Lord of the Isles did its stuff and soon we were gently chuffing northwards. Ben Nevis was still lost in the mist and clouds.
Once more, though, I can bring you Ben Nevis from the previous occasion I travelled on the line, back in 1970.
However, at Banavie, Neptune’s Staircase was clear to see.
These are locks on the Caledonian Canal which crosses the Great Glen in Scotland and links the west coast at Fort William with the east at Inverness.
We began to clear the built up area. In fact all was clear. The upper quadrant signal indicates a clear road ahead and the blue sky looked better than we had yet seen. Of course, what looks like a big dark cloud above the train is the steam from Lord of the Isles.
Another attempt on Ben Nevis – photographically speaking. Being on a train limits your choice of viewpoint.
Our scenery became much more rural as we turned to head west along Loch Eil. It was still a little ethereal.
Views along Loch Eil
At this point I’ll sing ‘ho’ for the nice old mark one coaches we had. Modern trains are air conditioned and photos have to be taken through double glazed windows. But on this train a window could be lowered to make the photography better. As we whirled along, though, it was all to easy to find that what you took a photo was a blurry tree in the foreground.
Up front we could just make out the loco working hard as we left the loch side to make our way to Glenfinnan.
Glenfinnan is famed for its curved viaduct. This line was conceived at the very end of the nineteenth century and an engineer used was Bob McAlpine. Back in those days he was known as Concrete Bob for he pioneered the use of the material. And Glenfinnan Viaduct was an early, major structure to be cast in concrete. It’s fame has spread for this line, and the viaduct, features in Harry Potter Films on the route of the Hogwarts Express. I’ve searched for a web photo of this train, but film makers don’t seem to want film images on line – so to put the viaduct in its environment, here’s a shot from http://www.sir-robert-mcalpine.com/projects/?id=2563
Now
everybody with a camera on the train wants to record it crossing the viaduct and
I hadn't been quick enough to grab an opening window. So, from behind other
people, I thrust my camera out of the window and snapped. I’m quite pleased
with the result.
We
pulled into Glenfinnan and a poor photo up the train happened to show one of the
passengers sipping coffee.
Next time it’ll be Glenfinnan
