Balquhidder [1st]

Location type

Station

Names and dates

Lochearnhead [1st] (1870-1904)
Balquhidder [1st] (1904-1905)

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Opened on the Callander and Oban Railway.

Description

The original station here had a single platform with a timber building on a curve and a goods yard. The yard was to the north of the station, on the east side of the line.

This yard opened to goods and mineral traffic in 1868 before the railway was completed.

A loop and second platform was added later (probably 1890 when Lochearnhead signal box opened). The main station building, at this time, was on the southbound platform, with a smaller one on the northbound.

Northwest from the station was the long climb to Killin [1st].

With the opening of the station the road alongside was realigned to the north to accommodate the railway and passed under a bridge just to the north of the platforms. The abutments of this bridge can still be found, although the main road has been realigned cut through the site of the first station. The bridge was rebuilt to accommodate the loop.

The station name changed on the opening of Lochearnhead [2nd], in 1904, on the Lochearnhead, St Fillans and Comrie Railway with which there was, initially, no connection. The new station was at a far more suitable location for the name.

It was to take another year before the St Fillans line was extended to Balquhidder 1st in 1905. The new station, a little to the south (Balquhidder [2nd]), opened with the branch. The old station closed. The signal box had closed in 1904, replaced by the new Balquhidder East box (actually at the south end of the new station).

Tags

Station

External links

NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map


Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: The North of Scotland v. 15 (Regional railway history series)

Birth and Death of a Highland Railway: Ballachulish Line

Caledonian Railway

Caledonian Routes 3: Stirling to Crianlarich - DVD - Oakwood Press

Callander & Oban Railway Through Time

Callander and Oban Railway (Library of Railway History)

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: Callander and Oban Railway v. 4

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: Callander and Oban Railway v. 4

Iron Road to the Isles: A Travellers and Tourist Guide to the West Highland Lines

Iron Roads to the Isles: A Travellers and Tourists Souvenir Guide to the West Highland Lines

Oban 1898: Argyllshire Sheet 98.07 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Argyllshire)

On West Highland Lines

Railway World Special: West Highland Lines

Scotland’s Lost Branch Lines: Where Beeching Got It Wrong

Scottish Central Railway (Oakwood Library of Railway History)

The Birth and Death of a Highland Railway: Ballachulish Line

The Caledonian, Scotland's Imperial Railway: A History

Trossachs and West Highlands: Exploring the Lost Railways (Local History Series)

Walks from the West Highland Railway (Cicerone Guide)