Philpstoun railway station was a railway station in the village of Philpstoun, to the east of Linlithgow in West Lothian, Scotland. It was located on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.

History

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Philpstoun station was opened by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway on 21 February 1842.[1] It was closed on 18 June 1951 [1] by British Railways.

The area around Philpstoun, in common with others in West Lothian, was an extremely busy centre for shale mining and petroleum manufacturing for almost a century, and this was reflected in the railways around Philpstoun. The station itself was situated in a deep cutting, and had two platforms. Immediately to the west, a facing junction, with crossovers and a looping facilities connected to a set of exchange sidings at Westfield, and these ran into Philpstoun No 1 shale mine. Extensive sidings connected within the facility, and a short branch ran just west of the (still extant) shale bings, crossing the canal, and continuing past Easter Pardovan in a southerly direction to serve a shale pit at Ochiltree (just north west of Threemiletown). A tramway ran in the same direction on the eastern flank of the bings. A trailing siding left the main up line near Pardovan, this was known as Pardovan siding and originally served a quarry.

Further west, a line branched from the down main via a trailing junction and ran adjacent to the mainline for some 500 yards before swinging south west, passing Champfleurie, before swinging south to serve oil works and a shale mine between Bridgend and Wester Ochiltree.

The course of these lines can be seen on Sheet 32 (Ordnance Survey Maps One-inch "Third" edition, Scotland, 1903–1912)[2] on the National Library of Scotland digital library (Maps).[3]

Services

References

Notes

Sources

• Butt, R. V. J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-508-7. OCLC 60251199. OL 11956311M.
• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Jowett, Alan (2000). Jowett's Nationalised Railway Atlas (1st ed.). Penryn, Cornwall: Atlantic Transport Publishers. ISBN 978-0-906899-99-1. OCLC 228266687.
• North British Railway 1896 Western, Monkland and West Highland working timetable
• Philpstoun station on navigable OS map