Tulloch railway station

Tulloch railway station is a rural railway station in the remote Tulloch area of the Highland region of Scotland. This station is on the West Highland Line, between Corrour and Roy Bridge, sited 81 miles 59 chains (131.5 km) from Craigendoran Junction, near Helensburgh.

Tulloch Scottish Gaelic: Tulaich[1]
Tulloch station, looking east (towards Glasgow)
General information
Location	Tulloch, Highland Scotland
Coordinates	56.8841°N 4.7012°W / 56.8841; -4.7012
Grid reference	NN354802
Managed by	ScotRail
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	TUL[2]
History
Original company	West Highland Railway
Pre-grouping	North British Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
Key dates
7 August 1894	Opened as Inverlair
1 January 1895	Renamed as Tulloch
Passengers
2019/20	1,770
2020/21	266
2021/22	1,500
2022/23	1,544
2023/24	2,106
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

History

The station seen form the air in 2005

When the railway opened on 7 August 1894 the station was named Inverlair, after the nearby Inverlair Lodge.^{[citation needed]} It was renamed Tulloch on 1 January 1895.^[3]

The station was laid out with two platforms, one on either side of a crossing loop. There are sidings on the north side of the station.^[4]

The station buildings are now used as a hostel.^[5] The station was host to a LNER camping coach from 1935 to 1939.^[6]

During the construction of the Lochaber hydroelectric scheme in the 1930s, a small halt was located at Fersit, a short distance south on the line towards Corrour.

Signalling

The signal box, which had 15 levers, was situated on the Up platform. From the time of its opening in 1894, the West Highland Railway was worked throughout by the electric token system. The semaphore signals were removed on 23 February 1986 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB) by British Rail.

The RETB system was commissioned between Upper Tyndrum and Fort William Junction on 29 May 1988. This resulted in the closure of Tulloch 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.

Facilities

The facilities here are extremely basic, consisting of benches on both platforms, and a car park adjacent to platform 1. Both platforms have step-free access, but the only access to platform 2 is via a barrow crossing.^[7] As there are no facilities to purchase tickets, passengers must buy one in advance, or from the guard on the train.

Passenger volume

With 266 entries and exits in the 2020/21 period, Tulloch is the least busy station in Scotland with direct London services, and the least busy station along the line from Glasgow Queen Street to Fort William.^{[8][better source needed]}

Passenger Volume at Tulloch^[9]

	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	2,839	2,083	2,122	2,314	2,365	2,394	2,052	2,216	2,136	2,124	2,046	1,998	1,804	1,616	1,774	2,148	1,770	266

The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.

Services

Monday to Saturday, Tulloch has three northbound services to Fort William and Mallaig and one service to Fort William only (the Highland Caledonian Sleeper). Southbound, there are three services to Glasgow Queen Street and one service to London Euston (except Saturday nights). On Sundays, there are two services northbound to Mallaig, two services southbound to Glasgow Queen Street, and the Caledonian Sleeper to London Euston. The sleeper also carries seated coaches and can thus be used by regular travellers to both Glasgow and Edinburgh Waverley.^[10][11][12]

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Corrour		ScotRail West Highland Line		Roy Bridge
		Caledonian Sleeper Highland Caledonian Sleeper
	Historical railways
Fersit Halt Line open; station closed		North British Railway West Highland Railway		Roy Bridge Line and station open

References

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Deaves, Phil. "Railway Codes". railwaycodes.org.uk. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
3. Quick 2022, p. 454.
4. "Tulloch station on OS Six-inch map Inverness-shire - Mainland Sheet CXLII (includes: Kilmonivaig)". National Library of Scotland. 1904. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
5. Tulloch Station Lodge
6. McRae 1997, p. 11.
7. "National Rail Enquiries -". www.nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
8. "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
9. "Estimates of station usage | ORR Data Portal". dataportal.orr.gov.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2022.
10. eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 218
11. eNRT December 2021 Edition, Table 218
12. eNRT May 2022 Edition, Table 220

Bibliography

• Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.
• McRae, Andrew (1997). British Railway Camping Coach Holidays: The 1930s & British Railways (London Midland Region). Vol. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part One). Foxline. ISBN 1-870119-48-7.
• Quick, Michael (2022) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.04. Railway & Canal Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2022.

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• "Tulloch station restored as a quality bunkhouse". RAIL. No. 333. EMAP Apex Publications. 17–30 June 1998. p. 16. ISSN 0953-4563. OCLC 49953699.

External links

• Video footage of the station on YouTube