in 1951. The line arched round to the north-east and there was a station, alongside the canal and some distance north-east of the present-day station. This location was near the head of the series of locks known as Neptune's Staircase by which the canal rises 20 m and a transfer siding adjacent to the canal needed to climb by a 1 in 24 gradient to reach a backshunt. Crianlarich connection It had always been intended to make a connecting line with the Callander and Oban line of the Caledonian Railway at Crianlarich, where the two lines crossed. The Caledonian Railway had earlier been suspicious of the motives of the North British Railway in this regard; the distance from Glasgow to Crianlarich was substantially shorter by the West Highland Railway and at the Parliamentary stage the West Highland Railway (seen as the creature of the NBR) had applied for running powers to Oban. The original design of the WHR station at Crianlarich would have allowed through running from Glasgow to Oban via the West Highland, but this was not implemented. The Caledonian Railway suggested a joint station that would have allowed both routes (from Stirling or from Helensburgh) access to both destinations (Oban and Fort William, and there was a proposal that passenger trains from Central Scotland by both routes should combine at Crianlarich and then divide with portions for both Oban and Fort William. Cattle and other traffic from Lochaber destined for Stirling and Perth were intended to be transferred, but the connection was not made ready until 20 December 1897 and in the meantime that traffic had to be routed via Glasgow. It was complained that this extra mileage was more profitable to the NBR. From 1962 until 1971 a Swindon-built cross-country DMU, normally used on the Aberdeen to Inverness main line, was transferred in the summer months to work a daily round trip from Glasgow Queen Street station to Oban via this connection. It was joined from late 1965 by all Glasgow to Oban trains, re-routed following closure of the Dunblane to Crianlarich route - initially by a landslide in Glen Ogle but officially from April 1966 as part of the so called Beeching cuts. Financial performance With no through trains to Oban and a very limited 'residential' traffic to Garelochhead, the income on which the finances of the line had been based were out of reach. The