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Post by CC on Nov 25, 2019 12:55:32 GMT
Here's a funny thing. The River Tarff, so everyone believes, is a tributary of the River Dee in Kirkcudbrightshire and had no connection with Tarff Rovers. The stream that flows past Rovers' old ground in Wigtownshire, according to all maps including the OS, is the Tarf Water, with only one F. But the bridge next to the old ground outside Kirkcowan definitely says RIVER TARFF so there we go. The folk that live there should know the spelling of their own stretch of water after all. This means that the maps are wrong and that there are actually two River Tarffs in Dumfries & Galloway. Tarff Rovers folded due to lack of local interest in 2003 but Kirkcowan did see South of Scotland League football again in 2009/10 when Creetown FC spent a year there while Castle Cary Park was being upgraded. Tarff Rovers once beat Alloa in the Scottish Cup, but when they were drawn against Partick Thistle in 1954 the Glasgow papers had to explain who they were and where they came from: Aye, that's THE Willie Harkness in the squad at inside right. The man whose name is still cursed by Queen of the South supporters for allowing the Doonhamers to drift almost into oblivion under his Chairmanship was once a young whippersnapper plying his trade in a field for an amateur club, but one who would come to have ideas above their station, and to regret those pretentions afterward. Much of the blame for Rovers' demise has been laid at the door of one Robert Burns (!) who enticed players from far away, including Chic Charnley of Partick Thistle fame, leaving no room for local players. When Mr Burns decided he no longer wanted to flash the cheque book the local lads, according to the popular theory, told him to stuff his team where the sun disnae shine. According to Chic Charnley himself, he got £10,000 for signing with the club in 1998 and was on £400 per match, but not for long because after a few weeks he was off to Portadown, leaving Mr Burns poorer if no wiser. There's precious little sign that they were ever there, now. The old ground, once known as Balgreen Park, is just like a common or garden farmer's field which happens to have some goalposts in it and an old barn which, on closer inspection, turns out to be the dressing rooms and stand. The thought that this wee patch down a farm track used to host a semi-professional football club is a difficult one to take in. It's only 16 years since Rovers disappeared, after 129 years of providing fun and recreation for the people of Kirkcowan. PS Tarff lost to Partick, at Balgreen Park, 9-1.
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Post by CC on Mar 6, 2020 16:26:51 GMT
Stena Line followed P&O out of Stranraer to Cairnryan in 2011, and left a void that has not been filled. No wonder so many of the town centre pubs have closed down. This photo shows what's left; a ramp where cars and lorries used to embark, with the railway station in the background. A station next to a port, eh? What a brilliant idea that was. Now a traveller whose train terminates at what was once called Stranraer Harbour station has to make a 7 mile journey to Cairnryan in order to catch the ferry. The reason the station at the port was called the Harbour station is that, till 1966, there were two passenger stations in town, the other called, appropriately enough, Stranraer Town. Opened in 1861 it was part of the line to Portpatrick till 1950, and then fell victim to the 1960s massacre of the railways when the line to Castle Douglas and Dumfries was closed down. It looks a right old mess today. That's an engine shed there among the weeds, and there's this building as well, which might have been the offices and waiting room but is now fenced off and impossible for anyone to get to apart from pole vaulters who could possibly make it over the fence. I wonder whether it's used for anything, and hope that it is. It took a lot of effort and a few bumps on the head and scratches to get this shot from the old Northernmost platform. There's even a bit of rail in there somewhere and a view of another platform as well; the station once had 4 of them. Freight traffic lasted till 1993 so what we see here is 27 years' worth of dereliction. People visiting Stranraer and wondering why Station Road doesn't lead to a station can now consider the problem solved; Station Road leads not to what is simply called Stranraer station today but to Stranraer Town, which has not seen a passenger now for 54 years.
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Post by Drew Steignton on Mar 6, 2020 18:41:18 GMT
Now a traveller whose train terminates at what was once called Stranraer Harbour station has to make a 7 mile journey to Cairnryan in order to catch the ferry. That would be an issue if there was still a line from Dumfries. The modern way, with trains to Stranraer only coming from the direction of Ayr, apparently involves leaving the train at Ayr and taking a coach to Cairnryan. I suspect there's some hanging around at Ayr. But I guess that, once your coach is on the move from Ayr, the rest of the journey to Belfast is quicker than in the past. I can see how you might even be minded to take the coach all the way from Glasgow. Sadly none of this bodes well for the railway to Stranraer. Would it now be different had it followed the coast via Cairnryan rather than headed inland?
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Post by CC on Mar 7, 2020 9:06:49 GMT
Now a traveller whose train terminates at what was once called Stranraer Harbour station has to make a 7 mile journey to Cairnryan in order to catch the ferry. That would be an issue if there was still a line from Dumfries. The modern way, with trains to Stranraer only coming from the direction of Ayr, apparently involves leaving the train at Ayr and taking a coach to Cairnryan. I suspect there's some hanging around at Ayr. But I guess that, once your coach is on the move from Ayr, the rest of the journey to Belfast is quicker than in the past. I can see how you might even be minded to take the coach all the way from Glasgow. Sadly none of this bodes well for the railway to Stranraer. Would it now be different had it followed the coast via Cairnryan rather than headed inland? It doesn't bode well, does it? If Holyhead were to lose its ferries to Dublin and Dun Laoghaire it's hard to imagine that it would keep its railway service, and that's the position Stranraer is now in. Ironically, a no-deal Brexit would mean lorry loads of drivers spending nights in town and would probably be good for the B&Bs and pubs, but it wouldn't attract a single rail passenger. I'm reluctant even to mention Boris & Alister's bridge/tunnel plans but in the very unlikely event of either coming to pass an inevitable consequence would be the closure of the Cairnryan ports as well, leaving behind two huge empty concrete spaces just like the one we have in Stranraer. Another effect would be the utter ruin of the ambience of Portpatrick, which is the number 1 tourist attraction in the Rhins precisely because it's a pretty and tranquil seaside village. It would be the equivalent of taking away Holyhead's ferries and building a tunnel to Dublin from Westward Ho! instead.
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Post by CC on Mar 9, 2020 16:06:50 GMT
Been to Kirkcudbright today and enjoyed, as much as it was possible in the cold, the view of the marina. The one bright aspect of the closure of Stranraer ferry port has been the attraction of boats to the harbour; in time perhaps our marina will look, and sound, as good as Kirkcudbright's. The map below shows the site of Stranraer Town station, which was even more convenient for Stair Park than the one at the harbour which is to the left there. Stranraer Town was just above the elbow, and to the right, of Edinburgh Road. Where there is a grassy/muddy elongated triangle, the wee rectangular shape at the top is possibly the engine shed. Even from above we can see the state of the yard, which looks as if it has been used a rubbish dump since before the turn of the millennium. Incidentally, sports fans, the grassy area across London Road from Stair Park is the home of Wigtownshire Rugby Club, the square at 2 o'clock is the town bowling green and at the top left of Bowling Green Lane, where it meets Cairnryan Road, the building facing the sea across the road, now a B&B, was once the club house of Stranraer Golf Club. And below is how the station used to look, before the mid 1960s, when the line carried steam trains to Dumfries.
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