Commondyke railway station  Commondyke railway station was a railway station on the Muirkirk branch that served the mining village, farms and community of Commondyke and Birnieknowe, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The station was originally part of the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway before passing to the Glasgow and South-Western Railway, then the London, Midland and Scottish upon grouping and closing under British Railways. Passenger services to Muirkirk station ceased in 1951. The station is recorded as having opened on 9 August 1848, and closed on 3 July 1950 however the line remained in use until 6/12/1976 serving a colliery at Gasswater near Cronberry. In 1857 four rows of miners cottages were located near the railway, namely Commondyke, Dyke, High and Low  In the 1895 OS map the rows are still present under the name Birnieknowe with a Roman Catholic religious community established composing St Patrick's Chapel, a convent, a presbytery and a school. By 1908 the name Birnieknowe applies to the religious community and Commondyke is used for the rows. The evidence from OS maps and the G&SWR working time table of 1898 shows that a station was not actually established until sometime after 1898 with only a signal cabin present at that time. when the existence of a Roman Catholic school which had around 150 pupils at one time would have created a demand and need beyond that of the mining community and other locals who did not have sufficient earnings for regular use of the railway other than essential journeys and could have walked to Lugar station. Birnieknowe school remained open until around 1965. A basic timetable existed of four trains a day in each direction and more at weekends. The line opened as single track however the extent of the freight traffic necessitated doubling. Commondyke station had two platforms without any freight facilities of its own or any pointwork. A mineral line branched off to the north to a group of collieries in the vicinity of Darnconner. The line was once crossed to the east by a waggonway from the Lugar ironworks running to the Darnconner area and another freight branch from a west facing junction ran to collieries to the north, later re-aligned so as to run more directly to the Lugar Ironworks. Although recorded as having opened in 1848 the 1857 OS map gives no indication of the existence of a station at Commondyke however Lugar station is marked a relatively short distance away.