GNER's long distance Inverness to Kings Cross working passes Crubenmore with Dalwhinnie just visible in the far distance. The train ID is 1E10, 0705 off Inverness. A passing loop and signalbox once stood here. 11/5/1998
Transrail branded 56033 stands in platform 1 at Inverness while military vehicles are loaded onto its wagons after a military exercise in the Highlands somewhere.
08762 goes about its business shunting sleeper stock.
Platform 7 has long been the platform for trains to and from the Kyle of Lochalsh. 156474 forms such a service, 2H83 1045 off Inverness to the west coast town.
Trains for Wick and Thurso use platform 6, part of which is below the train shed. 156478 will head to the Far North at 1105 with train 2H63.
Another view of the "Grid" and its train being loaded. There are 8 armoured vehicles and at least 5 Land Rovers secured to well wagons and flat wagons. It will head south as 6D46 1330 Inverness to Mossend Enterprise.
LoadHaul 56112 awaits its next turn of duty. On this day 6D46 was run in two portions, maybe 56112 would be used for the second one.
37409 pilots 37175 into Millburn Yard with a single maroon mkI BSK coach. I have no idea where it came from or why.
158715 passes Millburn Yard with 1T24, the 1213 train to Glasgow Queen Street. The line in the foreground is for Elgin and onto Aberdeen.
Dutch P Way liveried 37175 has coupled onto a rake of engineers vehicles and will take them south, probably to Millerhill Yard.
The two class 37's have separated and 37409, in Transrail branding, has run round the coach.
The engineers train fronted by 37175 starts the descent from Slochd to Aviemore, initially at 1 in 70.
In glorious sunshine 158731 speeds through the loop at Slochd Summit, 1,315 feet above sea level, with 1H11 1155 off Glasgow Queen Street for Inverness.
Still at the summit and in clear and warm sunshine, 56033 heads south with its unusual train. The lead van is a support van containing the fixing gear.
The train tramps on and enters the long double line section at Dalwhinnie which runs to Blair Athol some 23 miles away.
I took this shot from a moving car doing about 60mph (don't tell anyone!), 56033 reaches the 1,484 foot summit of Druimuachdar Pass.
56033 clatters over the crossover at Dalanraoch as the train drops down the 1 in 70 grade towards Blair Athol.
A final shot of 56033 and its train as it climbs away from Dunkeld at 1 in 80 over an embankment that has recently been cleared of vegetation by RailTrack. 11/5/1998
On a bitterly cold but very bright day, 66103 has arrived and run round its train at Georgemas Junction. The train is 4H44 0200 Mossend to Georgemas Junction Intermodal. 18/2/2003
The short train consisting of just one Safeway refridgerated box passes through the station that forms the northern most junction in the UK as it carries out the shunting maneouvre to position the box to be unloaded.
The train stands beside the hardstanding used for loading and unloading. The box is being unloaded by the reach stacker.
158721 runs into Georgemas Junction with 2H62 1209 Wick via Thurso to Inverness. Passenger trains no longer split and join the Thurso portion so the train has to go to Thurso then return and reverse before heading south again. 66103 sits in the sidings whilst its single Safeway box is unloaded. Also visible are several vans being loaded with fridges and freezers from the Norfrost factory in Thurso. Two vans were due to go south the following day.
The box is off and the train has been brought into the former up platform and the driver will go for his break. The train will return south to Mossend as 4D66 1445 off. In reality, the driver told me that once the sprinter has returned from Thurso and cleared the section to Forsinard it will leave.
The sun glints off the windscreen of 66103 as it approaches Forsinard station with its feather weight load of two empty flats. Once clear of the station the train sits and waits the arrival of the northbound passenger train in the loop.
Deep in the Caithness Flow Country 66103 comes round one of the numerous bends near Kinbrace as the line follows closely the contours of the land.
A change of lens as 66103 approaches the tiny station at Kinbrace which serves about a dozen houses and a very small post office.
A spirited drive from Kinbrace to Helmsdale saw me catch up with 4D66 just before the coastal town and I managed to secure this shot of 66103 passing through the station at Helmsdale.
From Helmsdale to the Mound, the railway follows the coast. 66103 is seen for the last time just to the south of Brora.
