Location type

Name and dates

Description

This junction was the western apex of the triangular junction created with the opening of the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway and its Forres [2nd] station in 1863. The line met the existing 1858 Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway.

The junction was formed west of the original Forres [1st] station's loop. The original line eastof that station to Forres West Junction was retained as a goods line and Forres [1st] closed. A new double track curved line, following a more southerly course, ran from the west junction to the east junction. The mid section of this new line formed the northern curve of the triangular junction, a western curve and eastern curve going south to Forres South Junction.

Forres [2nd] station had two platforms on the west to east curve, two on the west to south curve and one on the east to south curve.

A signal box opened in the 1860s and was replaced in 1896. It was to the north of the west junction. In the 'V' of the junction was the approach to Forres Shed, with routes both via and avoiding the turntable. The goods yard was approached from the west. The box also controlled eastern access to some loops on the north side of Forres [2nd] station's west to east platforms and a loop on the west side of the west to south platforms.

The route south closed in 1965, retained as far as the Dallas Dhu Distillery, and the platforms on the west to south and east to south curves closed. The west to south curve closed in 1966. Dallas Dhu Distillery to Forres East Junction closed in 1967.

In 1967 Forres West and Forres South boxes closed and the east junction was the only remaining signal box.

The original line's western end, at Forres West, was disconnected but retained as a headshunt. The goods yard, latterly largely used as a permanent way yard, closed in the 1990s.

In 2017 a new Forres station opened on the re-opened original alignment through Forres [1st]. Forres [2nd] closed completely and the line through it lifted. Forres box closed, taken over by the Inverness Signalling Centre.

A form of west junction remains today, the west end of the new Forres station's loop. This is at a point further west - the modern loop is of considerable length.

Tags