Faslane Platform railway station or Faslane Junction Platform railway station was a temporary private railway station located near the Stuckendoff PoW camp, Shandon,

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Opened in 1945 by the

LNER LNER may refer to: * London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 * London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...

in connection with the construction of the Loch Sloy Hydro-Electric facility and was located on the Shandon side of the Chapel Burn and recorded to be out of use by around 1949 in the British Railways era.

History

The station lay on the

West Highland Railway The West Highland Railway was a railway company that constructed a railway line from Craigendoran (on the River Clyde west of Glasgow, Scotland) to Fort William and Mallaig. The line was built through remote and difficult terrain in two stages ...

that opened the line to passengers on 7 August 1894; later operated by the North British Railway, until in 1923 it became part of the London and North Eastern Railway. In 1948 the line became part of the Scottish Region of British Railways following nationalisation and remains open as a route to Fort William,

Mallaig Mallaig (; gd, Malaig derived from Old Norse , meaning sand dune bay) is a port in Lochaber, on the west coast of the Highlands of Scotland. The local railway station, Mallaig, is the terminus of the West Highland railway line (Fort Willi ...

and Oban. Faslane was a halt that had a single platform and was opened by the

in 1945, but it closed around 1949 when construction work had been completed. Records show that it was not opened as a standard railway station for the general public and it was not listed in the 1948 British Railways (Scottish Region) timetable. The

RCAHMS The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" inanced and with oversightthrough Historic Scotland, an executive ...

does not have a record of the station. The station served the Stuckendoff Camp and possibly the Blairvadach Camp that lay relatively near by.

Infrastructure

Faslane, 5.2 miles (5.2 km) from Craigendoran Junction, had a single long straight platform and may have had a sectional 'slab' concrete frontage, as with Glen Falloch Halt and

Inveruglas Inveruglas ( gd, Inbhir Dhubhghlais) is a hamlet on the west shore of Loch Lomond, fairly near the north end of the loch and is within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. It is situated on the A82 trunk road, connecting Glasgow to ...

that were also built as part of the hydroelectric scheme. It was located on the northern side of the line approached by a lane running from Stuckendoff Farm near which a PoW camp was located. A signal box was located nearby with the junction to the Faslane military railway built during World War II to serve "Military Port No.1" at Faslane. The platform is recorded to have been 'served' by a single siding.

The Garelochhead PoW Camps

Several PoW Camps were located in the area, such as Stuckendoff that stood near the farm of that name, no.582 at Blairvadach with its 40 Nissen huts, now the site of the Blairvadach Outdoor Centre and there was a third camp near Whistlefield above the hamlet of Portincaple. The German POWs at these camps were all dressed in brown trousers and tunics with the letters POW on the back.

Loch Sloy scheme

Loch Sloy hydro-electric power station - geograph

After World War II many German, especially East German, as well as Italian ex-prisoners stayed in Scotland for some time before being repatriated and it is recorded that a number of German and Italian POWs were involved in the early stages of the construction of the Sloy/Awe Hydro-Electric facility between

Loch Sloy ''Loch Sloy'' was a Scottish sailing barque that operated between Great Britain and Australia from the late 19th century until 1899. Her name was drawn from Loch Sloy, a freshwater loch which lies to the north of the Burgh of Helensburgh, ...

and

, on the west bank of

Loch Lomond Loch Lomond (; gd, Loch Laomainn - 'Lake of the Elms'Richens, R. J. (1984) ''Elm'', Cambridge University Press.) is a freshwater Scottish loch which crosses the Highland Boundary Fault, often considered the boundary between the lowlands of C ...

. The POWs and guards travelled by train from Faslane Platform, Whistlefield and

Garelochhead Garelochhead ( sco, Garelochheid,
gd, Ceann a' Gheàr ...

stations, transported in two carriages to the new railway station at Inveruglas. The POWs were being encouraged to learn a trade before returning to their homelands as many were no longer technically PoWs. Glen Falloch Halt may have been used by men building the aqueducts and tunnels that collected water from the Glen Falloch burns and carried it to Loch Sloy. Construction at the Loch Sloy project began in May 1945, under the auspices of the

North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1943–1990) was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland. It is regarded as one of the major achievements of Scottish politician Thomas Johnston, w ...

, and it was completed in 1949 prior to the formal opening in 1950, dates that coincide with the known use of Faslane Platform. As stated the prisoners-of-war were carried from the platform that stood near Faslane Junction to

or the nearby Glen Falloch Halt.

The West Highland Line

References

Notes

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Video of the West Highland Line. Mallaig to Fort William
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faslane Platform railway station Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1945 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1949 Former London and North Eastern Railway stations Disused railway stations in Argyll and Bute Former private railway stations