Ardlui railway station


Ardlui railway station is a rural railway station, serving Ardlui at the north end of Loch Lomond, in Scotland. The station is north of on the West Highland Line.

History

Opened to passengers on 7 August 1894 by the West Highland Railway, then run by the North British Railway, it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station was host to a LNER camping coach from 1935 to 1939 and possibly one for some of 1934. The station then passed on to the Scottish Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. A camping coach was also positioned here from 1964 to 1966. Due to subsidence the main station building, of the standard 'West Highland' design, had to be demolished around 1970 with an open waiting area built on to the signal box.
Between 1945 and 1948 a station and passing loop were located to the west of Ardlui at Inveruglas which served the passenger and freight requirements of the Sloy hydroelectric scheme.
When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by ScotRail until the Privatisation of British Rail.
The station was laid out with a crossing loop and an island platform. There are three sidings on the east side of the station.
On 8 February 1987, the crossing loop was altered to right-hand running. The original Down platform has thus become the Up platform, and vice versa. The change was made in order to simplify shunting at this station, by removing the need to hand-pump the train-operated loop points to access the sidings.

Signalling

From the time of its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system. Ardlui signal box was situated on the island platform.
The semaphore signals were removed on 12 January 1986 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Tokenless Block by British Rail. The RETB, which is controlled from a Signalling Centre at Banavie railway station, was commissioned between and on 27 March 1988.
The Train Protection & Warning System was installed in 2003.

Services

Monday to Saturday, there are six services to Oban and three to Mallaig and one service to Fort William northbound. Southbound, there are six services to Glasgow Queen Street High Level and one service to London Euston via Queen Street Low Level & Edinburgh Waverley. On Sundays, there is just one train northbound to Mallaig in winter and two in summer, plus three to Oban; southbound there are three trains southbound to Glasgow Queen Street H.L and the sleeper to London Euston.