Helensburgh Upper is the first station on the West Highland Line after it diverges from the electrified Glasgow suburban rail network.
The Station has a very unprepossessing entrance and can be easily passed by people unaware of its existence below the main road.
Helensburgh is the largest town in Argyll and Bute, and is situated on the north bank of the Firth of Clyde. The town has many facilities including a wide range of restaurants, cafes, shops, hotels and guest houses. The ‘Hill House‘, designed by the famous Glasgow architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, is a five minute walk from Helensburgh Upper. Run by the National Trust for Scotland, the house is open in the afternoons from Easter to the end of October.
The town of Helensburgh, located on the north bank of the Firth of Clyde at the entrance to the Gare Loch, was founded in 1776 by Sir James Colquhoun of Luss and named in honour of his wife, Helen. The town is planned with a grid pattern of wide tree-lined streets.The first Provost of Helensburgh was Henry Bell, who introduced the first steamship in the world, the Comet, to sail from Glasgow to his hotel in Helensburgh. The Comet’s flywheel is on display on the East Bay promenade.
John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, was born in the town and is commemorated by a bust on the town’s seaside promenade.
(Helensburgh Central station, which is not on the West Highland Line, is a ten-minute walk from Helensburgh Upper station, and has a half-hourly service of electric trains from Glasgow). There are frequent services from Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverely to Helensburgh Central. This gives visitors to the West Highlands an opportunity to spend time, or an overnight stay before joining a West Highland Line service at Helensburgh Upper Station. It is off course even more convenient to do the transfer at Glasgow Queen Street if a stop over at Helensburgh is not contemplated.
After leaving Helensburgh the train takes approximately 12 minutes to pass along and above the Gare Loch to reach the next station at Garelochhead station.