The Friends of the Far North Line - FNE 81

This is a companion page to Far North Express 81, September 2020.

Links mentioned in the magazine and some extra material:

Pandora - P4

Pandora talks about Transport Scotland's Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan. A copy is on our website here.

Freight Lines - P16

Timber Trial - P14

Victa Railfreight

Two atmospheric photos by Peter Moore:

Two 37s leaving Helmsdale - Aug 2020

Big Beast arriving at Rogart - Sept 2020

A couple more taken on 4 August by Niall Laybourne who's photos illustrated the timber trial feature:

37516 leads the c.480 tonnes of timber South, passing Achentoul

The locos lead their train through the large S-curve south of Kinbrace, crossing the River Helmsdale

An excellent selection of photos taken on 11/12 August by Arran Aird:

Mobile crane at work loading at Georgemas

Wider view of loading at Georgemas

This view makes you appreciate the number of lorry loads that would have been needed

This is what railways do so well!

Churchill Barriers 75th Anniversary - P21

One of the many locos used

Concrete blocks being cast in the yard

Dalmore Mystery Solved - P22

North Eastern Railway Association

Hull & Barnsley Railway G3 0-6-0T No.146 and unidentified 0-4-0ST at Dalmore Distillery. [NH 89505 courtesy of the U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command]

Hull & Barnsley Railway G3 0-6-0T No.146 at Darlington North Eastern Railway Works in 1922, having had its number restored.

Royal Train From Invershin - P23

LNWR No. 5154 Photo: NRM, Shildon - Creative Commons Licence

No 5154 LMR first brake on Winchester City - Wolverton ECS at Clapham Jnc. 12 May 1965, note signal box, the supporting structure partially collapsed two days previously.

LMS Stanier Royal Saloon No.798 at the Glasgow Transport Museum; 03/07. Photo: Hugh Llewelyn/CC BY-SA

St Valery Remembered - P29

The murals at Invergordon Station are only part of the mural story of the town:

The Murals of Invergordon - Amusing Planet

Looking out through the entrance

A Quite Impossible Proposal - P28

Andrew Drummond.
Birlinn
ISBN 978-1-912476-88-6
274pp. £18.99 [Pub. date 24-09-20]

FNE 81 contains a review of this book. Because it is not a typical "Railway Book" it is worth placing the back cover text here, as it gives an excellent summary of the contents.

Anyone struggling with understanding Scotland's current place in the UK will gain many insights from this book. It is a classic example of how the belief that "History is in the past, so I'm not interested" is so wrong. Many aspects of where we are now trace their origins to the issues covered and, more especially, the way those issues were tackled by government.

"In the 1890s, the people of north-west Scotland grew tired of government commissions sent to consider a railway to Ullapool. Despite solid arguments in favour of such a railway, and against the recommendations of its own advisers, the Scottish Office dismissed the project as 'a quite impossible proposal'. In 1918, history repeated itself with another commission and another failure to build railways in the region. This book tells the whole sorry tale of the many attempts to improve transportation in the north-west Highlands, set against the region's socio-economic problems and civil unrest in the crofting communities. It features stories, facts and figures unearthed from a wide range of archives, including plans of the hoped-for railways."

"This story is not just about the railways that were never built. It is about the frustrations of local people in the face of government incompetence, railway-company obstructionism and petty rivalries, and about the struggle against the historical injustice of landownership."