We’ve had a look through our photograph collection and newspaper archives and found that a snow blizzard began on Friday 26th January 1940 which would cut the town of Largs off completely. The snow continued to fall intermittently throughout Saturday and Sunday accompanied by a strong easterly wind.
In the early hours of Sunday morning the L.M.S. train travelling from Largs to Ardrossan at 3am ran into a deep snowdrift between Fairlie and West Kilbride, near the Poteath signal cabin. Snow drifts at the Fairlie Tunnel reached a height of 25 feet and Fairlie train station would soon be buried under the snow, the weight of which eventually caused the waiting room on the Glasgow side to collapse.
Two locomotive snowploughs attempting to clear the tracks between West Kilbride and Fairlie derailed in the deep snowdrifts at the Fairlie tunnel. The driver of the lead snowplough, Mr Alfred Parker Burden, suffered a severe head injury and was taken to Kilmarnock Infirmary. He remained in an unconscious condition and subsequently died of his injuries on 17 February 1940. The London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway workers worked all through the night to clear the tracks in blizzard conditions, but despite their best efforts, a third locomotive snow plough became trapped in the snow. It would take the breakdown gangs over 24 hours to extract the three snowploughs from the deep snow.
At 9am on Sunday morning, Mr Archibald Gass, the Largs Stationmaster, struggled from his house at 31 Gogo Street, to the train station to alert Glasgow that they needed to cancel all trains to Largs. Falling into a snow drift, he lost his gum boots, and had to continue onto the train station in his socks! Mr Gass and his staff worked tirelessly to ensure that the thirty men working in the blizzard conditions to clear the snow at the Largs end were provided with heated accommodation in the train carriages for their rest periods, along with hot meals and drinks. They were assisted in their efforts by Messrs Mackays the bakers, and Mr Orr the grocer.
On the Kilbirnie Road, two buses had to be abandoned and a snowplough going to their assistance also became stuck in the deep snow which reached 15 feet high in some parts. With the wartime blackout in effect, the crew of the snow plough had to spend the night in the vehicle and make their way back into Largs in the morning.
On Monday 29th January the residents of Largs woke to snow drifts ranging from four to nine feet deep. Neither trains nor buses could get through to Largs and those who worked outside the town had to stay at home. Largs Town Council divided their staff into two teams, with the Burgh Surveyor and council workers cutting passageways through the drifts to allow people access to the shops and their homes, whilst the Park Superintendent and workmen began clearing the roads.
On Monday Mr Gass made arrangements for a steamer to sail from Largs to Wemyss Bay, where passengers could get the train to Glasgow. The LMS Railway company brought in heavier duty locomotive snowploughs from Kilmarnock and Ayr to clear the tracks, but by Monday afternoon five snowploughs were stuck in the high drifts which were level with the locomotive engine funnels. Two railway inspectors onboard one of the snow ploughs had spotted a gamekeeper’s cottage in Fairlie and struggled through the deep snow to reach it only to discover that the phone didn’t work. It took them three hours to walk a mile in the waist deep snow to reach a phone to alert headquarters about the impossible conditions.
Three hundred soldiers were brought in to assist the large gangs of railway workers trying to clear the tracks. For a full week, no sooner had the men managed to clear the tracks, than the banks of snow collapsed and covered them again.