, symbol_location = gb
, symbol = rail
, image = Dingwall Railway Station - geograph.org.uk - 2996558.jpg
, caption = The platforms at Dingwall station, looking south
, borough =
Dingwall
Dingwall ( sco, Dingwal, gd, Inbhir Pheofharain ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest cast ...
,
Highland
Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
, country = Scotland
, coordinates =
, grid_name =
Grid reference
A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordin ...
, grid_position =
, manager =
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 ...
, platforms = 2
, code = DIN
, original =
Inverness and Ross-shire Railway
The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway was a Scottish railway company formed in 1860 to build a line from Inverness to Invergordon. It opened in 1862 as far as Dingwall and in 1863 to Invergordon. It was extended to a Bonar Bridge station in 1864 ...
, pregroup =
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller United Kingdom, British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Base ...
, postgroup =
LMS LMS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Labeled magnitude scale, a scaling technique
* Learning management system, education software
* Least mean squares filter, producing least mean square error
* Leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer
* Lenz ...
, years = 11 June 1862
, events = Opened
, mpassengers =
, footnotes = Passenger statistics from the
Office of Rail and Road
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the economic and safety regulation of Britain's railways, and the economic monitoring of National Highways.
ORR regulates Network Rail by setting its ...
, embedded =
Dingwall railway station serves
Dingwall
Dingwall ( sco, Dingwal, gd, Inbhir Pheofharain ) is a town and a royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It has a population of 5,491. It was an east-coast harbour that now lies inland. Dingwall Castle was once the biggest cast ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. It is located just south of the junction of the
Far North Line
The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...
and the
Kyle of Lochalsh Line, and is managed and served 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 ...
. The station is from Inverness, and is the zero point for the
Kyle of Lochalsh Line. It is sited after
Conon Bridge
Conon Bridge ( gd, Drochaid Sguideil, ) is a small village in the Highland region of Scotland. The current Gaelic name is likely a neologism: the bridge was not built until the early 19th century and some early gravestones show the name sgudal or ...
heading northbound, with the next station being either
Garve
Garve () is a village on the Black Water river, in Ross-shire, and is in the Highland Council area of Scotland. It is situated northwest of Contin, on the A835, the main road to Ullapool on the west coast, close to where the A832 branches off ...
or
Alness
Alness (, ; gd, Alanais) is a town and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. It lies near the mouth of the River Averon, near the Cromarty Firth, with the town of Invergordon 3 miles (5 km) to the east, an ...
.
History
The station was built by the
Inverness and Ross-shire Railway
The Inverness and Ross-shire Railway was a Scottish railway company formed in 1860 to build a line from Inverness to Invergordon. It opened in 1862 as far as Dingwall and in 1863 to Invergordon. It was extended to a Bonar Bridge station in 1864 ...
(I&RR) and opened on 11 June 1862 when the company's line was opened from to Dingwall. The extension to
Invergordon
Invergordon (; gd, Inbhir Ghòrdain or ) is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland (council area), Highland, Scotland. It lies in the parish of Rosskeen.
History
The town built up around the harbour which was establish ...
came on 23 March 1863. The I&RR was consolidated with the
Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway
The Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway (I&AJR) was a railway company in Scotland, created to connect other railways and complete the route between Inverness and Aberdeen. The Inverness and Nairn Railway had opened to the public on 7 Novembe ...
on 30 June 1862. The operating name became the
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller United Kingdom, British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Base ...
(HR) on 29 June 1865. Under Highland Railway ownership the current station buildings were erected in 1886 by architect
Murdoch Paterson
Murdoch Paterson (September 1826 – 9 August 1898) was an engineer and architect based in Inverness, Scotland, who was chief engineer of the Highland Railway.
Background
He was born in September 1826, one of five sons of Donald Paterson (177 ...
.
The HR became a constituent of the
London Midland and Scottish Railway
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...
(LMSR) in 1923.
The main passenger services through the station were to Wick and Thurso and to Kyle of Lochalsh. Between 1885 and 1946 there was a branch line service to .
The Highland Railway built a small steam
locomotive shed
The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine shed ...
near the station and this continued in use by the LMSR and
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 ...
ways until closure at the end of steam locomotive operations in the area in the early 1960s. It was a sub-shed of the large Inverness facility.
The station formerly had two
signal box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
es to supervise the
passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
and junction between the two routes - both were however closed in 1985 when the
Radio Electronic Token Block
Radio Electronic Token Block is a system of railway signalling used in the United Kingdom. It is a development of the physical token system for controlling traffic on single lines. The system is slightly similar to North American Direct Traffic ...
system was introduced 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 ...
on the
Far North Line
The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...
. The system was initially worked from a control centre at the station, with the line southwards planned for inclusion in the Inverness area resignalling scheme. However, when the Inverness scheme was completed in 1988, RETB control was transferred to the new signalling centre there and one here was closed. The junction points were altered so that they were (and still are) power operated - drivers of northbound trains use a plunger on the down platform to select the correct route, whilst southbound trains trigger the correct setting by occupying track circuits on the approach to the station.
Historic Scotland
Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment. ...
designate the current station and platforms as Category B.
The town's name in
Scottish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...
is ''Inbhir Pheofharain''; however, the Gaelic on the station sign read ''Inbhirpheofharain'' (incorrectly written as one word).
Transport Scotland
Transport Scotland ( gd, Còmhdhail Alba) is the national transport agency of Scotland. It was established by the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, and began operating on 1 January 2006 as an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government.
Organisat ...
acknowledged the error and indicated that the correct signage would be erected during 2014. The signage is now corrected.
Accidents and incidents
In 1897, an evening train from Dingwall heading towards
Garve
Garve () is a village on the Black Water river, in Ross-shire, and is in the Highland Council area of Scotland. It is situated northwest of Contin, on the A835, the main road to Ullapool on the west coast, close to where the A832 branches off ...
stopped short of a summit, and the rear coaches of the train ran back down the steep ascent towards Dingwall, as the coupling failed. They stopped just before reaching the junction to the north of the station. The only damage was to some level crossing gates, which were demolished by the coaches.
On 22 January 2010, a
Class 158 ''Express Sprinter'' unit (158701) working the 17:15 Inverness to service derailed at Dingwall; nobody was badly injured, but one female passenger was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Facilities
Both platforms have benches and help points, with most of the main facilities sited on platform 1, being a concourse, a disabled toilet, ticket office, and a bar. There is a small car park (adjacent to which is a payphone) and bike racks next to platform 1. Platform 2 also has a waiting room and a shelter. Both platforms have step-free access. New annunciator
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
screens have been installed on both platforms, giving information on the next three trains to arrive, and general security information.
Platform layout
It has a
passing loop
A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...
long, with two platforms. Platform 1 on the northbound line can accommodate trains having eight coaches, whereas platform 2 on the southbound line can hold ten.
Passenger volume
The statistics cover twelve month periods that start in April.
Services
As Dingwall is a key station on the Far North Line, all trains stop here regardless of destination.
On weekdays and Saturdays, the station sees 7 trains northbound (4 to
Wick
Wick most often refers to:
* Capillary action ("wicking")
** Candle wick, the cord used in a candle or oil lamp
** Solder wick, a copper-braided wire used to desolder electronic contacts
Wick or WICK may also refer to:
Places and placenames ...
via
Thurso
Thurso (pronounced ; sco, Thursa, gd, Inbhir Theòrsa ) is a town and former burgh on the north coast of the Highland council area of Scotland. Situated in the historical County of Caithness, it is the northernmost town on the island of Great ...
, 1 to
Invergordon
Invergordon (; gd, Inbhir Ghòrdain or ) is a town and port in Easter Ross, in Ross and Cromarty, Highland (council area), Highland, Scotland. It lies in the parish of Rosskeen.
History
The town built up around the harbour which was establish ...
, 1 to
, 1 to
Tain
Tain ( Gaelic: ''Baile Dhubhthaich'') is a royal burgh and parish in the County of Ross, in the Highlands of Scotland.
Etymology
The name derives from the nearby River Tain, the name of which comes from an Indo-European root meaning 'flow'. The ...
), 4 trains westbound to
Kyle of Lochalsh
Kyle of Lochalsh (from the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic ''Caol Loch Aillse'', "strait of the foaming loch") is a village in the historic county of Ross-shire on the northwest coast of Scotland, located around west-southwest of Inverness. It is loca ...
, and 14 trains southbound to
Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...
. On Sundays, the station sees 5 trains northbound (1 to Wick, 3 to Tain, 1 to Invergordon), 1 train westbound to Kyle of Lochalsh, and 6 trains southbound to Inverness.
[eNRT December 2021 Edition, Table 219]
References
Bibliography
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{{Railway stations served by Abellio Scotrail
Railway stations in Highland (council area)
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1862
Railway stations served by ScotRail
Former Highland Railway stations
Listed railway stations in Scotland
Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area)
1862 establishments in Scotland
Dingwall