| Helmsdale | |||||||||
| Native Name: | Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic: Bun Ilidh[1] | ||||||||
| Symbol Location: | gb | ||||||||
| Symbol: | rail | ||||||||
| Borough: | Helmsdale, Highland | ||||||||
| Country: | Scotland | ||||||||
| Coordinates: | 58.1177°N -3.659°W | ||||||||
| Grid Name: | Grid reference | ||||||||
| Manager: | ScotRail | ||||||||
| Platforms: | 2 | ||||||||
| Code: | HMS[2] | ||||||||
| Original: | Duke of Sutherland's Railway | ||||||||
| Pregroup: | Highland Railway | ||||||||
| Postgroup: | London, Midland and Scottish Railway British Railways | ||||||||
| Events1: | Opened as terminus | ||||||||
| Years2: | 28 July 1874 | ||||||||
| Events2: | Altered to through station | ||||||||
| Footnotes: | Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road | ||||||||
| Embedded: |
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Helmsdale railway station is a railway station serving the village of Helmsdale in the Highland council area, northern Scotland. It is located on the Far North Line, between Brora and Kildonan, 101miles from Inverness.[4] ScotRail, who manage the station, operate all services.
The Duke of Sutherland's Railway had opened between and (near Gartymore) on 1 November 1870.[5] Extensions of this line southward to and northward to Helmsdale were opened on 19 June 1871.[6] The station buildings were designed by the architect William Fowler.
Another company, the Sutherland and Caithness Railway (S&CR), was authorised on 13 July 1871 to take over the powers of the projected Caithness Railway and link Helmsdale with that line at, and the S&CR opened on 28 July 1874.
The station master's house on the platform was abandoned in the 1980s. In 2013 it was refitted as self-catering holiday accommodation.[7]
On 29 April 1891 there was a collision between a down mixed train from Inverness which ran into an engine which had arrived earlier. Major Marindin of the Board of Trade investigated and found that the driver Robert Lindsay deliberately ignored the signals as he would have had difficulty in restarting the train on the rising gradient of 1 in 59.[8]
Both platforms have waiting areas and benches, whilst platform 2 also has a help point. Bike racks and a car park are adjacent to platform 2. There is step free access to platform 2 only; platform 1 can only be accessed via the footbridge.[9]
| Entries and exits | 3,972 | 3,513 | 3,514 | 4,456 | 5,348 | 5,646 | 5,680 | 5,656 | 6,086 | 5,828 | 5,778 | 5,096 | 6,204 | 5,768 | 4,636 | 5,044 | 5,086 | 564 | 3,168 | 3,484 |
Mondays to Saturdays, there are four train each way that call here - southbound to & and northbound to via Thurso. Sundays see a single departure each way.[11]