Upper Tyndrum railway station

Upper Tyndrum
Scottish Gaelic: Taigh an Droma Uarach
265px Upper Tyndrum station, looking north towards Fort William
Location
Place	Tyndrum
Local authority	Stirling
Coordinates
Grid reference	NN333302
Operations
Station code	UTY
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	126
2005/06	128
2006/07	7,529  7,546 (TYNDRUM BR station group)
2007/08	3,228
2008/09	3,488
2009/10	3,680
2010/11	3,784
2011/12	3,472
2012/13	3,396
2013/14	3,940
History
Original company	West Highland Railway
Pre-grouping	North British Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
7 August 1894	Station opened as Tyndrum
21 September 1956	Station renamed as Tyndrum Upper
1988	Station renamed as Upper Tyndrum
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Upper Tyndrum from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

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 highly scenic West Highland Line. Services are operated by Abellio ScotRail. 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). Following a timetable change in 2014, Tyndrum Lower gets extra services so this station gets less services

History

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.

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.

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

Services

2011 services

Monday to Saturday, northbound, Upper Tyndrum has three services to Mallaig and one service to Fort William (Highland Caledonian Sleeper). Southbound, there are three services to Glasgow Queen Street and one service to London Euston (Highland Caledonian Sleeper, Saturdays excepted). On Sundays, there is just one service northbound to Mallaig and two services southbound to Glasgow Queen Street and London Euston.

2012 services

Monday to Saturday, northbound, Upper Tyndrum has three services to Mallaig and one service to Fort William. Southbound, there are three services to Glasgow Queen Street and one service to London Euston (Saturdays excepted). On Sundays, there is just one service northbound to Mallaig (two in summer), one service southbound to Glasgow Queen Street (two in summer) and one service to London Euston.

Signalling

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.

External links

• Video footage of Upper Tyndrum Station