Westerton railway station is a railway station that serves the Westerton district in the town of Bearsden

Bearsden

Bearsden ) is a town in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the northwestern fringe of Greater Glasgow, approximately from the City Centre, and is effectively a suburb, with housing development coinciding with the introduction of a railway line in 1863, and from where the town gets its name...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

The station is served by First ScotRail

First ScotRail

ScotRail Railways Ltd. is the FirstGroup-owned train operating company running domestic passenger trains within Scotland, northern England and the cross-border Caledonian Sleeper service to London using the brand ScotRail which is the property of the Scottish Government...

 as part of the SPT

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport

The Strathclyde Partnership for Transport is a public body which is responsible for planning and co-ordinating regional transport, and especially the public transport system, in the Strathclyde area of western Scotland...

 network. It is located on the Argyle Line

Argyle Line

The Argyle Line is a suburban railway located in West Central Scotland. It connects the Lanarkshire towns of Lanark, Larkhall and Motherwell to West Dunbartonshire via central Glasgow using sub-surface running...

, 8 kilometres (5 mi) west of Glasgow Central and the North Clyde Line

North Clyde Line

The North Clyde Line is a suburban railway in West Central Scotland. The route is operated by First ScotRail, on behalf of Transport Scotland...

 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of Glasgow Queen Street.

The station lies very close to the Forth and Clyde Canal

Forth and Clyde Canal

The Forth and Clyde Canal crosses Scotland, providing a route for sea-going vessels between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. The canal is 35 miles long and its eastern end is connected to the River Forth by a short stretch of the River...

 and the boundary between East Dunbartonshire

East Dunbartonshire

This article is about the East Dunbartonshire council area of Scotland. See also East Dunbartonshire .East Dunbartonshire is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders onto the north-west of the City of Glasgow. It contains many of the suburbs of Glasgow as well as containing many of...

 and the city of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

.

Signalling

Westerton signal box

Signal box

On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...

, which was situated in the vee of the junction

Junction (rail)

A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge.This implies a physical connection between the tracks of the two routes , 'points' and signalling.one or two tracks each meet at a junction, a fairly simple layout of tracks suffices to...

 immediately to the west of the station, opened in 1900 as "Milngavie Junction". Renamed "Westerton" on 10 May 1959, the box was provided with a new frame

Lever frame

Mechanical railway signalling installations rely on lever frames for their operation to interlock the signals and points to allow the safe operation of trains in the area the signals control...

 of 20 levers and took over control of Knightswood North Junction (about a quarter mile east of the station). Colour light signals

Railway signal

A signal is a mechanical or electrical device erected beside a railway line to pass information relating to the state of the line ahead to train/engine drivers. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly...

 replaced the semaphores.

Westerton signal box closed on 21 October 1990 under a subsequent resignalling scheme that saw control of the whole North Clyde Line transferred to Yoker Signalling Centre.

Services

Monday to Saturday daytimes eight trains per hour go eastbound. Four towards Glasgow Queen Street and beyond on the North Clyde Line and four towards Glasgow Central and beyond ( and ) on the Argyle Line. Westbound trains head towards , and .

Evenings and Sundays a there are regular trains towards Glasgow eastbound and Milngavie, Balloch or Helensburgh

Helensburgh Central railway station

Helensburgh Central railway station serves the town of Helensburgh on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, near to Glasgow, Scotland. The station is a terminus on the North Clyde Line, north west of Glasgow Queen Street railway station...

 westbound.

Westerton is also served by the overnight Sleeper service

Caledonian Sleeper

The Caledonian Sleeper is a sleeper train service operated by First ScotRail and one of only two remaining sleeper services running on the railways of Great Britain, the other being the Night Riviera....

 to and from Fort William

Fort William, Scotland

Fort William is the second largest settlement in the highlands of Scotland and the largest town: only the city of Inverness is larger.Fort William is a major tourist centre with Glen Coe just to the south, Aonach Mòr to the north and Glenfinnan to the west, on the Road to the Isles...

 and London Euston (Sundays-Fridays only).