Crianlarich railway station

History

Crianlarich station opened concurrently with the West Highland Railway in 1894, doubling the number of railway stations in the village. The lines and station were eventually built by the state under compulsory purchase arrangements sought after the persistent rejection by the landowners the Place family of Loch Dochart House and Skelton Grange, Yorkshire who even turned down the offer of having all the proceeds from the two station tea-rooms in perpetuity. The Places felt that the project would spoil their shooting grounds; the family sold their house and estate shortly after their defeat and retreated to Yorkshire.

The station was laid out with a crossing loop around an island platform and sidings on both sides. On the east side were was an engine shed and a turntable. Three years after opening, in 1897, a junction and link line down to the Callander and Oban Railway, which passed below the West Highland route, was added. Originally, the junction incorporated a scissors crossover, allowing simultaneous moves through the junction. However until 1931 the link line was only used to exchange good wagons between the two lines. From 1931 onwards, it was also used for excursion traffic from Glasgow and the surrounding areas to the Oban line.

In 1953, British Rail added the suffix "Upper" to the station's name, in order to distinguish it from the nearby station (only about 330-yard (300 m) walk along the north east access road) on the Callander and Oban Line which then became known as Crianlarich Lower.

Since closure of the Callander and Oban Line east of Crianlarich in 1965 (during the Beeching cuts), all trains to Oban have been routed up the West Highland Line as far as Crianlarich Upper station. They then join the remaining part of the Oban line by means of the link line, which had formerly been infrequently used. Crianlarich Lower station also closed in 1965. Some years later, the Upper station's name reverted to "Crianlarich".

The old engine shed is now used by the Permanent Way engineers.

Services

Northbound, Crianlarich is where the combined trains for Oban and Mallaig divide, with each of the services leaving roughly five minutes apart. Southbound, when each train arrives from Oban or Mallaig, it joins with the other and they go down as one train from Crianlarich. In the 2015-16 timetable, three additional services run to/from Oban only in addition to the trio of combined workings.

Mondays to Saturdays, there are six services to Oban, three to Mallaig and one service to Fort William (Highland Caledonian Sleeper) northbound. Southbound, there are six services to Glasgow Queen Street and one service to London Euston (Highland Caledonian Sleeper does not run on Saturday). On Sundays, there are three services to Oban all year and one or two (depending on the time of year) to Mallaig northbound. Southbound, there are four trains to Glasgow Queen Street and one to London Euston (the sleeper calls at Queen Street Low Level & Edinburgh to set down only, as it conveys seated coaches as well as sleeping cars and can thus be used by regular passengers).

Station building

An independently operated tea room is located in the station building. The station buildings are not the original ones: these (which were of the standard 'West Highland' design) were destroyed by fire in 1937.

Freight facilities

The area around the station is forested. The sidings on the west side of the station were used for loading timber until December 2008 when the carriage of Scottish timber by rail ceased in connection with the recession. As of June 2015, there is still no sign of the service being reinstated. Timber trains leaving the sidings at Crianlarich often paused at Arrochar and Tarbet to attach further wagons, the sidings at both stations are now used by the Area Civil Engineer for the storage of materials. Each September though, two or more steam locomotives can sometimes be seen in the sidings at Crianlarich when locomotives out-based at Fort William for working on the Mallaig line, make the southbound trip to work the annual Railway Touring Companies 'West Highland Steam Express' charter which will usually swap locomotives at Crianlarich. It is not unusual for two Stanier Black 5s from Fort William to be in the sidings whilst the train arrives from Glasgow with the sole surviving ex LNER K4 The Great Marquess, which is then detached and replaced by the two '5s' for the run down to Oban and back. A second swap then occurs as the '5s' are replaced by the K4 for the run up to Fort William.

Signalling

From the time of its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system. Crianlarich signal box was situated at the north end of the island platform.

In 1967, the method of working between Crianlarich and Rannoch was changed to the Scottish Region Tokenless Block system. In August 1985, the method of working between Crianlarich and Rannoch reverted to the electric token block system.

The semaphore signals were removed in stages during December 1985 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) by British Rail. Track layout alterations were made at the same time, including simplification of the junction and extension of the crossing loop at the south end. The RETB, which is controlled from a Signalling Centre at Banavie railway station, was commissioned from Helensburgh Upper to Upper Tyndrum and Taynuilt on 27 March 1988.

The junction points at the north end of the station are electrically operated and the route selected by means of a plunger at the platform end operated by the train driver. Once the route has been chosen and the points set, the driver returns to his train cab and contacts the Banavie control centre for permission to proceed.

The Train Protection & Warning System was installed in 2003.