Garelochhead railway station


Garelochhead railway station is a railway station serving the village of Garelochhead, on the Gare Loch, in Scotland. This station is on the West Highland Line and is a boundary station for SPT.

History

This station opened to passengers on 7 August 1894.
The station was laid out with a crossing loop and an island platform. There were sidings on both sides, and a turntable on the west side of the line.
The station was host to a LNER camping coach from 1935 to 1939. A camping coach was also positioned here by the Scottish Region from 1964 to 1967.
Until the 1960s, the station was served by a local shuttle service between Craigendoran and in addition to main line trains to Fort William and Mallaig. Latterly operated by a Wickham diesel railbus, it fell victim to the Beeching Axe in June 1964.
The siding on the east side was removed in 1983. On 15 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 to simplify shunting at this station, by removing the need to hand-pump the train-operated loop points to access the siding.

Signalling

From the time of its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system. Garelochhead signal box, which had 18 levers, was situated on the island platform.
The semaphore signals were removed on 2 February 1986 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Token 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

2011

Mondays to Saturdays, there are three services to Oban and Mallaig and one service to Fort William northbound. Southbound, there are four services to Glasgow Queen Street and one service to London Euston. On Sundays, there is just one train northbound to Oban and Mallaig and two trains southbound to Glasgow Queen Street and London Euston.

2019

Mondays to Saturdays, there are six trains to Oban and three to Mallaig each day northbound, plus the Highland Sleeper to Fort William. Southbound, there are six trains to Glasgow Queen Street High Level plus the sleeper to Edinburgh Waverley and London Euston. On Sundays there are three trains to Oban all year and two to Mallaig in summer and one in the winter northbound and three trains to Glasgow southbound, along with the London sleeper.