Highland Railway

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The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller railways before the grouping; it operated north of Perth railway station in Scotland and served the farthest north and south of Britain. It was absorbed into the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923.

Contents

1 History
2 Company Officers

2.1 Chairman
2.2 General Manager
2.3 Chief Engineer
2.4 Chief Mechanical Engineer

3 Reference
4 Further reading
5 External links

History

The Inverness and Nairn Railway (INR): 15 miles (24km) in length, was incorpated in 1854; the first train ran 5 November 1855; it was the original part of the HR;
A railway between Nairn and Keith opened in 1858; in 1861 this was amalgamated with the INR to become the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway (I&AJR);
Two railways were to follow:
* the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway, opened in 1863, which connected with the I&AJR at Forres, and which in turn joined the Perth and Dunkeld Railway(opened 7 Aprl1856) at Dunkeld, completing the main line of the HR, which itself came into being in 1865;
Lines to north were also being opened; all were merged with the HR by 1884:
* 23 March 1856 the Inverness and Ross-shire Railway, Inverness to Invergordon; it was extended to Bonar Bridge in 1864;
* 13 April 1868: the Sutherland Railway, Bonar Bridge to Golspie;
* 19 August 1870: the Dingwall and Skye Railway, Dingwall to Stromeferry and [[Kyle of Lochalsh railway station|opened throughout; the
* 19 June 1871: the Duke of Sutherland's Railway, Golspie to Helsmdale built by the Duke of Sutherland;
* 28 July 1874: the Sutherland and Caithness Railway, Helsdale to Wick and Thurso completed the line.
* 1 November 1898: the "direct line" between Aviemore and Inverness opened, reducing the journey from 60 miles (96km) to 35 miles (56km).
There were also several branch lines of the HR. From the south, these were:
* the Aberfeldy branch;
* the Portessie branch: opened 1 August 1884, closed 7 August 1915
* the Fochabers Town branch: closed 14 September 1931
* the Hopeman branch: also closed 14 September 1931
* the Findhorn branch: opened 1860, closed 1869 as being a failure
* the Fort George branch: also closed 14 September 1931
* the Fortrose branch: closed 1 October 1951
* the Strathpeffer branch: closed 23 February 1946
There were two light railways opened and run by the HR:
* 2 June 1902: the Dornoch Light Railway, again under the auspices of the Duke of Sutherland, 7.5 miles (12km), between The Mound and Dornoch;
* 1 July 1903: The Wick and Lybster Light Railway, 13.5 miles (21.6km). The line was abandoned on 3 April 1944.

Company Officers

Chairman

1911 William Whitelaw

General Manager

1865-1896 Andrew Dougall
1896-1898 Charles Steel
1898-1910 Thomas Wilson
1911-1922 Robert Park

Chief Engineer

The Chief Engineer (CE) of the originally proposed Perth and Inverness Railway was Joseph Mitchell. He held the same post for the Inverness and Nairn railway, the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railway, the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (that is the three that merged to form the Highland Railway). He relinquished the post in 1863. The work was then carried out by a private company (which just happened to be the one run by Mitchell), and arrangement that was terminated in June 1865 when the merger that formed the Highland Railway took effect.

June 1865 - J W Buttle (with title of 'Superintendent of Permanent Way'); later CEs included Murdoch Paterson and William Roberts

Chief Mechanical Engineer

Inverness and Nairn railway

Start	End	Engineer	Notes
December 1854	May 1865	Alexander Allan	Worked through a local representative - his nephew William Barclay.
May 1865	Dec 1865	David Jones	temporary appointment
Jan 1866	Jan 1870	William Stroudley
Jan 1870	1896	David Jones
1896	Dec 1911	Peter Drummond
Dec 1911	Aug 1915	F G Smith
Sept 1915	1922	Christopher Cumming
1922		D C Urie

Reference

The Railway Year Book for 1912, The Railway Publishing Company Ltd

External links

Major constituent railway companies of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway:

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