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Upper Tyndrum railway station

Coordinates: 56°26′04″N 4°42′13″W / 56.4345°N 4.7036°W / 56.4345; -4.7036
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Upper Tyndrum

Scottish Gaelic: Taigh an Droma Uachdrach[1]
National Rail
Upper Tyndrum station, looking north towards Fort William and Mallaig
General information
LocationTyndrum, Stirling
Scotland
Coordinates56°26′04″N 4°42′13″W / 56.4345°N 4.7036°W / 56.4345; -4.7036
Grid referenceNN333302
Managed byScotRail
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeUTY[2]
History
Original companyWest Highland Railway
Pre-groupingNorth British Railway
Post-groupingLNER
Key dates
7 August 1894Station opened as Tyndrum[3]
21 September 1956Station renamed as Tyndrum Upper[3]
1988Station renamed as Upper Tyndrum[3]
Passengers
2019/20Decrease 4,736
2020/21Decrease 772
 Interchange 64
2021/22Increase 3,180
 Interchange Increase185
2022/23Increase 4,076
 Interchange Decrease123
2023/24Increase 5,878
 Interchange Increase214
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Upper Tyndrum railway station is one of two railway stations serving the small village of Tyndrum in Scotland. It is on the Fort William route of the scenic West Highland Line, between Crianlarich and Bridge of Orchy, sited 41 miles 25 chains (66.5 km) from Craigendoran Junction, near Helensburgh.[4] Services are operated by ScotRail - who manage the station - and Caledonian Sleeper.

History

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Originally named "Tyndrum", this station opened concurrently with the West Highland Railway in 1894, as the second station in the village. In 1956, British Rail added the suffix "Upper" to the station's name, to distinguish it from the station on the Callander and Oban Line which then became known as Tyndrum Lower.[3]

The station name was altered to "Upper Tyndrum" upon the introduction of RETB (see below), to reduce the risk of it being confused with "Tyndrum Lower" in radio communications.

Signalling

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The signal box, which had 15 levers, was situated on the island platform. From its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system.

In 1967, the method of working between Crianlarich and Rannoch was changed to the Scottish Region Tokenless Block system. The Down loop at Tyndrum Upper was signalled for running in either direction and the signal box was able to 'switch out' when not required.

In August 1985, the method of working between Crianlarich and Rannoch reverted to the electric token block system. The semaphore signals were removed on 22 December 1985 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB).

The RETB system was commissioned by British Rail between Helensburgh Upper and Upper Tyndrum on 27 March 1988. On 29 May of the same year, the RETB spread north to Fort William Junction, resulting in the closure of Upper Tyndrum signal box (amongst others). The RETB is controlled from a purpose-built Signalling Centre at Banavie railway station. Upper Tyndrum station is the boundary between the two signalling interlockings and the areas of control of the two signalmen.

The Train Protection & Warning System was installed in 2003.

Facilities

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The station only has very basic facilities, being a small car park and some bike racks. The station has no step-free access, the only access being from a subway.[5] As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance, or from the guard on the train.

Passenger volume

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In 2005/06 it was the least used station on the West Highland Line, probably because of its position up a hill above the village, as opposed to Tyndrum Lower on the Oban branch, which also offers services to and from Crianlarich and destinations to the south (usually at about the same time, as the trains tend to connect at Crianlarich).[6]

Passenger Volume at Upper Tyndrum[6]
2002-03 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 2020-21
Entries and exits 53 126 128 7,529 3,228 3,488 3,680 3,784 3,472 3,396 3,940 4,562 4,790 4,512 5,288 5,702 4,736 772
Interchang N/A 555 30 13 9 5 15 N/A 12 12 12 14 30 307 64

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

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On weekdays and Saturdays, ScotRail operates three services north to Mallaig, and three south to Glasgow Queen Street. Caledonian Sleeper operates one service each way to Fort William and London Euston (the latter does not run on Saturdays). On Sundays, there are two services northbound to Mallaig, two services southbound to Glasgow Queen Street, and one service to London Euston.[7][8][9]

Preceding station   National Rail National Rail   Following station
Crianlarich   ScotRail
West Highland Line
  Bridge of Orchy
  Caledonian Sleeper
Highland Caledonian Sleeper
 
  Historical railways  
Crianlarich   North British Railway
West Highland Railway
  Bridge of Orchy

References

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  1. ^ Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
  2. ^ Deaves, Phil. "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d Butt (1995), page 236
  4. ^ Bridge, Mike, ed. (2017). TRACKatlas of Mainland Britain: A Comprehensive Geographic Atlas Showing the Rail Network of Great Britain (3rd ed.). Sheffield: Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. p. 88. ISBN 978-1909431-26-3.
  5. ^ "National Rail Enquiries -". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
  7. ^ eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 218
  8. ^ eNRT December 2021 Edition, Table 218
  9. ^ eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 220

Bibliography

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