Bridge of Orchy railway station

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Bridge of Orchy
Drochaid Urchaidh
Bridge of Orchy bilingual station sign
Location
Place	Bridge of Orchy
Local authority	Argyll and Bute
Operations
Station code	BRO
Managed by	First ScotRail
Platforms in use	2
Live departures and station information from National Rail
Annual Rail Passenger Usage
2004/05 *	4,941
2005/06 *	5,112
History
7 August 1894	Opened
National Rail - UK railway stations
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Bridge of Orchy from Office of Rail Regulation statistics.
UK Railways Portal

The western side of the Bridge of Orchy station building, looking south. (19 July 2006). Stewart D. Macfarlane

Bridge of Orchy railway station is a railway station in the village of Bridge of Orchy in the west of Scotland. This station is on the West Highland Line. Being an island platform, access is via a subway.

[edit] Station building

The station building is now used as a bunkhouse for those walking the West Highland Way.

[edit] Locality

The Bridge of Orchy Hotel is opposite the end of the road down from the station.

[edit] History

This station opened to passengers on 7 August 1894.

The station was laid out with a crossing loop around an island platform and sidings on the east side of the station.

On 1 February 1987, the crossing loop was altered to right-hand running. The original Down platform has thus become the Up platform, and vice versa. The change was made in order to simplify shunting at this station, by removing the need to hand-pump the train-operated loop points to access the sidings.

[edit] Signalling

The signal box, which had 16 levers, was situated at the south end of the island platform. From the time of 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 Up loop at Bridge of Orchy 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 24 November 1985 in preparation for the introduction of Radio Electronic Token Block (RETB).

The RETB system was commissioned between Upper Tyndrum and Fort William Junction on 29 May 1988. This resulted in the closure of Bridge of Orchy signal box (amongst others). The RETB is controlled from a Signalling Centre at Banavie railway station.

The Train Protection & Warning System was installed in 2003.

[edit] External links

• Train times and station information for Bridge of Orchy railway station from National Rail