerbie, to make a more direct connection from Dumfries to the north; this would have avoided the reversal at Lockerbie, but the scheme was not proceeded with. In the years leading to 1876 passengers from Stranraer to London by the evening boat train went via Annan on the G&SWR to Carlisle, joining an LNWR train there. The arrival of the
Midland Railway at Carlisle on completion of the
Settle and Carlisle Line, and the alliance between the MR and the G&SWR, meant that boat train passengers could join a London through train at Dumfries. Accordingly the Caledonian arranged for the boat train to continue from Dumfries (where it had formerly terminated) to Lockerbie; there a through sleeping car was attached to the Up Perth mail train, giving an arrival in Euston at 8 am. The time penalty incurred by the extra mileage was viewed with disfavour by other partners in the service, particularly the ferry operator which was competing with other routes between Ireland and Britain. The working arrangement on the Portpatrick Railway expired in 1885 and the railway, together with the Wigtownshire Railway, was purchased jointly by four larger concerns: the
London and North Western Railway, the MR, the G&SWR and the CR. Vesting day for the new joint railway was 1 January 1886; it was called the
Portpatrick and Wigtownshire Joint Railways. As a result the bitter competition between the CR and the G&SWR for London traffic was diminished, and the boat trains were routed via Annan; the Lochmaben route reverted to the status of a local line. ==After 1923==