Blanefield

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Blanefield (1867-1951)

Opened on the Blane Valley Railway.

Description

This was an island platform station with a waiting room on platform, footbridge and level crossing to west. The station building and platform were built in timber. The building was fitted with awnings to cover the adjacent platforms.

The goods yard was on the north side of the running lines, approached from the east. The sidings were accessed via a reception siding laid alongside the eastbound platform line with a buffer by the signal box. A headshunt for the other sidings stretched each from this. The goods shed was just to the north of the east end of the station platform (reached via a double reversal). At the west end of the yard was an end-on loading bank and to the east, north of the goods shed, a timber loading bank. There was a weighing machine and crane. The goods yard's headshunt ran east to a pair of curved sidings into the Blanefield Print Works (sidings and a loop on the headshunt added 1877). The sidings were lengthened after the North British Railway took over in 1891.

At the western end of the station was a level crossing, the roadway crossing the west end of the loop. A siding ran west from the west end of the eastbound line.

The signal box, opened 1894, was by the level crossing, on the south side of the road, north side of the line. The passing loop, around a new island platform, was installed. This loop extended west over the level crossing for a distance. There was a siding, a continuation of the westbound line, which made a trailing connection to the west end of the loop. The goods yard was expanded.

The line was single track, the station being one of few on the route with two platforms and a loop. It broke the single track section between Lennoxtown (5 miles to the east) where the double track from Glasgow finished and Killearn (4 miles to the north west). Trains ran to Blanefield from Glasgow Queen Street High Level, a journey of roughly an hour.

The line was known for its scenery and in addition to regular traffic there was tourist and excursion traffic (including through coaches for Aberfoyle from Edinburgh Waverley).

Many trains terminated here, with some continuing to Aberfoyle via the Strathendrick and Aberfoyle Railway (and the Forth and Clyde Junction Railway). Track declined with increasing road competition. After introduction of Sentinel Cammell steam railcars in May 1930 between Blanefield and Aberfoyle, due to the lighter passenger traffic, passengers would change here. A train from Glasgow would pull into the westbound platform (southern platform face) and passengers switch to the other side of the island platform. After departure of the railcar the locomotive could run round the train.

In 1941 the railcars were withdrawn and replaced by single coach locomotive hauled trains. In the late 1930s the building's awnings were removed.

Locomotives on passenger trains from Glasgow would often foul the level crossing when paused at the station, and goods trains could draw further forward still to make use of the full length of the loop.

To the east was Dumbrock Siding.

The original layout, in the days when the line only went as far as Dumgoyne, was very simple with a single platform, with the remaining sandstone building, now a house, and two sidings on the north side of the line, approached from the east. The original good yard was in the west end of the site.

The station closed to passengers in 1951. The box closed in 1956. By 1958 the signal box was derelict, its roof having been removed, footbridge removed and platform edging somewhat battered. The loop round the south side of the island was lifted.

The line closed on the 5th of October 1959. The final passenger train, a University of Glasgow excursion to Aberfoyle, ran a few days later on the 17th of October 1959.

After closure the derelict platform was left for some years. The trackbed was cleared to carry the 1971 Loch Lomond Water Supply Scheme pipeline, and the ground level altered (particularly east of the station where the embankment was lowered). The trackbed through the station site, and west to Dumgoyach where it meets the West Highland Way, is now a footpath. A low brick built hut (west part of site) and part of a timber loading bank (east) remain.

Very little existed at Blanefield before the station just a few houses, except for the substancial Blanefield Print Works which probably led to the station's construction despite the proximity of another station at Strathblane. Between the two was the settlement of Netherton.

There was a bottle dump to the north of the station, sandwiched between the railway, former filter beds, Blane Water and road.

Local

Duntreath Castle is to the west of Blanefield. After the grand re-building of the castle a private drive was built which connected the castle to the station.

Tags

Station island platform footpath

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map




Chronology Dates

01/07/1867Blane Valley Railway
Opened for passengers. Stations at Lennoxtown [2nd], Campsie Glen, Strathblane, Blanefield and Killearn [1st].
13/02/1877Blane Valley Railway
Blanefield station's headshunt is extended east and sidings laid into the Blanefield Print Works to the north.
21/08/1894Blane Valley Railway
Blanefield station rebuilt with passing loop, an island platform and a larger goods yard. Signal box opened.
  /07/1899Blane Valley Railway
Siding laid in at Blanefield to assist with demolition of the Blanefield Print Works.
01/05/1930Strathendrick and Aberfoyle Railway
Sentinel-Cammell Steam Railcar shuttle introduced meeting trains from Glasgow Queen Street at Blanefield and running on to Aberfoyle. Eastfield Shed's railcar Retaliator was based at Aberfoyle shed.
04/10/1941Strathendrick and Aberfoyle Railway
Sentinel-Cammell Steam Railcar shuttle from Blanefield to Aberfoyle withdrawn and replaced with locomotive hauled stock.
29/09/1951Strathendrick and Aberfoyle Railway Forth and Clyde Junction Railway Blane Valley Railway Campsie Branch (Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway)
Aberfoyle to Kirkintilloch [2nd] (excluded) closed to passengers. Passenger stations closed at Aberfoyle, Gartmore, Buchlyvie, Balfron, Killearn, Dumgoyne, Blanefield, Strathblane, Campsie Glen, Lennoxtown [2nd], Milton of Campsie closed.
07/11/1956Blane Valley Railway
Blanefield signal box closed and loop taken out.

Books


Forgotten Railways: Scotland