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Cambus Loop

The re-opened railway line between Stirling and Alloa is used by an hourly passenger service and lengthy coal trains between Hunterston, Ayrshire, and Longannet power station, Fife, the number of the latter depending on the time of the year and electricity requirements. The line is mainly single track but there is a double-track section for about a mile north of Stirling and half-mile long loops east and west of Alloa. In this view, taken from the level crossing in Station Road, Cambus, 4½ miles from Stirling according to the yellow milepost, the start of the Cambus Loop can be seen in the distance. Its other end is marked by two red signal lights in the far distance. Trains would normally use the right-hand, straight track in both directions; the left-hand loop line would only be needed if trains had to pass one another. The gap in the fence on the right marks the former western entrance to Alloa New Yard, a relatively short-lived marshalling yard opened in the early 1960s but virtually disused by the 1980s. The timbering in the foreground is intended to prevent cats, dogs and humans straying off the road and along the railway.