Smoke & Steel

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway - the world's first steam passenger line to offer regular services. Basically the starting point of the rail network we know today. A programme of events is taking place across the United Kingdom this year under the Railway 200 banner. I have already been down to Darlington to view the historic locomotive display at the Hopetown Museum. Closer to home, Stirling Castle was hosting Smoke and Steel - a photographic exhibition exploring the rise, decline and renewal of Scotland's rail network. This was right up my street and I decided to visit before the end of the five-month run.

This entailed purchasing an entrance ticket for the castle, which doesn't come cheap. I just had to take this one on the chin but I thoroughly enjoyed my tour of the old royal stronghold. There is a lot to explore within the stone walls and the views across the countryside from the hilltop position are simply breathtaking. I didn't grudge the £18 charge in any way. I shall write a separate post about my castle experience and this article will focus solely on the railway history. The material wasn't directed at the development of locomotive technology, although the workhorses of the network did of course feature. The main theme was the expansion and contraction of the Scottish rail system, and how that linked to social and industrial history. Glasgow and Edinburgh were linked by 1842 and railway construction continued apace until the end of the century, by which time a tangled web of lines spread from the Borders to Thurso on the far north coast. The country became connected to the rest of Great Britain, and further afield to the powerful Empire. Trade was changed beyond all recognition. Perishable products could easily be transported across long distances, fresh fish being a prime example. Tourism became a major industry and regular working families could travel effortlessly beyond their local parish for the first time. Victorian resorts, such as Strathpeffer, catered for affluent holidaymakers. Grand urban stations symbolised the wealth and status of the railway business. New settlements and industries grew around the rail corridors that criss-crossed the land. The exhibition featured one of the earliest known photographs of a British railway station. David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson captured images of Linlithgow in 1843. Another eye-catching scene was the wood-panelled booking hall at Edinburgh Waverley. A stunning dome flooded the space with natural light. A 1970 renovation stripped out much of the historic interior but the intricate glass roof remains. The exhibition gallery was located in a far corner of the huge castle compound and not many people wandered in as I carefully worked my way around. Kids made a beeline for the photograph of the Glenfinnan Viaduct, known globally for its regular appearances in the Harry Potter movies. A latecomer to the railway grid, the West Highland Line overcame challenging terrain and was completed in 1901. The viaduct was formed from poured concrete, rather than the customary brickwork. Aviemore lies in a more accessible part of the Highlands and has had a station since 1863. Aside from mainline departures, Aviemore also serves as the southern terminus of the Strathspey Heritage Railway, powered by steam. The pictures also reflected social aspects of rail travel and I marvelled at the Edwardian coffee lounge inside the Glasgow Central Station Hotel.

Scotland was also a centre of locomotive building and the Queens Park Works in Glasgow belonged to the North British Company, who shipped hardware across the globe. On a more local level, no Scottish island ever received a main rail link as the costs and logistical issues were too vast to overcome. On the mainland, rough landscapes and fierce opposition from wealthy landowners stalled many schemes, often forcing a major diversion from the original plans. Great feats of engineering were achieved, none more iconic than the completion of the Forth Bridge, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. An unusual perspective of the structure was shown; looking straight down at the tracks from the highest point, as a train crossed. There was also an image of two workers walking on the high beams with no safety equipment whatsoever. Nerves of steel, but no real say in the matter either. Dozens of men had been killed during the bridge's construction. Modern painting techniques mean the bridge only needs a new coat every couple of decades these days. Contrary to popular belief, the job was never carried out on an end-to-end basis (and immediately restarted). Laying the rail network required armies of men, known as navvies. They followed an itinerant lifestyle, often working in dangerous conditions and lodging in unsanitary temporary accommodation. The pay was good, but some of it might be in tokens that could only be redeemed in the company canteen, where the quality of the food and drink was not always premium. They certainly played hard, gaining a reputation for boozing and brawling. Women were largely excluded from the railway job market until labour shortages during the two world wars created openings. The first female train driver in Britain was Glasgow-born Karen Harrison, who qualified in 1979. There was a scene of a snowbound train on Dava Moor during the big freeze of 1963, when the extreme weather lasted three months and temperatures fell below minus 20 Celsius. I also liked the photo of the unusual stacked bridge arrangement at Calvine, Perthshire, where road and railway cross the River Garry at exactly the same point - a stipulation of the Duke of Atholl. The postal service no longer moves mail by train but this was the main method of distributing letters and packages over long distances in the past. Lineside contraptions allowed mailbags to be dropped off or taken aboard without the service actually stopping.

A haunting portrait of the fallen Tay Bridge underlined the precarious relationship with safety in Victorian times. The original structure stood for just over a year before collapsing during a storm at the tail end of 1879. A train plunged into the icy waters, killing all 75 passengers and crew. The far more substantial replacement was completed in 1887. The foundations of the old bridge can still be seen at low tide. I solved a little railway riddle that had intrigued me for years. The road sign pointing Stromeferry Station in the West Highlands has the words "no ferry" appended in brackets. I just assumed it meant that no sailings departed from here, despite the name of the village. Which it basically does, but the bit I didn't know was that Stromeferry previously served as the departure point for boats to the Isle of Skye before the line was extended out to Kyle of Lochalsh, a much more convenient crossing point. This connection was superseded by the Skye Bridge in 1995. The network also contained examples of light railways, which were relatively cheap to build but subject to speed restrictions. They tended to operate in more remote areas, where the costs of installing a full-scale system would be impossible to claw back. Rail passenger numbers began to falter after WW2 as car ownership increased rapidly. Buses had already grabbed a large share of local public transport journeys by providing cheaper and more frequent services than a train timetable ever could. They also ran right into town centres and stopped in suburbs and outlying villages, not always the case with rail. As the UK road network was improved, lorries shifted a higher percentage of the nation's freight burden. Something had to give. Enter Richard Beeching, hired by the government as a hatchet man responsible for "reshaping" rail coverage across the land. Scotland lost 650 miles of track and dozens of routes were scrapped. Some had already been switched to freight-only corridors but Beeching's arrival was a hammer blow to the industry. The provision of stations was rationalised and giant architectural gems were lost in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee. Railway land was sold off and repurposed, making the prospect of future reopening very challenging.

Nevertheless, there have been successful reintroductions of services in various parts of the country. Recent projects include the Borders Railway and the Levenmouth link. An sound economic argument must be made for each proposed scheme and jumping through the political hoops can take many years, with absolutely no guarantee of a favourable outcome. We have turned a corner in the sense that no government in recent times has been actively hostile towards railways. Closing a route nowadays is virtually unthinkable. Decaying parts of the network have been given facelifts, such as the A-listed Wemyss Bay terminus - an interchange for the ferry to Bute. The curving glass and steel canopy has been restored to its former glory. In summary, the railway rot has been stopped, improvements to existing infrastructure are ongoing, but bringing a route back from the dead, or forging ahead with a new one, remains a tough assignment.