Strathspey Railway

**Strathspey Railway**
	Strathspey Railway
Inverness-shire, Morayshire
; Boat of Garten Station
No. of stations:	3
Track:	10 miles
	Information
Owned by:	Strathspey Railway Company
Website:	http://www.strathspeyrailway.co.uk/

The Strathspey Railway is a standard gauge heritage railway which runs for ten miles alongside the River Spey below the Cairngorm Mountains in Inverness-shire and Morayshire.

The railway runs on a single line of three stations, Aviemore - Boat of Garten - Broomhill, which line is part of the former Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (later part of Highland Railway) which linked Aviemore with Forres. It is one of only a handful of primary/secondary main lines to be preserved in Britain today.

The route

The Strathspey Railway operates from Network Rail's Aviemore railway station. Until 1998 the railway's southern terminus was Aviemore Speyside about 300 yards further north; Aviemore Speyside is no longer in regular use, though it has been retained as a fallback in case of problems with Network Rail. Its signal box, which was formerly at Garve West and transported from there in 1986, was retained when the station itself shut and new features are gradually being brought into service, using traditional British Railways mechanical semaphore signalling, to control a new crossing loop which has yet to be installed.

From Aviemore, the line passes the four road locomotive shed which was built by the Highland Railway in 1898 to house locomotives for the lines to Perth and Inverness. There is also a carriage maintenance shed which was erected and opened for use in 2005, which allows the railway's volunteers and staff to work on its fleet of coaches. On the opposite side of the line is a three road carriage storage shed erected and opened in 2011, which allows the coaches to be stored under cover and protected from the weather.

The former enginemens' hostel called 'Spey Lodge' also stands at this location. This building has now reverted to its original use of housing locomotive crews and other railway volunteers. This building was erected by the LMS during the Second World War to allow railway crews a safe and cheap option for accommodation after they had finished working on their trains for the day. It was saved by the Strathspey Railway Company during the 1970s.

After Spey Lodge, the railway crosses Dalfaber level crossing. This level crossing was not originally part of the railway but was installed after the development of the Dalfaber Estate in the 1980s.

Boat of Garten

Boat of Garten in 1961

View northward, towards Broomhill

View southward, towards Aviemore

Steam rally in 2004

Boat of Garten station (57°14’53"N, 3°45’9"W) is an extensive complex. It features its original buildings, dating from 1904 by the architect William Roberts.^[1] It was originally a parallel junction between the Highland Railway's main line from Perth to Forres and the Great North of Scotland Railway's (GNSR) branch to Craigellachie - this was the original Strathspey Railway, the company being a subsidiary of the GNSR. Today there are two passenger platforms and the yard stores the majority of the SR's rolling stock.

Boat of Garten also has the railway's only water column where the locomotives stop to take water on their way north through the station. Locomotives are normally coaled during the morning, on the south side of the station. There are two signal boxes, Boat of Garten North and Boat of Garten South and signalling uses traditional British Railways mechanical semaphore signalling. It is the crossing point on the line when there are two trains running.

Most of what visitors to the railway see today is original from the days of British Railways. The main layout of the station has not been altered significantly, with the exception of two new coal sidings which have been installed on the east side of the station and the creation of an extensive yard behind the signal box. One turnout was removed that would have allowed access to the yard without having to access the headshunt. There are no plans to re-install the turnout.

Leaving Boat of Garten, trains cross the road on the new single track box-girder bridge and pass the site of the original GNSR engine shed, long demolished it is now the site of a permanent way depot. The track had been lifted and structures demolished by British Rail after closure of the line in the 1960s. The railway passes though mainly farmland on the re-laid track, which was mostly recovered from Kincardine power station in Fife in the 1990s. The tracks to Craigellachie and Grantown had originally left the station extending in a double track formation as far as Croftnahaven, where the GNSR line turned sharply south east and crossed the River Spey. This arrangement was adopted because a signal box for a junction here was deemed too expensive.

Broomhill

Broomhill (57°17’0"N, 3°40’1"W) is the railway's northern terminus. It stands in countryside roughly half-way between the villages of Nethy Bridge and Dulnain Bridge. The replica station building has been reconstructed on the foundations of the original.

Beyond the station is a run-round loop and it has been anticipated that this will be removed if the proposed extension to Grantown were completed.

Broomhill is used as the station for 'Glenbogle', in the BBC series "Monarch of the Glen".

Broomhill looking towards Grantown on Spey.
The 'Glenbogle' station sign at Broomhill station
A view of the platform and station buildings looking towards Boat of Garten
The station approach from the Boat of Garten side
Platform and station infrastructure

Future extension

The Strathspey Railway has a lngstanding ambition to extend the line to Grantown-on-Spey, which has been dependent on a government plan to realign the A95 at Gaich near Grantown.^[2]

Work began in 2007 to clear the trackbed north of the Broomhill loop and further work followed. In October 2008 Network Rail agreed to donate the former Merry Street Bridge in Motherwell to be dismantled and carried to Inverness-shire, to replace the missing bridge over the River Dulnain.^[3] However cost re-estimates halted the project, which was to have been funded by Transport Scotland, unless new fundraising were successful.

In February 2014, the bridge across the river Dulnain was installed: Colas Rail provided the only rail crane in the United Kingdom capable of lifting the bridge into position. Following the installation, Strathspey Railway volunteers completed the groundworks ready for the laying of track over the bridge. Track has already been laid on the Grantown on Spey side of the bridge.

Management for building extension is now being undertaken by a new body, The Strathspey Railway Charitable Trust. All the various fundraising efforts are co-ordinated by the SRCT, including a charitable appeal. They also manage the negotiations with the various landowners and public bodies required to push the line through to Grantown on Spey.