Alloa Railway

The railway was authorised by the Alloa Railway Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. ccxiv) on 11 August 1879, it started from a new junction, Dunmore Junction, on the South Alloa branch of the Scottish Central Section of the Caledonian Railway (CR) located approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Alloa Junction. It was 3 miles (4.8 km) long, with a swing bridge over River Forth, and terminated at a piece of vacant ground in the town of Alloa, on the west side of the private road leading from Craigward Place to Bass Crest Brewery, about 230 metres short of the final point of termination.

From the beginning the CR supported the railway financially, they entered into agreements for the maintenance, management and working of the railway, and had those arrangements approved by the Caledonian Railway (Additional Powers) Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. c. clxxxviii). In 1884 the CR absorbed the Alloa Railway before the line had been completed. The Caledonian Railway (No. 1) Act 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. cxxix), which authorised the absorption of the Alloa Railway, also provided for an extension of one furlong one chain and eleven yards (231 metres) from the planned terminus in Alloa so that the line now terminated on the western side of Glasshouse Loan.

The NBR made full use of the running powers, which gave it a viable route from Perth to Glasgow avoiding the Caledonian, except where it had running powers (between Perth and Hilton Junction and over the Alloa bridge section). Express passenger and goods services were brought over the line. Use of the route by NBR goods trains was especially heavy between the opening of the (Second) Tay Bridge and the opening of the Forth Bridge, for services from Dundee southwards.

During the First World war Bandeath Munitions Depot was established on the peninsula to the west of the swing bridge, it had rail access from a junction to the south of the bridge, between it and Throsk station.

British Railways added a second connection from Longcarse Junction to Alloa Marshalling Yard (parallel with the S&D line) in 1957. This made the turntable at Alloa passenger station redundant.