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, 105 miles (169 km) north of Glasgow Queen Street.

Tulloch
Scottish Gaelic: Tulaich[1]
Tulloch station, looking east (towards Glasgow)
Location
Place	Tulloch
Local authority	Highland
Coordinates	56.8841°N 4.7012°W / 56.8841; -4.7012
Grid reference	NN354802
Operations
Station code	TUL
Managed by	Abellio ScotRail
Number of platforms	2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2014/15	1,998
2015/16	1,804
2016/17	1,616
2017/18	1,774
2018/19	2,148
History
Original company	West Highland Railway
Pre-grouping	North British Railway
Post-grouping	LNER
7 August 1894	Opened as Inverlair
1 January 1895	Renamed as Tulloch
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Tulloch from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.

With 2,148 entries and exits in the 2018/19 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.

History

When the railway opened on 7 August 1894 the station was named Inverlair, after the nearby Inverlair Lodge. It was renamed Tulloch on 1 January 1895.[2]

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.[3]

The station buildings are now used as a hostel.[4] The station was host to a LNER camping coach from 1935 to 1939.[5]

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.

Services

2016 services

Monday to Saturday, northbound, Tulloch has three services to Mallaig and one service to Fort William (the 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 (plus a second from May to late October), one service southbound to Glasgow Queen Street (two in summer) and one service (Highland Caledonian Sleeper) to London Euston.[6] The sleeper also carries seated coaches and can thus be used by regular travellers to both Glasgow and Edinburgh Waverley.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Corrour		Abellio 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

Notes

1. Brailsford 2017, Gaelic/English Station Index.
2. Quick 2019, p. 403.
3. "Tulloch station on OS Six-inch map Inverness-shire - Mainland Sheet CXLII (includes: Kilmonivaig)". National Library of Scotland. 1904. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
4. Tulloch Station Lodge
5. McRae 1997, p. 11.
6. GB eNRT May 2016 Edition, Table 227 (Network Rail)

Sources

• Brailsford, Martyn, ed. (December 2017) [1987]. Railway Track Diagrams 1: Scotland & Isle of Man (6th ed.). Frome: Trackmaps. ISBN 978-0-9549866-9-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McRae, Andrew (1997). British Railway Camping Coach Holidays: The 1930s & British Railways (London Midland Region). Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part One). Foxline. ISBN 1-870119-48-7.
• Quick, Michael (2019) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF) (5th ed.). Railway and Canal Historical Society.

Further reading

• Butt, R. V. J. (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.
• 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.