Thursday 29 March 2018

Kilmarnock Station and McFarlane's Castings

After his excellent talk on Alexander Greek Thomson, our speaker Iain McGillivray noticed that some of the castings at Kilmarnock station may well have come from MacFarlane's Foundry in Glasgow - where Thomson order much of his iron from.

Iain says;
'It was a serendipitous discovery for me,, though someone in the group  has perhaps already made the connection

I mentioned Walter MacFarlane, whom I pictured standing beneath his imperial lamppost,  since he collaborated with Thomson on many of his projects; Thomson also designed for him.

The catalogue images come from Historic Scotland’s Facsimile 2 volume version of the firm's 6th Catalogue of Castings - about 1860. It’s in their Technical Reference Series and edited by David S Mitchell in 2009. '


Page 563, extract from,  showing bracket shaft (dimpled)

 Catalogue page 507- extract from, showing spandrel or bracket pair:

And what is at the station .....
Kilmarnock Station, column base, showing anthemion pattern (not found in this catalogue but doubtless made by MacFarlane)

Full column , closest with the Glasgow and South Western Railway in spandrel, other spandrels showing Macfarlanes design, together with his dimpled casting.