Original Fort William Train Station
The first station was constructed by the West Highland Railway which was later absorbed by the North British Railway. They chose a site for the station alongside the town shipping pier, which required the purchase of a strip of the foreshore.
The railway company bought this for £25 (equivalent to £3,500 in 2023) an acre. Purchase of this land displaced some people from their houses and the railway company was obliged to provide replacement housing. Other residents realised too late that the railway line cut the town off from the shore and the company responded by providing some wicket gate crossings.
It was opened by the Marchioness of Tweedale, Candida Louisa Bartolucci, wife of the chairman of the North British Railway, William Hay, 10th Marquess of Tweeddale on 7 August 1894. They had departed by special train comprising two locomotives and eleven carriages from Glasgow at 8.15am and arrived in Fort William at 1.30pm.
It was sited to the west of the present station on what is now the A82 town bypass, alongside Loch Linnhe at Station Square, at the time near then location of the former Caledonian MacBrayne bus station. The old station was a stone-built construction featuring a turret and a double arched entranceway and had three platforms. Two of the platforms terminated under the platform canopy, but the third continued past the station, crossing the MacBrayne pier and terminated at the jetty just beyond.
In 1970 the British Railways Board put forward proposals to re-site the station 700 yards (640 m) north of its location to allow the improvements to the A82 to be implemented. The last train from the old station departed on 7 June 1975 and the station closed on 9 June. It was demolished immediately afterwards to permit construction of the bypass.
The present Fort William station of grey concrete construction was opened on 13 June 1975. The current station lies in the shadow of Ben Nevis.
More info here
Some photos of the Original Train Station at Fort William.
Original black and Whites with recolour underneath.
The recolours have been done by Marie Nolan
