This book is a guide to many of Scotland’s railway stations, from Aberdeen in the northwest to Wick in the far north, from Dumfries in the southwest to Fort William in the West Highlands, and providing essential information for travellers and describing points of interest around them.

Published in October 2017 by Northern Books and compiled by Famedram Publishers, this soft-cover book measures around 190 mm x 255 mm, has 240 pages and over 450 photographs, and a published price of £14.99.

The book is a gazetteer describing the “What, Where, and Why” of 104 of Scotland’s railway stations, each supported by several mainly colour photographs. “What” states the name of the station, “Where” details the station’s postcode and region of Scotland, and “Why” describes how to find the station, nearby points of interest, the station’s history and current train services, and the distance to several main destinations.

An excellent introduction reveals it is an update of earlier editions and describes the background of the book.

It also expands on descriptions in the gazetteer section to provide further insight into the reasons why the character of some stations has changed so dramatically.

The following descriptions of 104 of Scotland’s stations are arranged in alphabetical order from Aberdeen to Wick, including oddities and rarely used stations such as Achanalt, Achnasheen, and Corrour, each with two pages illustrating and describing interesting facts about the stations.

Achanalt on the line to Kyle of Lochalsh must be a contender for one of Britain’s oddest stations. Access to the station is through a farmyard, and the only station building is a shed made from concrete blocks.

Banavie on the line from Fort William to Mallaig provides access to the Caledonian Canal, and is probably the only reason anyone would wish to visit the station.

Dunrobin Castle, between Inverness and Wick, is another of Scotland’s unusual stations. Opened by the Duke of Sutherland to serve his personal line from Golspie to West Helmsdale. The station didn’t become part of the national railway network until 1985.

By comparison with the previous examples, Glasgow Queen Street is a behemoth, yet the number of its train services is dwarfed by Glasgow’s other great station, Glasgow Central.

The photographs below are historical, as they come from the time when diesel trains such as these belched exhaust fumes into the atmosphere.

They have now been superseded by electric units, consigning choking exhaust fumes from the diesel units to an unpleasant memory.

At first sight, white text on black pages seemed strange, but on getting into the book, it seemed quite appropriate. This is a splendid volume with brief stories of the sometimes-unknown history of stations throughout Scotland, supported by superb illustrations.

Thumbing through the pages feels like a modern-day version of Bradshaw, so-loved by Michael Portillo, especially the background information about the stations that the compilers have titled “Guidelines”.

For some of the remote stations in the Highlands, it would have been useful to include a Grid Reference as well as a postcode, especially as travellers are more likely to carry OS maps that give no indication of postcodes.

The book covers just under one-third of Scotland’s stations, and the many stations with quirky and unusual features is a revelation that will bring out the wanderlust in readers.

The book is clearly written, and besides being a gazetteer, it is a travelogue that is both immersive and informative with a wealth of historical data.

At £14.99 for a 240-page book with 450 photographs, this must be one of the best-value railway-themed books on the market and fully deserves a rating of 5/5.

The book is available to purchase from Northern Books and from Amazon.

We would like to thank Northern Books for providing RailAdvent with a copy of the book for review.