Just moved to North Ayrshire, spotting advice?

[Lek]

Hi folks,

I've recently moved to North Ayrshire, but having difficulty finding a good location for spotting. I've been up and down the coast, but all I can find is local dual line platforms, and not much coming through except 380 EMU's. I drove to Ayr depot earlier, but it was just empty sidings, not even a shunter in sight. If anyone knows a good place to go that isn't too far away, I'd love to know.

Of course there's Glasgow, but the cost of parking is extortionate. I normally love travelling on trains, but mandatory mask wearing makes me feel extremely uncomfortable, despite having a medical exemption, I therefore do my best to avoid any situation that requires one, so car travel is currently the only way. I'm basically looking for somewhere I can see a lot of trains which I can drive to without high cost parking.

If anyone could advise on a good spot, even somewhere I can park close by the track and sit in the car, it would be very much appreciated.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I wonder about Carluke ( map below ) as that's below Mossend so you'd have the container trains and the daily class 325 run passing as well - plus the 390s and 397s running to and from Glasgow and Edinburgh?

Edit: I don't know why the link below is headed "Glasgow" ( probably because that's where I searched the map from ) but it does indeed take you to Carluke itself on the map.

Glasgow

Glasgow

www.google.com

 

[Kez]

There is the odd bit of freight comes down your way but it is irregular. You have Grangemouth - Prestwick oils (usually 56) on (I think) Tues and Fridays but they have been a bit cut back over lockdown. In addition, there are a few workings out of Irvine Caldedonian Paper Mill and Barassie Yard. Realtime trains or the scot-rail.co.uk gen group are invaluable.

Carluke is a pretty good shout if you are in south North Ayrshire by cutting along the A71. Evenings can be quite lively for freight ; mails heading out of Shieldmuir, containers heading out of Coatbridge, workings in out of Mossend (empty cars to Dagenham, containers from Seaforth, Grangemouth - Daventry containers), ecs for sleepers from Edinburgh plus odd DRS loco swaps between Carlisle and Motherwell ... plus there's a lovely big, free Park and Ride although the local boy racers do use it of an evening (and sometimes the local youths for football) but you can usually avoid it by using the few parking spaces at the main station entrance which are usually free in the evening.

 

[Lek]

Wow! Is Carluke the closest spot to North Ayrshire? It's nearly 60 miles away, twice the distance of Glasgow! I was hoping for something local. I don't mind the occasional day trip to major stations (like Glasgow), but if that's the nearest 'local' place worth visiting, it's starting to look like too much of an expensive hobby for me.

I actually got interested as I have a line at the bottom of my garden, mostly 380s come through (not the most interesting of trains when it's all you see), and the odd double headed 68 which comes through about once a week from Hunterston Ore terminal, a mile up the track, although I can only see the top half of the train (number not visible) and they seem to come through at sporadic times.

I'm originally from Peterborough, which had a good range of everything coming through The station was only 5 platforms, with London mainline as well as East Anglia traffic. It was the huge depot and sidings made it interesting. Possibly not a good pastime now due my location. I reckon I'll be sticking to model trains from now on.

 

[Highlandspring]

Welcome to Scotland. Rail freight is dying on its arse here.

 

[route101]

Is there anything going via Mauchline these days?

I seen the class 56 oil train yesterday.

 

[Lek]

Is there anything going via Mauchline these days?

I seen the class 56 oil train yesterday.

I may have seen the same one while I was out. I drove past a 56 with a rake of oil wagons at Prestwick around 5 O'Clock that night, but couldn't see the number from the road while I was driving.

 

[Mitchei]

You will see the Hunterston Nuclear Flask train which has been running almost once a week again recently, and will significantly increase in frequency once the power station fully closes in January 2022, and the spent fuel is transported to Sellafield. Ardrossan South Beach is a good station to view this train, or for a really good look try the Biglees level crossing at Fairlie.