External Reference

Date 23 June 2014

Event ID 978683

Category Documentary Reference

Type External Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/978683

NN52SE 28 5710 2079

The permanent way of the Callander and Oban Railway was in position as far as this location by the summer of 1868 when a coal depot was set up on the site. A public station was opened here upon the opening of the line in 1870, as a single platform named Lochearnhead. When the Caledonian line from St Fillans reached the head of Loch Earn in 1904 a new station on that line was opened named Lochearnhead (NN52SE 29) and the original C&O Lochearnhead station renamed Balquhidder. The renaming and the station itself were short lived, as in 1905 the Caledonian line was extended to join the C&O making a junction just to the south of Balquhidder station and a new station was built there, taking the name of Balquhidder. The new station had three platform faces, two of them being on either side of an island platform which was reached by an underpass and stairways from the main road. A water tower and two signal boxes were provided, but the two latter buildings were demolished after the branch to Comrie closed in 1951. The station remained an unstaffed halt until it closed in 1965; the blocked underpass entry from the road is all that can now be seen.

Based on C E J Fryer 1989; M.H.Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain, A Historical Atlas, Ian Allan, second ed. 2006.

It was opened (as Lochearnhead Station) by the Callander and Oban Rly on 1 June 1870, was renamed Balquhidder Station on 1 May 1904 and Butt says it closed on 1 May 1905, being replaced by a second station of the same name which closed to regular passenger traffic on 28 September 1965.

R V J Butt 1995.

Information via email from Brian Malaws, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), to RCAHMS (MMD), 23 June 2014.