Tyndrum Lower railway station

Tyndrum Lower
Scottish Gaelic: Taigh an Droma Ìochdrach[1]
Location
Place	Tyndrum
Local authority	Stirling
Coordinates	56°26′01″N 4°42′49″W / 56.4336°N 4.7135°W / 56.4336; -4.7135Coordinates: 56°26′01″N 4°42′49″W / 56.4336°N 4.7135°W / 56.4336; -4.7135
Grid reference	NN327301
Operations
Station code	TYL
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	1
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13	3,928
2013/14	4,082
2014/15	5,334
2015/16	5,488
2016/17	5,510
History
Original company	Callander and Oban Railway
Pre-grouping	Callander and Oban Railway operated by Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
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]
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Tyndrum Lower from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Tyndrum Lower railway station is one of two railway stations serving the small village of Tyndrum in Scotland. 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.

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.

Tyndrum Lower station in 2015

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]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Crianlarich		Abellio ScotRail West Highland Line		Dalmally
	Historical railways
Crianlarich Line and station open		Callander and Oban Railway Crianlarich Link Line Operated by Caledonian Railway		Dalmally Line and station open
Crianlarich Lower Line and station closed		Callander and Oban Railway Operated by Caledonian Railway

References

Sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tyndrum Lower railway station.

• 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