24 hours at Gorton Loop

To the north of Bridge of Orchy, 37409 powers 1Y11 0505 Edinburgh to Fort William portion of the Euston to Inverness/Aberdeen/Fort William sleeper.

156462 passes milepost 51 1/4 about a mile further on from the photo of the sleeper. This is 1Y42 0610 Mallaig to Glasgow Queen Street. This is the first up train of the day.

37419 could be heard a good distance away growling against the 1 in 66 pull towards Crannach Forest deep on Rannoch Moor. The train is 6Y45, 0636 Mossend to Fort William Enterprise, made up of cargo wagons and empty OTA timber wagons.

Deep in Crannach Forest 156492 and 156453 rattle over Barravourich Viaduct which spans a deep gully cut by Allt na Crannaich. Their train is 1Y41 0812 Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig. All trains reverse at Fort William.

Having arrived at Gorton Loop after a 5 hour walk from Bridge of Orchy and first up is 37602 heading north through the loop with 7Y15 0845 TThO Coatbridge to Fort William empty aluminium flats.

This is a Freightliner turn and they have several EPS owned class 37/6's on hire to cover this turn. The weather was perfect and the distant hills are clear on this sunny day.

Snow still lies in sheltered gullies on the distant mountains, 156445 and 156436 run through Gorton Loop with 1Y34 1030 Mallaig to Crianlarich wherer it will join with the Oban train.

A north bound train passes the stop board for any south bound train that only has a short token from Rannoch to Gorton. 156495 is working 1Y43 1439 from Crianlarich to Mallaig. Note the base of the up starter signal post in the bottom left of the shot.

A pair of type 3 locos in EWS and InterCity liveries pass over the turnout at the north end of the loop. 37114 and 37152 front 7D60 1430 Fort William Yard to Mossend Yard Enterprise working.

The late afternoon sun glints off the centre windscreen of 37114. The line is on a falling gradient of 1 in 279 in the up direction.

A view of the loop which shows the remains of the platform which once had a grounded coach body on it that formed a school for the children of lineside families in the 1930's. The rubble to the left is the remains of the signalbox that stood guard over the loop. In amongst the rubble is the rusted remains of a signal arm. 156453 passes by with 1Y48 1610 from Mallaig to Crianlarich. The hill in the background is un-named.

The southbound empty Alumina tanks rumble through Gorton behind ETH fitted 37409 in Transrail branding. The train is 6E16 1811 Fort William Alcan Works to Bedlington.

A down train from Glasgow Queen Street, 1812 off, runs through the loop. 156485 has split from the Oban portion to form 1Y47 2015 to Mallaig arriving at 2330. My green tent can be seen in front of the unit.

The sun had dropped below the hills 10 minutes before 37419 came by with 1B01 1950 Fort William to Edinburgh portion of the London Euston sleeper. The ambient light is sufficient to take the shot as the Summer Solstice is just four days away.

The next day dawns overcast and slightly damp, 37419 could be heard for ages before coming into view with the first down working of the day, 1Y11 0505 Edinburgh to Fort William. I had several cheery waves from some of the passengers. 18/6/1999

156495 returns south with the first up working of the day, 1Y42 0610 off Mallaig to Glasgow Queen Street. This train doesn't join the Oban unit at Crianlarich.

Nothing stops at Gorton Loop, or so I thought. 37165 came to a stand at Gorton to drop off a Signals and Telegraph engineer to test the turnouts and telephone in one of the sheds. The working is 6Y45 0636 Mossend to Fort William Enterprise and it is recorded getting away from its unusual stop.

After the S&T engineer had carried out his checks and he and I chatted in the green hut, 156482 and 156445 stopped to uplift him. The train is 1Y41 0810 from Glasgow Queen Street to Mallaig. During the brief pause here, most of the amazed passengers waved to me probably thinking "look at that nutter out here in the middle of nowhere!!"

On the 9 mile walk from Gorton to Rannoch, 156485 and 156492 run south at milepost 59 1/2 with 1Y34 1030 Mallaig to Glasgow Queen Street. This is about 2 miles from Gorton.

To the north of Gorton, about halfway to Rannoch, 37602 returns from Fort William with its wagons loaded with aluminium slabs for Coatbridge. It is 7D54 1158 MWFO off Fort William Alcan Works. The wagons will go south on another Freightliner working.

156467 passes the board indicating the site of the famous Soldiers Trenches cut by English Soldiers in 1745 after the Jacobian Uprising. The trenches survive as water filled ditches mainly to the right of the shot. The railway actually cuts across the feature which is easily missed if the sign is not spotted.

To the south of Rannoch, near milepost 62 1/2, 37423 and 37419 slug their heavy train of 9 ferry wagons loaded with paper up the 1 in 60 gradient on Rannoch Moor. The working is 7D60 1430 Fort William to Mossend Enterprise. The next stop for me was Rannoch station and the train back to Bridge of Orchy and the drive home.

Almost 7 years later on 26/5/2006, just before the class 37's came off the sleeper turn, I rode to Fort William on the sleeper portion. 37401 passes Gorton Loop as seen from the back of the four coach train 1Y11 0450 Edinburgh - Fort William.

The tall North British Railway signalbox stood in this spot and controlled the sections to the south and north, the rubble from its demolition lies out of shot to the left. The signalman's families lived in houses beside the line situated just beyond the stop board.

Gorton Loop as seen from the back of the north bound sleeper.

Gorton Loop is reached and the track levels out for a stretch. The platform in the foreground once held a coach body that was used in the 1930's as a school for the children who lived trackside. Today the school and the pupils are long gone.

To the left of roughly where the locos are can be found the foundations of the two houses that once stood here for the signalmen who worked this lonely outpost. At least any kids didn't have far to go to school.

Looking back on the loop and to the right behind the sign is the rubble from the signalbox, including the remains of a signal arm. In June 1999 I spent 24 hours here because I could! See http://www.jules-merlin27.com/Trains/24-hours-at-Gorton-Loop/ and also April 2000 edition of Railway Magazine.