Highland Railway.html



Highland Railway Jones Goods class locomotive at Glasgow Museum of Transport.

The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921; it operated north of Perth railway station in Scotland and served the farthest north of Britain. Formed by amalgamation in 1865,^[1] it was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.

Extent

The Highland Railway served the counties of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross & Cromarty, Inverness, Perth, Nairn, Moray and Banff. Southward it connected with the Caledonian Railway at Stanley Junction, north of Perth, and eastward with the Great North of Scotland Railway at Boat of Garten, Elgin, Keith and Portessie^[2]. The headquarters were at Inverness,^[1] as were the workshops, Lochgorm Works^[2].

History

• The Inverness and Nairn Railway (INR): 15 miles (24km) in length, was incorporated in 1854; the first train ran 5 November 1855; it was the original part of the HR;
• A railway between Nairn and Keith opened in 1858; in 1861 this was amalgamated with the INR to become the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway (I&AJR);
• Two railways were to follow:
  • the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway, opened in 1863, which connected with the I&AJR at Forres, and which in turn joined the Perth and Dunkeld Railway (opened 7 April 1856) at Dunkeld, completing the main line of the HR, which itself came into being in 1865;
• Lines to north were also being opened; all were merged with the HR by 1884:
  • 23 March 1856 the Inverness and Ross-shire Railway, Inverness to Invergordon; it was extended to Bonar Bridge in 1864;
  • 13 April 1868: the Sutherland Railway, Bonar Bridge to Golspie;
  • 19 August 1870: the Dingwall and Skye Railway, Dingwall to Stromeferry and Kyle of Lochalsh opened throughout; the
  • 19 June 1871: the Duke of Sutherland's Railway, Golspie to Helsmdale built by the Duke of Sutherland;
  • 28 July 1874: the Sutherland and Caithness Railway, Helmsdale to Wick and Thurso completed the line.
  • 1 November 1898: the "direct line" between Aviemore and Inverness opened, reducing the journey from 60 miles (96km) to 35 miles (56km).
• There were also several branch lines of the HR. From the south, these were:
  • the Aberfeldy Branch;
  • the Buckie and Portessie Branch: opened 1 August 1884, closed 7 August 1915 (to passengers and central section between Aultmore and Buckie totally}
  • the Fochabers Town branch: closed 14 September 1931
  • the Hopeman branch: also closed 14 September 1931
  • the Findhorn Railway: opened 1860, closed 1869 as being a failure
  • the Fort George branch: also closed 14 September 1931
  • the Fortrose Branch: closed 1 October 1951
  • the Strathpeffer Branch: closed to passengers 23 February 1946, closed to freight 26 March 1951
• There were two light railways opened and run by the HR:
  • 2 June 1902: the Dornoch Light Railway, again under the auspices of the Duke of Sutherland, 7.5 miles (12km), between The Mound and Dornoch;
  • 1 July 1903: The Wick and Lybster Light Railway, 13.5 miles (21.6km). The line was abandoned on 3 April 1944.
• In 1921, the railway comprised 484 miles of line and the company’s capital stood at nearly £7 million.^[1]

Company Officers

Chairman

1911 William Whitelaw

General Manager

• 1865-1896 Andrew Dougall
• 1896-1898 Charles Steel
• 1898-1910 Thomas Wilson
• 1911-1922 Robert Park

Chief Engineer

The Chief Engineer (CE) of the originally proposed Perth and Inverness Railway was Joseph Mitchell. He held the same post for the Inverness and Nairn Railway, the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (that is the three that merged to form the Highland Railway). He relinquished the post in 1863. The work was then carried out by a private company (which just happened to be the one run by Mitchell), an arrangement that was terminated in June 1865 when the merger that formed the Highland Railway took effect.

June 1865 - 1869 J W Buttle (with title of 'Superintendent of Permanent Way'); later CEs included Peter Wilson 1870-1874; Murdoch Paterson 1875-1897; William Roberts 1898-1913 and Alexander Newlands 1914-1922.

Chief Mechanical Engineer

Inverness and Nairn railway

See also

• Locomotives of the Highland Railway

References

Further reading

• The Railway Year Book for 1912, The Railway Publishing Company Ltd
• Conolly, W. Philip (2004). British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer. Hersham: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0 7110 0320 3. 
• H.A. Vallance. The Highland Railway. ISBN 1-899863-07-9.
• (1921) Harmsworth’s Universal Encyclopedia. 

External links

• The Highland Railway Society
• The Highland Railway, includes a map of the system