Friends of the Rail Forum

Part 3 – The Inverness to Aviemore Direct Line. The Inverness and Aviemore Direct Railway was built by the Highland Railway to provide a shorter and more direct route between Inverness and Aviemore, carrying its main line traffic to Perth and the south. http://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/07/01/the-h ...

The Railways of Namibia (the former South West Africa) – Part 2 – Windhoek and the Southern Lines In Part 1, we looked at the railways in the North of Namibia. This article covers lines which left Windhoek and covered the South of the country. http://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/06/20/the-railways-of-nam ...

The Railways of Namibia (the former South West Africa) – Part 1 – Windhoek and the Northern Lines The Railway Magazine of February 1952 carried an article by Charles E. Lee about railways in what was German South West Africa. This encouraged me to have a look at the history of Namibia’s railways and ...

The Highland Railway - Part 2 - The First Direct Line Between Inverness and Perth (via Forres) – the Dava Line H. A. Vallance tells us that “The proposed new railway through the Central Highlands left the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway at Forres, 24 miles East of Inverness, and turning sha ...

The Duke of Sutherland’s Saloons, Locomotives and Railways In January 1950, G. Charles published a short (2 page) article about the Duke of Sutherland’s railway interests. [1] It was only the nationalisation of the British railways which brought to an end the Duke of Sutherland’s hobby of owning and ...

The Railways of Skye and Adjacent Islands – Part 6 – Storr Lochs Hydroelectric Power Station Storr Lochs hydro-electric power station was commissioned in 1952. It was built by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, and used water from Lochs Leathan and Fada, to provide the first general supply ...

Part 5 – The Quartzite (Silica) Quarry Tramway at Ord

There was a short tramway in the quartzite quarry close to Ord which was operational in the mid-20th century. …

The Railways of Skye and Adjacent Islands – Part 5 – The Quartzite (Silica) Quarry Tramway at Ord

Part 4 – The Raasay Iron Ore Mine Railway There is an excellent book by Laurence & Pamela Draper, which they self-published in 1990, entitled “The Raasay Iron Mine: Where Enemies Became Friends.” I picked up a copy second-hand from an online sales site. That book covers the operation on Raasay in so ...

Dereham (East Dereham) Station, Norfolk

An article in the magazine Railway Bylines, in the September 2002 edition written by Orson Carter prompted a look at the railway system in Dereham Norfolk. [1]

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/05/31/de ... n-norfolk/

Part 3 – The Skye Marble Railway The featured image for this article is the only photograph I have been able to find of ‘Skylark’, the locomotive which for a matter of only a few years operated on the Skye Marble Railway. Further notes about the locomotive can be found in this article. An infor ...

Part 2 – The Talisker Distillery Tramway The Talisker Distillery Tramway was a short 2ft-gauge tramway which opened in 1900 and closed in 1948. It ran from Carbost Pier on Loch Harport, along the Harport shore to Talisker Distillery and was used to transport materials for Talisker Distillery. http:/ ...

The Highland Railway’s Fort George Branch This short branch was established to bring a railhead closer to Fort George. The featured image in the linked article shows Highland Railway No. 29 at Fort George Railway Station in Ardersier in charge of a train of four wheel coaches. http://rogerfarnworth. ...

In April/May 2025 we had a holiday on Skye and as part of that started finding out about the history of industrial railways on Skye and immediately adjacent islands. The first we investigated was a line used to carry Diatomite from Loch Cuithir to Lealt on Skye the linked article below looks at that ...

The Highland Railway as a Company is long-gone. Many of its routes area still in use, others have been abandoned. This thread will hopefully cover the majority of the Highland's lines. ... H.A.Vallance notes that in the years prior to the coming of the railways to the North of Scotland there was a ...

An online acquaintance sent this link to me. From 4 minutes 17 seconds into the film, it shows some views of Killin Railway Station

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxuwKg3wgUE