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Names and dates

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

Description

This junction remains open - just. A short somewhat grassy siding runs east.

The original alignment here was the east-west Callander and Oban Railway (the Tyndrum [1st] extension of 1873) and the junction was added when the 1894 West Highland Railway opened. Disagreement between the companies delayed the opening until 1897.

It was the junction for the West Highland Railway's spur up to Crianlarich station. The junction was, perhaps, somewhat over-engineered, both single track lines being doubled at the joint of connection and the line continuing double west for some distance. A very large retaining wall was required on the south side of the junction and the cutting where it was located was crossed by a girder bridge carrying a very minor road. The junction was controlled by two signal boxes, Crianlarich East at the junction and Crianlarich West where the loop ended. There were two sidings on the C&O accessed by reversal from the down line to the east of the junction, one siding accessed directly from the down line on the WHR alongside the junction and two sidings accessed from the down line at the west end of the loop. All this provision was probably due to the seasonal heavy cattle traffic.

Opening of the loop here allowed the up loop to be removed at Crianlarich Lower in 1921.

Regular services from Glasgow via Loch Lomondside to Oban did not commence until 1949.

With the Glen Ogle Rockfall in 1965 the line east from Crianlarich Lower (excluded) closed. A timber depot was retained at Crianlarich Lower. The junction's west and east signal boxes surprisingly survived until 1967.

The timber depot was closed in 1993 and the line was cut back to close to the junction.

30 miles 20 chains from Callander and Oban Junction, Callander.

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