Carstairs Junction Train Station remembered

ALTHOUGH it is a neat, modern, efficient building, no-one over the age of 50 hereabouts can look at the current ticket office-cum-waiting room at Carstairs Junction Station without a pang of nostalgia and regret.
Glory days...of Carstairs Junction as a steam locomotive draws into rthe  station   early in the 20th century. A postcard kindlu supplied by Ed Archer.Glory days...of Carstairs Junction as a steam locomotive draws into rthe  station   early in the 20th century. A postcard kindlu supplied by Ed Archer.
Glory days...of Carstairs Junction as a steam locomotive draws into rthe station early in the 20th century. A postcard kindlu supplied by Ed Archer.

They can recall the Golden Age when that station was the very beating heart of the entire, then-vast Scottish railway network.

Indeed, for generations, it was nigh impossible for ANY visitor to Scotland by rail not to have stopped at ‘The Junction’ for even a few minutes, this being the place where the cross-border train ‘split’, the respective halves going on to the two great Scottish cities almost exactly 35 miles away in either direction.

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That status as what they’d call today a ‘major transport hub’, brought it facilities for the travelling public undreamed of outside Waverley or Glasgow Central, including a buffet, waiting rooms (male and female!) with roaring coal fires in winter, two newsagents/bookshops and even a florist where young Clydesdale men courting Glasgow lassies could purchase their romantic offerings. A confectioner would gladly add a box of chocolates to the young hopeful’s amorous armoury.

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