Return to Inverkeilor

43132/137 approach Inverkeilor with 1A35 from Glasgow Queen Street (08.40) to Aberdeen

Four years after my only previous visit, and an autumn break in the Scottish capital gives me the perfect excuse (on 11 November 2025) to take a bargain-priced (£14.30) 90-minute trip aboard one of the wonderful ScotRail Inter7City HSTs to Arbroath, then a short bus ride north to the village of Inverkeilor, to capture the railway scene at this photogenic location.

Inverkeilor has been without a railway station since September 1930, but is one of ten locations along the East Coast Main Line in Scotland to retain mechanical signalling, with its 1881 North British Railway signal box controlling four semaphore arms, all of which can be seen from an over-bridge in Station Road.

43132/137 pass Inverkeilor Signal Box with 1A35 from Glasgow Queen Street (08.40) to Aberdeen

As I wrote after my only previous visit in June 2021, finest of the four semaphores controlled from Inverkeilor Signal Box’s 22-lever frame is down home signal IK12, a tall lattice post to the south of the box, with the other two most visible from Station Road being down section signal IK11, closest to the bridge, and up home IK6.

43124/146 speed towards signal IK11 with 1A79 from Edinburgh Waverley (09.30) to Aberdeen

Almost out of sight from Station Road is the fourth semaphore, up section signal IK7, which can be seen from the A92 as the road crosses the line through an under-bridge south of the village and signal box, though there does not seem to have be any accessible vantage point nearby for photos.

In dismal wet weather 43125/033 pass Inverkeilor Signal Box with 1B78 from Aberdeen (11.01) to Edinburgh Waverley

Daytime passenger traffic passing Inverkeilor comprises ScotRail Inter7City 2+4 HST and 2+5 sets, working between Aberdeen, Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley, interspersed with occasional Class 170 units, along with LNER Azuma Class 80x sets on Aberdeen-London King’s Cross services and a single Class 221 XC Voyager from Aberdeen to Plymouth.

LNER 800102 passes Inverkeilor with 1W02 from Leeds (07.08) to Aberdeen

Freight action along this stretch of the ECML is very limited, and I had not seen any non-passenger workings on my 2021 visit. Alas I had no more luck on this occasion, when the semi-regular trainload of cement tankers that run from Oxwellmains Lafarge (near Dunbar) to Craiginches at Aberdeen was cancelled again, despite having run the previous day.

170430 passes signal IK6 with 1T34 from Aberdeen (11.37) to Glasgow Queen Street

This is a marvellous spot from which to appreciate and photograph the extensive use of HSTs by ScotRail, with a total of five Inter7City sets passing Inverkeilor in the first hour of my recent visit, powered by 43132/137 (1A35), 43124/146 (1A79), 43151/147 (1T30), 43145/142 (1A37), 43125/033 (1B78).

Operating in place of the booked HST 170426 passes Inverkeilor with 1A39 from Glasgow Queen Street (10.41) to Aberdeen

Of the ten remaining outposts of mechanical signalling between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Inverkeilor is one of only three that is not close to an open passenger station, the other two being Craigo – easily reachable by bus from Montrose, and Carmont, which requires the rail-borne enthusiast to take a taxi from Stonehaven.

For anyone tempted to pay a visit, Inverkeilor is just off the A92 trunk road, roughly mid-way between Arbroath and Montrose, and can be easily reached from Arbroath by taking a very short walk from the railway station to the bus station and then a 10-15 minute £3.50 trip aboard a Stagecoach 30 or X7 bus, each of which runs hourly.