Glengonnar Halt Station

This station, between Leadhills, in Lanarkshire, and Wanlockhead, in Dumfries  and Galloway,  is the highest point on the Leadhills  and Wanlockhead narrow gauge railway. This is currently  a tourist railway but it used to be part of a commercially important railway, for both freight (usually  lead ) and passengers. Before it closed, it formed part of the highest standard gauge railway  in the UK. It was a branch of the Caledonian Railway.

The passenger trains on this railway operated in a very unusual manner. There were few stations, and passengers could request entry to or exit from the train at any point. Folding steps would be lowered by the guard to allow this to be done safely. The few stations  along the line never had platforms,  and steps would be provided by the station porter. Being built as a “light railway,” the maximum speed was limited to 20 mph.

Whilst the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales is higher than this line, it operates on a rack-and-pinion system rather than relying on frictional adhesion between the locomotive  wheels and the track. This line, short as it is, is the highest adhesion  railway in the British Isles.

The original railway closed in 1938 and the current line was re-laid as a 2ft gauge railway in 1986. There are currently  plans to (eventually) extend the line back into Wanlockhead village. Part of the delay is due to red tape arising  from the line crossing  into a different county. The station is in a moorland region intersected by numerous  streams that are commonly  the site for amateur gold hunters to pan for gold in the sediments. On summer weekends the moorlands are often a hive of gold panning activity. 

This is not exactly  a preserved railway as it was reconstructed  from the track bed up and most of the infrastructure  has had a previous life. For example the coaches were all built on under frames of rolling stock from a railway previously used to transport extracted peat. Currently the railway operates 4 historic  diesel locomotives whilst its only steam engine is under restoration.