The Kyle of Lochalsh sits guarding the entrance to Loch Alsh and directly opposite the Isle of Skye village of Kyleakin to which it was connected to by a short ferry ride until the Skye Bridge opened in 1995.
Being 100 miles from the nearest large city, Inverness. It was this strategic, yet remote location that convinced the Dingwall and Skye Railway Railway company to fight to get an act of parliament passed and spend £20,000 per mile, the largest sum ever spent on a railway in the UK at that point, to get the West Highland Line extended from its current terminus at Stromeferry through to the Kyle of Lochalsh.
In the Beginning
After the initial plans were agreed in 1865, it took another Act of Parliament in 1868 before the line could commence construction and would be 2 years before the initial part of the line from Dingwall to Stromeferry saw its first train. By this time, the Dingwall and Skye Railway company had been taken over by the Highland Railway Company.
It wouldn't be until 1893 that, after gaining re-authorisation, the extension to Kyle finally commenced. Construction on this final, difficult, 10.5-mile link would take a further 4 years. It opened on November 1897 to great fanfare after requiring 29 bridges and 31 cuttings through solid rock to finally connect Kyle, and thus the Isle of Skye to the UK rail network.
The station which juts out on a man-made pier and the whole village was built to house engineers, construction workers and railways staff. The village turned from just a few houses with a ferry pier to a thriving village community with a school, general store and library.
Railways built communities, and communities thrived around railways.
A small engine shed and yard was built just outside the station and goods yard to service and water the engines with a turntable so they could reverse back down the line to the platforms and leave again for Inverness in the right direction of travel.
This is Kyle Shed, just up the line from the station in about 1930 (photographer unknown)
Fish 'n' Freight
It wasn't long before locally caught fish, which had previously take a trip by steamboat via the Firth of Clyde, were ending up on the tables of London hotels and restaurants in as little as 21 hours. Goods were more important than passengers at that time, and this continued right through to the mid-twentieth century when cars and lorries began to emerge as the preferred mode of transport.
This picture is from about 1940 I believe, author unknown but shows the livestock pens and vans and is the full extent of how busy the station and goods yard was.
This shot shows what are quite possibly barrels of Scotch waiting for transportation, this time from 1939 (photo copyright David Spean Collection)
Stone, livestock and wood joined fish in being the major freight carried by the railways. Local supplies and newspapers were also carried up to the peninsula in mixed passenger and goods trains as well as occasional bitumen and oil traffic.
Human passengers could until the opening of the Skye Bridge step straight from the platform onto the decks of Ferries to Stornaway and Portree as well as the short hop over to Kyleakin.
A very busy scene from the very late '60s or early '70s. Most of the goods yard was still intact at this point and being used, especially the mail handling facilities. Pull up your post office van and throw the bags in! (photograph copyright David Spean Collection)
Despite the threat of closure in the infamous Beeching Report, the line thrived throughout the sixties and even into the seventies, despite constant threats of closure. The eighties were marked by a huge fall in traffic and saw the end of freight and by the early nineties, all that was left were a few passenger services and summer specials.
And Now........
.... most of the sidings have been lifted and just 4 return services between Kyle and Inverness a day, plying one of most scenic railway lines in the world. The good news being, that the odd freight service still uses the old unloading bank, most recently to drop off stone for the harbour renovation and even sometimes to transport wood. All is not lost!
2014 and there isn't much left. There are still two lines on the east of the platform but not much else! (my photo - feel free)
As a 14-year-old kid catching a train from Kyle to Inverness with my also train mad cousin, I wish now we had taken photographs and captured that final glorious swansong of the Kyle extension. When I last went back a couple of years ago, I suddenly felt like a kid again, despite the new class 158 units having none of the romance of a Sulzer Class 26 and corridor coaches!
Sulzer Class 26 in 1983. Real Engine. Real Coaches! (pic copyright Gary Thornton)
Railways were more than just a mode of transport. They were the life-blood of many rural communities. But with the proliferation of road transport, so a decline in the network was inevitable. The most efficient method of mass transport was being eclipsed by the convenience of jumping into your own car, at your own house and having the freedom and personal space to transport yourself exactly where you wanted to go.
Small businesses turned to road freight without the need for an additional expense in both money and time in going to the local railway station with the reverse procedure at the destination and even since the advent of the internet, postal services use lorries and hubs to move mail rather than overnight trains with built-in sorting offices.
2014 and the loading bank and stones on the left are where the livestock pens were in a previous picture (my Photo - Feel free)
Progress is progress, and despite being a modernist, I have an incredible fascination with the incredible feats of engineering that the Victorians achieved with the building of a vast railway network.
