Most journeys involve busy main line stations with all the facilities or identikit suburban stations for commuting. However, despite the closure of local lines and stations, there remain quite a few rural stations where the rush hour is when you turn up. This is our collection of unusual and barely used stations in the UK and abroad. A little bit of research and these wayside stations are ideal for starting or finishing walks, and for reaching decent pubs.
UK – Scotland
Duirinish (Highland), is a request halt on Kyle of Lochalsh line, visited in 2012. Forcing a train to stop, just by holding out your hand as it approaches, gives a feeling of power.
I tried to buy a ticket from here back to the next station, Plockton, where my return to Inverness kicked in, but the conductor decided to give me a free ride. A Duirinish to Plockton single would have been one for the collection.
Lochailort (Highland), is a halt on the Fort William – Mallaig line. The nearby Lochailort Hotel has on display (or had in 2012) an Ordnance Survey map of the area, showing the railway line under construction. For the journey to Lochailort see JOURNEYS SCOTLAND Knoydart
A view from the end of the platform at Rannoch (Perth and Kinross), on the West Highland line from Glasgow to Fort William, taken in 2015 while waiting for a pleasant hour for the connecting Broon’s Bus to Kinloch Rannoch.
UK – England
Glaisdale (North Yorkshire), is on the Esk Valley line from Middlesbrough to Whitby, start and finish of walks we took in 2014. It boasts two platforms, as it is a passing place for trains, though the line virtually never has more than one train on it. For walks from the Esk Valley line see WALKSNortheast England And Scotland 2020 .
Foxfield (Cumbria) is a request stop (with a pub across the road) on the Cumbrian Coast line from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness. For our visit to the area see Broughton in Furness .
This is the upper station on the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, where the funicular awaits you to plummet down to Low Town. For more on this trip and our visit to Shropshire see Shropshire .
This is Berney Arms (Norfolk), on one of the Norwich – Great Yarmouth lines, pictured in 1997, which sees a few trains stop on request each Sunday. The nearby pub, now closed, was only accessible by foot, train or boat.
Avoncliff (Wiltshire) is a request stop between Bath and Westbury, which has the distinction of being located beneath a canal aqueduct. There’s a decent pub across the aqueduct as well.
Dilton Marsh (Wiltshire) is a halt on the Westbury to Salisbury line. Its’ claim to fame is that John Betjeman wrote a poem about it. Today you pay the conductor after boarding but previously tickets were available from ‘the seventh house up the hill’. For our visit to Avoncliff and Dilton Marsh see Wiltshire and Somerset .
Another station named after a pub – the only building nearby, which was closed on a Sunday lunchtime when we tried to visit – Portsmouth Arms (Devon) is on the line from Exeter to Barnstaple. More on our 2018 trip to Devon at Cornwall and Devon.
Of these stations the least used (2023-24 figures) are Berney Arms, Portsmouth Arms and Duirinish, used by an estimated 800, 802 and 812 passengers respectively during the year. Out of 2585 National Rail stations they are the 2546th, 2544th and 2542nd busiest stations on the network. So there are plenty more obscure stations to visit. (figures from the Office of Rail and Road Estimates of Station Usage 2023-24, at http://www.dataportal.orr.gov.uk ).
UK – Stations on reopened railway lines
By way of contrast here a few stations with growing numbers of passengers, on reopened railway lines. Though these are branch lines, all have been successful in attracting new users to the railway.
Tweedbank station (Scottish Borders) opened in 2015 as the terminus of the Borders Railway in Scotland, the longest reopened line in the UK for many years. When we visited a few weeks after it opened there were some local people on the return journey to Edinburgh who had never been on a train before. They enjoyed the journey but stayed on the train at Edinburgh waiting to return rather than face the terrors of the big city. Also in Scotland, the Levenmouth link in Fife reopened in 2024, with Leven station on a new site.
This is Okehampton station in Devon which was only used on summer Sundays for many years. The line reopened fully with regular services in 2021 and we visited in 2023.
In early 2025 we visited the newly reopened station Ashington in Northumberland.
Back to obscure stations:
Of course, unusual stations away from the main line are not confined to the UK. Here are a few examples from our travels abroad.
Austria
Postlingberg is the terminus of a tram line which climbs a hill on the edge of the city of Linz. Quite why a giant is trying to hitch a ride we don’t know. The second picture is Attersee station, terminus of a line from Vöcklamarkt. For some reason buffers have been dispensed with, though the wall remains standing, so the drivers must be well trained. Ramingstein is one of 33 stations and halts on the 64km line from Unzmarkt to Tamsweg. For our visits to these lines see JOURNEYS AUSTRIA Linz and Graz 2017 .
This is Wald im Pinzgau request halt on the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn between Zell am See and Krimml, together with the instructions inside the shed on how to stop a train. Our journey on this line is at Bergamo, Innsbruck and Salzburg .
Germany
Obstfelderschmiede station in Thüringen, Germany, where wagons could be transferred fro the railway line (foreground) to the funicular to Lichtenhain. More details at JOURNEYS GERMANY The Harz Mountains and Saxony 2016
Spain
O Barqueiro (Galicia) is on the narrow gauge FEVE line which runs along the north coast of Spain from Ferrol to Oviedo – two trains a day make the full journey. O Barqueiro is a lovely fising village…but not many visitors arrive by train. Our visit is described in JOURNEYS SPAIN Galicia .
Switzerland
St Saphorin, on the shore of Lake Geneva between Lausanne and Montreux is a typical country halt, though it is on a main line. The station is among the Lavaux vineyards and across the road from a cafe selling the local wine. Fast trains pass the narrow pl;atform frequently, but once an hour slow trains between Lausanne and Montreaux stop.
Cavaglia, is on the Bernina line from St Moritz to Tirano . It is the the only station listed here where we didn’t get off or on a train – we just like the photo. Just down the line a little Steve caused a train to screech to a halt at a request stop by mistaking the stop button from the one which opened the door to the next carriage.
Two pictures of Aareslucht Ost, one of the strangest stations on the planet, where a bear is waiting for a train. The station on the Meiringen – Innertkirchen railway is a door in the side of a cliff. It is a request stop – you press the button and the next train stops inside a tunnel, the door opens and you get on by the driver.
Go with Ted 