The Campbeltown & Machrihanish Light Railway Company...

The Life and Times of the Canal and Railway:

CANAL:
1773 - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal Canal surveyed between Machrihanish colliery and Campbeltown.
1783 - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal Under construction.
1794 - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal Opened.
1875 - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal Taken over by the Argyll Coal and Canal Company who intend replacing the canal with a railway.
1881 - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Canal Kilkivan pit nearly worked out.

RAILWAY:
1887 - 23rd May - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Opened as a coal line which would later become the Campbeltown and Machrihanish Railway.
1901 Campbeltown Turbine steamer introduced on route.
1902 Campbeltown Second turbine steam introduced on route.
1905 Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Campbeltown and Machrihanish Railway authorised
1906 - 16th August - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Upgraded and opened for passenger traffic
1926 Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Mining more or less ceases.
1929 Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Pits closed.
1931-  November - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Campbeltown to Machrihanish closed to all traffic
1932 - January - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Line re-opened.
1932 - May - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Line closed again.
1933  - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Campbeltown and Machrihanish Railway formally closed
1945  - Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Pit formerly served by railway re-opens. Served by road instead.

Summary:
Coal mining once took place in the vicinity of Machrihanish, Trodigal and Drumlemble and the Railway replaced the canal (which took a more northerly course than the railway) The canal used to run all the way to Campbeltown.

The line was a 2 foot 3 inches gauge railway. Initially it ran from Machrihanish Colliery (Kilkivan, Drumlemble, Argyll Colliery) to a coal depot and pier in Campbeltown. It was extended westwards to Machrihanish. The line did not have stations per se, but rather places where the train halted to pick up passengers. Many of the passengers were day trippers from Glasgow as a turbine steamer would bring passengers to Campbeltown early enough to catch a train to Machrihanish and allow a return journey all in one day.

Operating in an area remote from other railways, and independent for all of its life, the C&M acquired a distinctive character all of its own. Its Barclay 0-6-2T locomotives were large, fast and powerful, its bogie carriages opulent and comfortable.
Much pride was taken in the running of ‘boat trains’ connecting with the steamers and Golfing Specials taking the visiting golfers to the links at Machrihanish, but at the same time the railway never forgot its ‘local’, customers or neglected its staple coal traffic.