Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway

The Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway was opened in 1858 to connect Callander and Doune with the Scottish railway network. When promoters wished to make a connection to Oban, Callander was an obvious place to start, and from 1880 Callander was on the main line to Oban. The railway network was reduced in the 1960s and the line closed in 1965. Oban is now served by a different route.

The Scottish Central Railway obtained its Act of Incorporation on 1 July 1845, the same day as the Caledonian Railway. The two railways connected end-on at Greenhill Junction, and together (when they were completed) would connect Carlisle and Perth, and with other railways London and Aberdeen were to be brought into the network.

During the long process of planning their lines, the promoters came to see that extension of their railways would be beneficial, and lucrative, and already in 1845 there was talk of extending through Callander to Dalwhinnie. In the same year the Stirling, Callander and Tillicoultry Railway published a prospectus, with glowing and exaggerated descriptions of the towns this ambitious east-west line would serve, but it came to nothing.

The benefits to townspeople of a railway connection were plain to see, in greatly reduced cost of commodities like coal and lime (for agriculture) and for the delivery of manufactured products, and the residents of Doune and Callander—a weaving village with a population of 1,671 in 1861—considered how they could get a railway branch line. The topography was well suited for that: the Royal Burgh of Dunblane lay ten miles (16 km) to the east along the valley of the River Teith.

In 1846 the Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway was promoted, with a more moderate line from Dunblane. This scheme obtained its Act of Parliament on 16 July 1846, with authorised capital of £80,000, and power to lease the line to the Scottish Central. However the year 1846 was a time when capital for railway schemes suddenly became impossible to find, and notwithstanding support from local business people, not enough money was put forward to make the line, and the scheme was dropped.

The Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway scheme was revived in 1856, when an Act of 21 July authorised the scheme, this time with capital of £60,000. The Scottish Central was anxious to encourage a line that might be a launching pad for entry to the highland areas as yet unserved by railway connection, and it subscribed £13,400.

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