Manuel Junction is a railway junction near the village of Whitecross, Falkirk, Scotland. It is the terminus of the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway (operated by the

Scottish Railway Preservation Society The Scottish Railway Preservation Society is a charity, whose principal objective is the preservation and advancement of railway heritage in Scotland. The society's headquarters is at Bo'ness, in central Scotland. Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway Th ...

(SRPS)) and forms a connection between it and the

Glasgow–Edinburgh via Falkirk line The Glasgow–Edinburgh via Falkirk line is a mainline railway line linking Glasgow and Edinburgh via Falkirk in Scotland. It is the principal route out of the five rail links between Scotland's two biggest cities, hosting the flagship "Shutt ...

. It is not to be confused with Bo'ness Junction which refers rather to the mainline junction adjacent to Manuel Junction on the Edinburgh–Glasgow line. There is no station here but services operated almost entirely by

ScotRail ScotRail Trains Limited, trading as ScotRail ( gd, Rèile na h-Alba), is a Scottish train operating company that is publicly owned by Scottish Rail Holdings on behalf of the Scottish Government. It has been operating the ScotRail franchise a ...

pass on the Edinburgh–Glasgow service and Edinburgh–Dunblane service. The area's signals are controlled by Edinburgh Signalling Centre (SC). There is a loop on the westbound side and a disused west facing siding. The siding leading to the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway and Manuel Junction is east facing on the eastbound side and is controlled by Bo'ness ground frame, which is released by Edinburgh SC.

History

The junction is constructed on the site of the original

Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was authorised by Act of Parliament on 4 July 1838. It was opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow Queen Street railway station (sometimes referred to at first as Dundas Street) and ...

Bo'ness Junction station which was first opened on 21 February 1842. The original station had two platforms on the E&G (upper) line. In 1856 a single platform was opened with the (lower) Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway line, part of the

Monkland Railways The Monkland Railways was a railway company formed in 1848 by the merger of three "coal railways" that had been built to serve coal and iron pits around Airdrie in Central Scotland, and connect them to canals for onward transport of the minerals ...

and connected to the

Slamannan Railway The Slamannan Railway was an early mineral railway between the north-eastern margin of Airdrie and Causewayend on the Union Canal, near Linlithgow, Scotland. The Slamannan Railway was built to give access for minerals from pits in the Slamanna ...

. Trains going from Bo'ness to the E&GR (westbound) used a steeply graded curve which the modern trackbed shares which rose from the north-facing Bo'ness Low Junction up to the west-facing Bo'ness High Junction.Jowett (1989), page 23, Map A To the west of the Bo'ness High Junction was the east-facing Coatbridge Line Junction which allowed trains from the Linlithgow direction to head southbound on the

. The low-level station was closed in 1933. The upper station at Manuel survived until 1967 at which time the branch was cut back to Colliery.

Preservation

The line to the junction was relaid in 1990 by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

with funding from Tesco PLC so that

SRPS Railtours SPRS may refer to * Shorncliffe Redoubt Preservation Society * Scottish Railway Preservation Society who operate the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway and SRPS Railtours * Beijing Shuren Ribet Private School Beijing Shuren-Ribet Private School (SRPS; ) ...

could relocate their base of operations and coaching stock to from its previous base at

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

which was too crowded. The current junction with

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

is east-facing. There is now a platform at Manuel and passengers on the branch service can now be able to alight and disembark whilst the train waits for the locomotive to run-round each and every trip. The newly constructed platform finally opened (officially to the public) on 29 June 2013. The old station building at Moniaive has been offered to the SRPS as a suitable structure for the site.Armstrong, Charles. Moniaive Station. Sou'West. Summer 2015. No.170. page 11.

Track layout

Manuel's track layout features a long curving

loop Loop or LOOP may refer to: Brands and enterprises * Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live * Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets * Loop Mobile, an ...

with a short

headshunt A headshunt (or escape track in the United States) is a short length of track provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines. Terminal headshunt A 'terminal headshunt' is a short ...

at the west end. The link-line leaves the loop approximately 13 BR Mk1 coach lengths from the end of the headshunt. A small trap point is located some way up the link line and further up, a gate, signifying the edge of the SRPS's ground. On the approach to Manuel, a fixed distant signal is encountered shortly before the line curves and climbs steeply up to the junction itself. The

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

at the north-west end of the loop are controlled by a 3-lever

ground frame Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals, track locks and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control. Usually located in the signal box, the ...

known as Manuel North. The east-facing link line is controlled by a 5-lever ground frame which includes mechanical control of two signals: a raised yellow disc signal reads up the link line and up onto

and a small arm signal prevents moves onto the B&KR. The points at the west end are hand points. Both ground frames are controlled by the train staff using Annett's locks and all signals are tubular upper quadrant in design. The points at the Network Rail end of the link-line are controlled from a ground frame released from Edinburgh SC.

References

Notes

Sources

* * *

External links

* * * {{cite web , url = http://www.npemap.org.uk/tiles/map.html#296,676,1 , title = Manuel Upper railway station on navigable OS map (1947) , accessdate = 21 January 2011
Video footage of Manuel Junction
Rail junctions in Scotland Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1842 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1933 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1967 Heritage railway stations in Falkirk (council area) Beeching closures in Scotland Former North British Railway stations Railway stations built for UK heritage railways Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 2013 1842 establishments in Scotland 1856 establishments in Scotland 2013 establishments in Scotland 1933 disestablishments in Scotland 1967 disestablishments in Scotland