Tyndrum Lower railway station

Tyndrum Lower railway station is one of two railway stations serving the small village of Tyndrum in Scotland, the other being Upper Tyndrum. This station is on the Oban branch of the West Highland Line, originally part of the Callander and Oban Railway. Most trains currently serving Fort William and Oban split or join at Crianlarich, with the result that separate trains both heading in the same direction generally call at Tyndrum's two stations at about the same time. Services are operated by Abellio ScotRail.

Tyndrum Lower Scottish Gaelic: Taigh an Droma Ìochdrach[1]
Location	Tyndrum, Stirling Scotland
Coordinates	56.4336°N 4.7135°W
Grid reference	NN327301
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Platforms	1
Other information
Station code	TYL
History
Original company	Callander and Oban Railway
Pre-grouping	Callander and Oban Railway operated by Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
Key dates
1 August 1873	Original terminus opened as Tyndrum[2]
1 May 1877	Original terminus closed[2]
1 May 1877	Through station opened as Tyndrum[2]
28 February 1956	Renamed as Tyndrum Lower[2]
Passengers
2015/16	5,488
2016/17	5,510
2017/18	5,366
2018/19	5,996
2019/20	5,128
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

This station opened on 1 August 1873 as a terminal station. This was the first railway station in the village of Tyndrum. Until 1877, it was the western extremity of the Callander and Oban Railway.

Train stopping at Tyndrum Lower with a service from Glasgow Queen Street to Oban (1986)

In 1877, the Callander and Oban Railway was extended from Tyndrum to Dalmally. Concurrently, the station was relocated 301 yards (275 m) west,[2] onto the new through alignment. The new station was on a higher level, as the line had to climb steeply to reach the summit about 0.6 miles (1 km) to the west. The old terminus then became the goods yard. The through station was originally laid out with two platforms, one on either side of a passing loop.

In 1894, the West Highland Railway opened a second station in Tyndrum, north of the village. In 1953, the suffixes "Upper" and "Lower" were added to the station names. Services to Callander & Dunblane over the old C&O route via Strathyre ceased on 27 September 1965 - they had been scheduled for withdrawal as a result of the Beeching Axe from 1 November that year, but ended five weeks prior to that date following a landslide in Glen Ogle that blocked the trackbed.[3] All services henceforth used the 1897 connection to the WHR at Crianlarich Upper to reach Glasgow.

On 12 October 1969, the passing loop, goods yard and one of the platforms were taken out of use. The platform on the north side was retained, it being located on the same side of the railway as the village. The site of the goods yard is now used as a caravan park.

Signalling

The 1891-built signal box was located off the east end of the Down platform. It had 20 levers. The signal box closed on 12 October 1969 when the crossing loop was removed.

In 1988, the station became a Token Exchange Point in connection with the new Radio Electronic Token Block signalling system.

Services

Six trains in each direction call Mondays to Saturdays, with three departures each way on Sundays all year and an additional one each way in summer only (May to late October). The latter runs from/to Edinburgh Waverley rather than Glasgow Queen Street.[4]

References

Notes

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Butt (1995), page 236
3. "Callander and Oban Railway" Speller,J Spellerweb.net; Retrieved 26 August 2016
4. Table 227 National Rail timetable, May 2016

Sources

• Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
• Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199.
• Fryer, Charles (1989). The Callander and Oban Railway. Oxford: Oakwood Press. ISBN 0-8536-1377-X. OCLC 21870958.

• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.

External links

• Video footage of Tyndrum Lower Station