British Railways The First 25 Years Volume 17: Scotland – Ex-Highland Railway Lines

In 1845 the Great North of Scotland Railway was formed to build a line from Aberdeen to Inverness. However, it was not until 1856 that Keith, the half-way point, was reached. Earlier there was a proposal to build a direct line south from Inverness but it failed to secure parliamentary sanction. This left the compromise of building east from Inverness to meet the GNoSR at Keith. It began with the Inverness & Nairn Railway which completed the 15 miles to Nairn in 1855. Further east, the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway reached Keith in 1858. This gave Inverness a through line to the south, but it was circuitous and involved an inconvenient change of stations at Aberdeen. Inverness had not given up on a direct line south and the first step was the construction of the Perth & Dunkeld Railway, a branch from Stanley Junction to Dunkeld that opened in 1856. Next, the Inverness & Perth Junction Railway completed a line from Dunkeld to Forres in 1863. At the same time, plans were developing to build from Inverness to the far north. The Inverness & Ross-shire Railway was completed to Invergordon in 1863 and to Bonar Bridge in 1864. It merged with the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway in 1862 after the latter had absorbed the Inverness & Nairn. In June 1865 the Highland Railway was formed by the amalgamation of the Inverness & Aberdeen and the Inverness & Perth Junction Railways. The Sutherland Railway built the line from Bonar Bridge to Golspie in 1868, and the Duke of Sutherland financed construction on to Helmsdale. The Sutherland & Caithness Railway opened the final stretch to Wick and Thurso in 1874. The final improvement came in 1898 with the Inverness and Aviemore Direct Line, reducing the Inverness-Perth mileage and included the climb to Slochd Summit. The other main route was from Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh. The Dingwall & Skye Railway opened to Strome Ferry in 1870 but the last section to Kyle was not opened until 1897. We begin our journey at Perth General passing through Stanley Junction and on to Ballinluig Junction taking the branch to Aberfeldy before returning to the main line over Druimuachdar Summit up to Aviemore and then over Slochd summit to Inverness. We explore the station, its shed and works, before travelling to Forres and Keith. Returning to Inverness we head north to Dingwall and The Mound and down the branch to Dornoch. We resume our journey north to Helmsdale and Georgemas Junction and on to Wick and Thurso. Finally, we return to Dingwall and travel down to Kyle of Lochalsh. At nationalisation in January 1948, only twenty-nine locomotives built by the Highland Railway had survived. Motive power on the main line had been in the hands of LM&SR Class ‘5’ 4-6-0s since the mid-1930s and around the same time Caledonian Railway 4-4-0s had taken over the lighter duties from the Highland engines with Caledonian tanks working the branch lines. Dieselisation began in 1960 when BR Sulzer Type ‘2’s arrived and were soon followed by BRC&W Type ‘2’s. Although all of the branches have long gone, the Perth-Inverness-Wick/Thurso and the Kyle of Lochalsh lines survived the Beeching axe and remain open today.

British Railways The First 25 Years Volume 17: Scotland – Ex-Highland Railway Lines - Sample Images