Crossroads and Characters

28. A PARTY OF FORTY.

Dunning's railway station was built two miles from the village, since landowners such as the Rollos didn't want the line on their estates. The railway had a great effect on Dunning, really finishing it off as a market centre. Nonetheless, to get to the station and the train you wanted, you had to be resourceful. William S. Cree was a business clerk and correspondent for a city newspaper, a notorious swearer when drunk but a 'braw writer' with a sharp mind. Having to go to Glasgow and aware that the train he needed to catch was an express, he sent word to the station to have the train stop to pick up a party of over forty. When the express braked for this unusual stop at Dunning, Cree hopped aboard, explaining to the flustered stationmaster: 'Forty-two next birthday!'. The station closed to passengers in 1955, and shut down in 1961.