Fouldubs Junction

Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Fouldubs Junction (1908-)

Station code: FDB National Rail
Opened on the Grangemouth Railway (Forth and Clyde Canal).
Opened on the Bainsford Branch (Caledonian Railway).

Description

This junction is located on the western edge of Grangemouth. Today it is the junction between various freight lines and the double track railway to Grangemouth Junction. It is controlled by a large signal box on the north side of the line. This box is unusual in Scotland now, for being the only box located on a goods network. From here sidings serve the TDG depot, WH Malcolm depot, Grangemouth Refinery and docks.

The Grangemouth railway opened in 1860 as a single track railway. It was doubled and came to serve an increasing number of docks such as Carron Dock (1883) and Grange Dock (1906).

A yard (Fouldubs Junction Yard) was laid out between Fouldubs and Grangemouth South Signal Box around 1896, a loop on the north side of the line leading to dead end sidings at either end. The first Fouldubs Junction box was opened on the north side of the line and east of the Beancross Road overbridge. Fouldubs Farm was to the south east. This yard assisted with the large number of new sidings which had opened for the Carron Dock.

A new even larger dock, Grange Dock, was planned. A secondary line was to be built to Grangemouth, the yards enlarged, the line between Fouldubs and Grangemouth quadrupled, a new locomotive shed opened and considerable yards laid out at the Grange Dock.

Grangemouth Shed opened in 1907. The Bainsford Branch (Caledonian Railway) opened in 1911, connecting with the North British Railway at its west end via which it continued on to Swing Bridge Junction. A new box opened on the north side of Fouldubs Junction, just west of the Beancross Road overbridge. The junction included a diamond formation allowing cross over from the original pair of double lines to the new double lines laid to their north. The quadruple line ran north east to Grangemouth No 1 Signal Box and Grangemouth No 2 Signal Box. Fouldubs Junction Yard was expanded with further marshalling sidings on both sides and additional sidings to serve timber yards, Abergrange Saw Mills to the south and chemical works to the north.

The Bainsford line was singled as far as Orchardhall in 1968 and closed beyond. Grangemouth No 1 Signal Box closed in 1969 and the yards cut back. The Bainsford line officially closed in 1991, although traffic ceased earlier.

In the 1980s and 90s there were here Grangemouth Shed, Russell Depot Grangemouth (receiving building supplies) and Blue Circle Cement Grangemouth (receiving cement from Dunbar Cement Works).

Today the double track runs north east as two separate single track lines, the northern for the docks and the southern to the refinery (Grangemouth New Oil Terminal). To the north of this at the junction a looped headshunt remains (the last of the additional two lines laid from Fouldubs to Grangemouth) from which TDG Nexus Grangemouth container depot (formerly the Russell depot and concrete depot, and before that a saw mill) can be reached and the WH Malcolm Grangemouth container depot built on the site of Grangemouth Shed.

The line is now electrified.

Tags

Junction
06/08/2020




Chronology Dates

  /  /1900Bainsford Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Fouldubs Junction to Bainsford (Burnhouse) and works sidings authorised.
  /  /1908Bainsford Branch (Caledonian Railway) Bainsford Branch (North British Railway)
By-pass line from Swing Bridge Junction to Fouldubs Junction partly opened. The western half was owned by the North British Railway (part of the former line to the Carron Iron Works) and the eastern was to be opened by the Caledonian Railway.
23/11/1911Bainsford Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Orchardhall Swing Bridge to Fouldubs Junction opened, completing line.
  /  /1986Bainsford Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Fouldubs Junction to Falkirk Aluminium Works closed.
  /03/1997Grangemouth Railway (Forth and Clyde Canal Company)
Grangemouth Docks to Fouldubs Junction re-opened to freight.
  /08/1999Grangemouth Railway (Forth and Clyde Canal)
Malcolm Group purchases former depot at Fouldubs Junction.
  /05/2011Grangemouth Railway (Forth and Clyde Canal)
Siding at Fouldubs Junction looped at its northern end to connect with the dock line.