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Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

This former station is now Gorton Crossing (also known as Gorton CE Siding) a passing place on the line with ground frames to operate the points. It is used for engineering trains or machines only. Its location is remote, with no road access, on the southern edge of Rannoch Moor at Tom nam Broc near Gorton Bothy. It was a private station with an island platform.

There was a combined signal box and house here, the same style as those at Glen Douglas Halt and Corrour (the latter survives as the sole example). This building was located at the north of the short island platform, a two storey signal box at the south end of the building and single storey staff accommodation to the north. The island platform was short, not much longer than a carriage. There was no goods siding, unlike other similar locations.

The station was private due to the demands of the major landowner, the Marquis of Breadalbane who did not permit the West Highland Railway to build a public station here. As a result the railway did not encourage its use, any staff who allowed the public to use the station would be dismissed. Its main purpose was to allow trains to pass each other (breaking what would otherwise be a 16 mile section of single track). So the station was used by railway staff and those working the lands of the Marquis. Initially on a Friday one passenger train in either direction would stop here. For the staff and nearby cottages a mail pouch was carried to Gorton by goods trains from Bridge of Orchy. Food, coal and water (there was no reliable water supply here) came in by train. John Thomas described the staff aptly as the 'Lighthousemen of the Land'.

The location was nearly served by a public road. Several times a route across to Glen Lyon or another to Aberfeldy was promoted. These had both been used as cattle droving routes. A private road out from Achallader to Gorton Bothy exists. There are hill tracks to Glen Lyon and Gaur Bridge.

In the 1930s a grounded carriage was placed by the LNER on the island platform was used as a Argyll County Council school for children in the area, prior to this they travelled to Fort William on the first northbound train of the day and returned in the afternoon. John Thomas describes that at its height there were 11 pupils and the teacher stayed at Bridge of Orchy, travelling to the school by train. Latterly the teacher came from Rannoch. Pupils would either walk to the station or be picked up from the lineside (often using a ladder or being passed up by a parent). Opposite the door to the carriage (north side) was a bar to stop excited pupils running out onto the track. Before the railway school there was a schoolhouse located just east of Gorton Bothy.

The remote location made it difficult to attract staff for the signal box. Latterly there was a married couple, both signallers. The location is very exposed. It was struck by lightning in 1899 which broke the tablet equipment, requiring pilot working to be instituted (the pilot having to walk out from Bridge of Orchy). A southbound fish special from Mallaig became trapped in deep snow here in early 1907. Such drifts were not unusual.

The southern distant signal was located at the Allt an Eachdarra bridge (where there was a lineside cottage) and northern at the Water of Tulla bridge. The box could be switched out when not needed. The southbound line became the default line in both directions (the line is on a curve through the site and the northbound line has a tighter curve at either end). The halt closed to passengers in 1964, the box closing and loop being taken out in 1968 (one source suggests the loop may have been taken out in 1962).

In 1987 the loop was re-instated, controlled by ground frames at either end, for the use of permanent way maintenance trains. It is now called Gorton Crossing or Gorton CE Siding. The loop is about 1000ft long. The main line is the former southbound line, the former northbound line being the engineers' loop. The loop has catch points at either end.

Portions of the platform remained until recently. Various small buildings for the civil engineer have been on the platform site since 1987. Red bricks from the demolished building can be seen on the west side (from Thos King & Co of the Bellside Brick Works), a dwindling number of wind-break trees still stand on either side of the line and the collapsed remains of the goat enclosure is on the east side.

Around 2000 an improved dirt track was laid from Gorton Bothy, which has degraded somewhat but can still be used to visit the site on foot. From the bothy it crosses under the line and approaches the east side of the loop from the south.

From Bridge of Orchy the line rises continuously, clinging to the western and northern slopes of Beinn an Dothaidh, Beinn Achallader and Beinn a Chreachain and passing through the ancient Scots Pines of the Crannach Forest to reach Gorton. To the north the railway is closer to level as it crosses the southern part of Rannoch Moor, the line 'floating' on brushwood rafts across the bogs, with a dip at the Gaur Viaduct before reaching Rannoch.

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