Just before Christmas last year we heard that there was to be a three-week blockade of the Far North Line in June. My initial reaction was the obvious one - what an unfortunate choice of dates, just as the tourist season is getting into full swing.

In conversation with Network Rail it became clear that when planning major works involving disturbing the trackbed, and the use of heavy equipment, weather and daylight hours are the dominant factor.

In recent years we've been aware of the ongoing debate about blockade vs overnight/weekend closures. On this occasion it's hard to see how this work could've been done without closing the line - there would have been months, or possibly years, of disruption which would have done ridership figures no favours.

For us it meant moving our AGM & Conference either much later, or just into the school holidays. We chose 4 July - not as one member suggested, to avoid the risk of President Trump being around - but hoping that we wouldn't lose too many attendees as a result, whilst keeping to the usual time of year. For ScotRail it will have been a disappointing interruption to the tourist season, but definitely worth it in the long run.

In April I was invited by Heather Noller, Network Rail Scotland's Public Affairs Manager, to view the works in progress at Brora. This was a great opportunity to see the side of railway operations invisible to the public - even if it meant having to drive up from Glasgow because there were no trains!

Living so far from the line it is difficult to really get to know the line, except from inside the train, so I took the opportunity to stop off at a few places for a look round.

First of course I had to take my life in my hands and drive up the dreaded A9 to Inverness. The hype about dualling this road really is totally over the top - there's nothing unique to the A9 about dangerous overtaking. It would have been better to have spent a little of the planned £3,000m+ a long time ago, on making safe the dangerous junctions where many of the accidents happen, on this and other Scottish roads, and to have used the rest on genuinely necessary transport infrastructure, such as passing loops on the FNL and HML - the safe way to move people and freight.

My first stop was to have a look at the wonderful use that's been made of the handsome station building at Meikle Ferry. This station was open for only 4½ years, and was the terminus of the Far North Line for nine months until Bonar Bridge opened in October 1864. It closed on 1 January 1869 and became an inn, continuing as a place of refreshment right up to the present.

I was hoping for a cup of tea, so imagine my disappointment when I discovered that it was closed that afternoon, and in fact was due to close permanently a couple of weeks later. I had a long chat with the owner and another staff member, who I found sitting at a table outside. They were very disappointed to be closing down, but kindly allowed me a chance to look inside.

At the time of writing the building is awaiting a buyer - perhaps someone will follow Graham Rooney's lead in Tain and establish another fine restaurant there, to make up for the one which has been lost.

My next stop was Ardgay - another of the four remaining station buildings of my favourite design, the same as Meikle Ferry. Often described as Italianate, the fifth, Alness, was sadly lost to vandalism in the 1970s, the others are Kildary (closed) and Fearn. I was at Ardgay to see for myself the possibility of establishing step-free access to Platform 1, since wheelchair-bound local residents and visitors are currently unable to use this station. Like several others on the line, the attractive Highland Railway footbridge is in urgent need of repair and repainting. It is on Network Rail's list of projects and will cost around £170,000 to refurbish.

Since my visit we have learned that Network Rail has a planning application in to do major work on Platform 1, but inexplicably it does not include step-free access. We have challenged this.

From there I drove to Golspie, taking the road cut-off to Bonar Bridge. I had found an excellent B&B near Golspie station from where I would set off the next morning.

Whilst driving up I had received messages from BBC Scotland asking me to phone them. It turned out that they wanted me to do a radio spot on Good Morning Scotland about my visit to the NR work site and my views on the £11.5m investment. This was a great opportunity to publicly welcome the project and to express the hope that in the near future there would also be investment in some new infrastructure on the Far North Line. I was asked to phone the next morning at 06:20 to be interviewed. I assumed that the interview would be recorded for later use, so was surprised as I sat on the bed in my pyjamas and phoned, to be told, "As soon as the Indian gentleman has finished talking about yesterday's air crash you'll be on - can you hear him?" Luckily I'd jotted down lots of things I wanted to say on a row of paper scraps laid out on the bedside cabinet, so managed to cover most of them!

Arriving in Brora far too early for the 12:00 appointment with Network Rail, I headed off for a walk towards the sea, largely following the route of the erstwhile narrow gauge Brora Colliery Tramway, which terminated at the salt store and salt pans near the shore. A tourist information board explained that Salt Street [right], where I ended up, was once part of the tramway's route.

Once back, a quick phone call to Heather established where I would find the Network Rail team. NR had rented a farmer's field for the duration, to use as a store and base for operations. As expected, there were huge piles of ballast, new rails, old rails, new sleepers etc. This was the moment when I learned my first new fact of the day: the re-railing was using bullhead rail, except at crossings, where flat-bottomed was needed.

The section I was visiting was part of the shorter of the two stretches of work in the project. It involved renewing the rails and sleepers on a five mile stretch between Brora and Helmsdale, as well as replacing any damaged chairs. The cast iron chairs which fix the rails to the sleepers last a very long time. Many of those on this stretch showed dates from the 1930s in LMS days! If undamaged they were re-used, so will almost certainly reach their century very soon.

Once kitted out in safety gear, the visitors' party, which included a BBC Scotland film crew, and an observer from Transport Scotland, climbed aboard our transport which would take us the two miles to that day's work site. Our train was rather interesting, consisting of a road/rail vehicle with a grabber, used for heavy lifting, pulling a four-wheeled flat wagon with two cages mounted on it, in which we stood. Luckily the weather was excellent - the main hazard was sunburn.

On arrival we received a no-nonsense lecture about safety - always at the forefront of Network Rail's concerns, then we were shown what was involved in the actual work. This was when you could see the obvious - 60' long rails are heavy. Once in place they would be held together with pairs of fishplates (also known as 'splice bars' or 'joint bars'). Four bolts hold the fishplates through the rail, tightened using torque spanners.

It was interesting to see that railway work still requires much heavy manual labour, in spite of modern technology.

Whilst chatting to Heather on the return journey to the depot I discovered that she comes from a railway family from Doncaster - home of the LNER and where Flying Scotsman and Mallard were built. Her great-grandfather, Jack Mitchell, was employed at the works in the 1920s and 30s, when those famous locomotives were being constructed, and worked as an engine driver into BR days. Heather later sent me a photo of a newspaper cutting from 1948 when he had the honour of driving the Royal Train, saying "Network Rail is more than just a job for me really, I've always loved the railway."

The other work site was between Invergordon and Fearn, involving the complete replacement of nine miles of track. This will undoubtedly deliver a much smoother ride.

Network Rail's website gives an idea of what was achieved during the blockade:

"A team of specialist engineers carried out the work using traditional track-laying techniques, changing thousands of sleepers and installing around 9 miles of new rails. "Drainage improvements and new ballast also enhance the line's resilience to extreme weather and give passengers a more comfortable journey.

"Over the 3-week closure, a total of 6720 hours were worked by Network Rail staff on a 24/7 shift pattern.

"Colleagues also took part in 49 hours of volunteering in the local community, including making new planters from old railway sleepers for Brora Station platforms, and holding STEM and ecology talks at Brora Youth Group and Golspie High School."

It is well-known that Network Rail takes community engagement very seriously. The work they do can often be locally disruptive for a period, so it is well worth ensuring a good relationship with residents.

Happily, this ambitious project was completed on time, and the first trains ran over the rejuvenated track on Monday 30 June.

This was a relief for us too, as our AGM & Conference in Wick was coming at the end of that week!