Corpach

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Corpach (1901-)

Station code: CPA National Rail ScotRail
Where: Highland, Scotland
Opened on the Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway).
Open on the West Highland Line.

Description

This is a single platform station. It is close to the basin of the Caledonian Canal and its Corpach Basin and the sea lock. Corpach retains its small timber station building, not typical of the line (the original building, typical of the Mallaig extension, burned down). The platform is on the north side of the line and there is a barrier protected level crossing to its west.

A long ballast siding ran from east of the station to terminate north east of the station. Ballast was delivered by road to the Corpach siding, the Fort William pilot tripping to the siding.

Directly west of the station is a level crossing. Signals for this were controlled by a small gate box at the west end of the station and south side of the line, closed when the crossing became an automatic open crossing in 1982. Continuing west the line is so close to Loch Eil that the embankment is protected by a sea wall. Going further west by the loch there are many more of these sea walls.

Tomonie Signal Box was to the east and beyond that is the Banavie Swing Bridge and Banavie station.

To the west was Annat Signal Box and the line runs west on the north bank of Loch Eil to Loch Eil Outward Bound.

1.3 miles from Banavie Junction [2nd].

Tags

Station

Facilities

Gaelic name: A^ Chorpaich


Nearby stations
Banavie
Banavie Pier
Fort William
Fort William [1st]
Loch Eil Outward Bound
Locheilside
Gairlochy
Spean Bridge
Invergloy Platform
Ballachulish Ferry
Roy Bridge
Ballachulish (Glencoe)
Kentallen
Glenfinnan
Lech-a-vuie Platform
Corpach Basin
Annat Sidings
Annat Signal Box
Annat Pulp Mill Ground Frame
Banavie Swing Bridge
Kilmallie Mill
Neptune^s Staircase
Banavie Junction [2nd]
Camus-na-ha Sidings
Tourist/other
Corpach Beacon
Corpach Pier
Tomonie Signal Box
Camusnagaul
Fort William Aluminium Pier
Fort William [Fort]
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.


Corpach as a terminus


Corpach was used as a terminus for one train a day from Fort Augustus, the 2.40pm (*). It was slightly tortuous, the train reversed at Spean Bridge and Fort William [1st] on its journey.

* 24 hour clock use was not adopted until 1965.


Chronology Dates

  /  /1822Caledonian Canal
Canal opened from Corpach (Loch Linnhe on the West Coast) to Clachnaharry (Beauly Firth, East Coast).
21/01/1897West Highland Railway Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway)
First sod of Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway) cut at Corpach by Lady Margaret Cameron of Lochiel.
01/04/1901Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway)
Line opened from Banavie (Banavie Junction [2nd]), over the Caledonian Canal and on through Banavie, Corpach, Locheilside, Glenfinnan, Lochailort, Beasdale, Arisaig and Morar to Mallaig, extending the West Highland Railway to the western seaboard. There was no official opening ceremony.
  /  /1966West Highland Railway Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway)
The Scottish Pulp and Paper Mills open at Corpach leading to a great increase in traffic for the line at a time when it is under threat.
09/06/1980West Highland Railway Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway)
Final timber train leaves Crianlarich Lower for the Scottish Pulp and Paper Mills, Corpach.
  /10/1980West Highland Railway Mallaig Extension (West Highland Railway)
As the Pulp Mill at Scottish Pulp and Paper Mills, Corpach, closes much traffic is lost.

News items

18/07/2021The curious tale of how the 'Corpach Wreck' became a Lochaber landmark [Herald Scotland]
14/10/2020Car crashes onto line near Fort William causing disruption to rail services [Press and Journal]

Books


A Mallaig Boyhood (Flashbacks)
All Stations to Mallaig!: West Highland Line Since Nationalisation
Captains and Commanders: Memoirs of a Scottish West Coast Fisherman

Chapels of the Rough Bounds

Highland Steam: A Scrapbook of Images from the 'Kyle, Mallaig and Highland Lines

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: West Highland Railway v. 1

History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands: West Highland Railway v. 1

Iron Road to the Isles: A Travellers and Tourist Guide to the West Highland Lines

Iron Roads to the Isles: A Travellers and Tourists Souvenir Guide to the West Highland Lines

Landranger (40) Mallaig & Glenfinnan, Loch Shiel (OS Landranger Map)

Mallaig Line: An Illustrated History and Guide

Old Mallaig, Morar and Arisaig

On West Highland Lines

Railway World Special: Fort William and Mallaig

Railway World Special: West Highland Lines

Rannan Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean =: The West Highland Line
Steam to Mallaig
The Mallaig Railway
The Mallaig Railway: The West Highland Extension 1897-1901 (RCAHMS Broadsheet)
The Story of the West Highland

The Story of the West Highland: The 1940s LNER Guide to the Line

The West Highland Mallaig Extension in B.R.Days

The West Highland Railway

The West Highland Railway (Railways of the Scottish Highlands)

The West Highland Railway 120 Years

Walks from the West Highland Railway (Cicerone Guide)

West Highland Extension: Great Railway Journeys Through Time

West Highland Railway
West Highland Railway (History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands v. 1): West Highland Railway v. 1