Two miles north-east of Gleneagles station on the route between Stirling and Perth, stands the 1895-vintage Auchterarder Signal Box, the third of four outposts of semaphore signalling on 20-miles of Scottish main line from remote Greenloaning near Dunblane, via Blackford and Auchterarder to Hilton Junction, just south of Perth.
While Gleneagles has long been the railhead for citizens of Auchterarder, and despite being some distance from the town, Auchterarder Signal Box is easy to find from the town’s lengthy High Street as there are prominent signs pointing the way to “Auchterarder Station” despite the station having closed in 1956!
Follow those signs for about a mile and you will reach a small industrial estate opposite the signal box, from where there are good views of trains passing three of the four semaphores controlled by Auchterarder Signal Box, with even better views to be had from a farm track over-bridge south-west of the box and former station site.
This trio comprises down (northbound) home signal AR5 and starter AR6 alongside a wooded area beyond the former station, while in the up direction you will see home signal AR14 close to AR6 and also mounted on a tall and impressive lattice post. Out of sight to the west is up starter AR12.
Regular weekday passenger services passing Auchterarder comprise hourly Glasgow-Dundee workings, normally formed of ScotRail Class 170 units, and longer distance Glasgow/Edinburgh-Aberdeen/Inverness services, many of which are operated by Inter7City 2+4 or 2+5 HST sets with others formed of Class 158 or 170 units.
Returning to Auchterarder on 13 March 2024 for the first time since my only previous visit in December 2016, little seemed to have changed, with it remaining a very peaceful and photogenic location from where to see the total of six passenger services passing each hour.
Getting to Auchterarder without a car meant an hour-long train ride from Edinburgh Waverley to Dunblane, then a short walk to the bus stop in Perth Road, from where I took a number 20 bus operated by Docherty’s Midland Coaches, with a very modest return fare of £4.15 for the 35-minute trip to Auchterarder High Street.
From here the signal box and Woodend over-bridge are a pleasant 20-minute walk away, by heading down Ruthven Street then following a path to the left that takes you under the A9 and on to a track that brings you to a road leading to the old station, with a right turn taking you to Woodend over-bridge.
There is a second over-bridge just west of this one from which there would be a view of signal AR12, but there was no obvious way of getting to it, so I instead walked back to the old station site, where there was the chance to get shots through the fence of northbound trains approaching the signal box.
Auchterarder is a pleasantly sleepy place but somewhere that seems devoid of any pub selling real ale. So for a welcome refresher on my return journey I stopped at the charming Riverside pub in Dunblane for an excellent pint of 5.1% Wilderness Ale from Loch Ness Brewery (£5.30)
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