It's difficult to know where to begin when writing about the extraordinary situation at Altnabreac Station.

FoFNL, as an independent party, not involved in any way in the drama, cannot make any definite statements about the legal situation while proceedings are taking place.

The couple who own the former station house, Ian and Elizabeth Appleby, were charged in April 2024 with various criminal offences relating to incidents at the station. Surprisingly these charges have not been taken to trial so far.

Meanwhile, the Applebys have mounted a very public campaign on YouTube, to put what they describe as the truth in the public domain. They have also set up a GoFundMe page to raise money to cover their legal costs.

In November 2023 the organisations concerned, and several stakeholders including FoFNL, were invited to a meeting to understand the situation and to discuss how matters should proceed. Suffice to say that the background information given at that meeting was very clear and bears little resemblance to the statements made by the Applebys in their YouTube videos.

The aim of the videos is to convince viewers of the strength of their case. The content includes several discussions with rail staff and members of the British Transport Police. For us to be convinced we need to hear both sides of the argument clearly but this is too much for the Applebys, they just talk/shout over the visitors, presumably so we can't hear what's being said.

In conclusion it's hard to imagine how anyone buying a disused station house on a working station could possibly imagine that no railway staff or equipment would ever have to access the site. It's also very hard to understand what the Applebys are trying to achieve. Given that they use the railway themselves, keeping the station open must be important to them.

Mysteriously, all the station equipment has been cleared from the platform and placed in or behind the wooden waiting shelter which has been boarded up.

ScotRail tells us that it wishes to reopen the station as soon as possible, but to do so requires access to replace the missing equipment and install the Request to Stop kiosk. In future power will be provided by a solar array combined with storage batteries and a backup generator.

Thousands of pounds worth of equipment, shown in these pictures, is currently languishing on railway premises elsewhere, waiting to be installed at the station so it can open again.