Corrour railway station

Location

The railway station is one of the most remote stations in the United Kingdom, at an isolated location on Rannoch Moor. The station is not accessible by any public roads – the nearest road is a 10 miles (16 km) walk away by hill track, although Rannoch station, which is on the public road, is only 7¼ route-miles by rail. In 1997 a new station house, including lodging for its managers, was commissioned by Corrour Estate. Designed by Law & Dunbar-Nasmith Partnership, it was erected as a provisions shop and restaurant to serve hillwalkers. After several previous ventures in this location, the Station House was opened again as a restaurant in July 2015.

At 408 m (1,339 ft) above sea level the station provides a convenient starting point for hill-walkers and Munro-baggers. The station was the starting point for the "Man with no Name" whose body was found in 1996 on Ben Alder and only identified some years later.

History

Sir John Stirling-Maxwell (10th Baronet of Pollok, KT) purchased Corrour Estate in 1891 and initially used it as a "playground" for gentlemen, primarily focusing on activities such as stalking and hunting. To make it accessible for his guests, Sir John gave access to the West Highland Railway Company to build across his land on condition that they build a railway station for him on his estate. This station opened to passengers on 7 August 1894. It was originally built to serve the Corrour sporting estate, whose owners were investors in the railway. Guests visiting the estate for deer stalking and grouse shooting were taken from the station to the head of Loch Ossian by horse-drawn carriage. A small steamer then transported them to shooting lodge at the far end of the loch.

The station was laid out with a passing loop around an island platform and a siding on the east side. Since November 1985, all passenger trains have used the original Down platform. The Up loop remains and is serviceable but it is no longer used by passenger trains. There had been a footbridge at Corrour station providing an exit to the east side, but it was moved to Rannoch railway station following the downgrading of the Up loop at Corrour. Passengers now cross the line by way of a footpath. The old signal box and adjacent building were renovated in 2015.

Services

Corrour station is a request-only station connected by regular services linking Glasgow Queen Street with Fort William and Mallaig. These local services run generally three times a day in each direction, but less frequently on Sundays (twice each way in summer, but just once in winter). Despite its remote location – Corrour boasts a direct connection to London via the Caledonian Sleeper to and from London Euston (daily except Saturday nights in each direction), The journey from London to Corrour takes just under twelve hours. The sleeper also conveys seated coaches and can therefore also be used by regular passengers travelling to/from both Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Services serving Corrour are run by Abellio ScotRail or Caledonian Sleeper.

Signalling

The signal box, which had 13 levers, was situated to the south of the island platform. From the time of its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system. The semaphore signals were removed in November 1985 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB). At the same time, the loop points came under the control of ground frames. The RETB system was commissioned by British Rail between Upper Tyndrum and Fort William Junction on 29 May 1988. This resulted in the closure of Corrour signal box and others on that part of the route. The RETB is controlled from a Signalling Centre at Banavie railway station.

In popular culture

The station, and the nearby mountain Leum Uilleim, gained fame when they were featured in a scene from the film Trainspotting. It also appeared in the fourth episode of the 2010 BBC series Secret Britain. The station also featured in the Young Guns video for the single "Weight of the World". The station is the primary location in Jos Stelling's film De Wisselwachter. It was also visited by Paul Merton in Episode 3 of his Channel 4 documentary series Paul Merton's Secret Stations.

The route south from Corrour across the Moor of Rannoch to Rannoch Station itself was used as a filming location in the Harry Potter films where a Death Eater was seen to stand between the rails with an outstretched arm, to bring the approaching Hogwarts Express to a stand for the train to be inspected. Warner Brothers spent a couple of days with equipment based at Rannoch to facilitate the filming sequences.