Spean Bridge railway station

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Spean Bridge

Scottish Gaelic: Drochaid Aonachain[1]
National Rail
Spean Bridge railway station - looking towards Roy Bridge.JPG
LocationSpean Bridge, Highland
Scotland
Coordinates56°53′24″N 4°55′17″W / 56.8899°N 4.9215°W / 56.8899; -4.9215Coordinates: 56°53′24″N 4°55′17″W / 56.8899°N 4.9215°W / 56.8899; -4.9215
Grid referenceNN221814
Managed byAbellio ScotRail
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeSBR
Key dates
7 August 1894Opened
22 July 1903Services to Fort Augustus commenced
1 December 1933Passenger service to Fort Augustus withdrawn
Passengers
2016/17Decrease 6,262
2017/18Increase 7,444
2018/19Increase 7,452
2019/20Increase 7,832
2020/21Decrease 946
Listed Building – Category C(S)
Designated5 October 2010
Reference no.LB51615[2]
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Spean Bridge railway station is a railway station serving the village of Spean Bridge in the Highland region of Scotland. This station is on the West Highland Line.

History[]

The former station building, now a restaurant

The station opened on 7 August 1894[3] and was laid out with two platforms, one on either side of a crossing loop. There are sidings on the north side of the station. The station buildings were designed by James Miller.

Between 1903 and December 1933, there was a branch line from this station which offered service north up the Great Glen to Fort Augustus, terminating at a pier on Loch Ness. The North British railway extended Spean Bridge adding a dock platform at the west end at a cost of £303 0s 5d (equivalent to £33,264.53 in 2020)[4] to accommodate Invergarry and Fort Augustus Railway trains.[5] The signalling instruments were moved from the I&FA box at the junction to the booking office at the insistence of the Board of Trade inspector.

The I&FA line was not successful. Passenger services stopped in 1933 and the line was eventually abandoned completely in 1947.[6]

The station was host to a LNER camping coach from 1936 to 1939.[7] A camping coach was also positioned here by the Scottish Region from 1961 until all camping coaches in the region were withdrawn at the end of the 1969 season.[8]

On 18 January 1987, the crossing loop was altered to right-hand running. The original Down platform has thus become the Up platform, and vice versa. The change was made in order to simplify shunting at this station, by removing the need to hand-pump the train-operated loop points to access the sidings.

Stationmasters[]

  • David Archibald 1894 - 1898[9] (formerly station master at Roy Bridge, afterwards station master at Fort William)
  • Mr. Miller from 1898[10] (formerly station master at Largo)
  • James Tait ca. 1906 ca. 1929
  • Mr. Brown 1931[11] - 1933 (formerly station master at Steele Road, afterwards station master at CastleCary)
  • R. McVarish 1933 - 1937[12] (afterwards station master at Burnbank)
  • William J. Brown 1937[13] -1942 (formerly station master at Castlecary, also station master at Invergarry and Fort Augustus, afterwards station master at Selkirk)
  • Archibald Shields 1942[14] - 1950 (formerly station master at Falkland Road)
  • Andrew Bremner from 1951[15] (formerly station master at Balfron and Gartness)

Signalling[]

From the time of its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system.

Alterations in connection with the construction of the line to Fort Augustus saw the original Spean Bridge signal box replaced by two new boxes in 1901. Spean Bridge Junction box was subsidiary to Spean Bridge Station box. The Junction box closed on 20 September 1921.

The most recent signal box at Spean Bridge, which opened on 28 August 1949, was located on the Up platform (which is now the Down platform). It contained 30 levers.

Spean Bridge lost all its semaphore signals on 2 March 1986, in preparation for Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) signalling. The RETB system was commissioned by British Rail between Upper Tyndrum and Fort William Junction on 29 May 1988. This resulted in the closure of Spean Bridge signal box and others on that part of the line. The RETB is controlled from a Signalling Centre at Banavie railway station.

The Train Protection & Warning System was installed in 2003.

Services[]

Mondays to Saturdays, the station is served by three Scotrail trains per day in each direction, northbound to Mallaig and southbound to Glasgow Queen Street, along with the Highland Caledonian Sleeper between London Euston and Fort William via Edinburgh Waverley (the latter doesn't run southbound on Saturdays or northbound on Sundays). Sundays see just one train per day call each all year round, with a second in the summer months only (May - September) and the southbound sleeper.[16] The sleeper also carries seated coaches and thus can be used by regular travellers to/from Glasgow Queen Street (Low Level) and Edinburgh.

Preceding station National Rail National Rail Following station
Roy Bridge   Abellio ScotRail
West Highland Line 		  Fort William
Roy Bridge   Caledonian Sleeper
Highland Caledonian Sleeper 		  Fort William
  Historical railways  
Roy Bridge
Line and Station open 		  West Highland Railway   Fort William
Line and Station open
Terminus   Invergarry and Fort Augustus Railway   Gairlochy
Line and Station closed

References[]

  1. ^ Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. "Gaelic/English Station Index". Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
  2. ^ "SPEAN BRIDGE STATION AND SIGNAL BOX". Historic Scotland. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
  3. ^ "The West Highland Railway. Opening of the Line for Traffic". Glasgow Herald. Scotland. 8 August 1894. Retrieved 31 July 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  5. ^ Thomas, John (1984). The West Highland Railway (3rd ed.). David St John Thomas. p. 113. ISBN 0946537143.
  6. ^ "Disused Stations - Fort Augustus"Disused Stations Site Record; Retrieved 16 May 2016
  7. ^ McRae, Andrew (1997). British Railway Camping Coach Holidays: The 1930s & British Railways (London Midland Region). Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part One). Foxline. p. 11. ISBN 1-870119-48-7.
  8. ^ McRae, Andrew (1998). British Railways Camping Coach Holidays: A Tour of Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part Two). Foxline. p. 28. ISBN 1-870119-53-3.
  9. ^ "Spean-Bridge Presentation". Highland News. Scotland. 15 October 1898. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  10. ^ "Presentation to Mr Miller, Station Master". East of Fife Record. Scotland. 9 September 1898. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ^ "Mr Brown". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Scotland. 23 September 1931. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "The L.N.E.R. announce…". The Scotsman. Scotland. 15 January 1937. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "L.N.E.R. Stationmasters". The Scotsman. Scotland. 19 February 1937. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "L.N.E.R.". Dundee Evening Telegraph. Scotland. 12 October 1942. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. ^ "Mr. Andrew Bremner". Dundee Courier. Scotland. 27 January 1951. Retrieved 24 November 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  16. ^ GB eNRT May 2016 Edition, Table 227 (Network Rail)

External links[]

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