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TRAIN HORN BLOWS

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An almost forgotten kind of Scotch mist has come back to the Glens

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after 20 years of silence.

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The smoke and steam of a Black 5 engine.

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Most people would think you were mad

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if you told them there was still a regular mainline steam service on British Rail,

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but for the last two summers the diesels on the West Highland Line,

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from Fort William to Mallaig, have been partly replaced by steam.

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They've even repainted the coaches their old pre-war colours -

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cream and green.

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Just for a while history has gone into reverse.

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I get the feeling that such quirky things

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couldn't happen nearer to London,

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but up here, far from head office,

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they like to run things their own way.

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In the 1930s the line carried thousands of weekend trippers

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escaping from smoky Glasgow and Clydeside into the country.

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After the war, when excursions were restarted in 1949,

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most of those trippers had taken to the roads.

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Yet, although the line has never made a profit, it still lives on.

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Today the summer steam trains are fuller than perhaps they've ever been.

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But, it wasn't so much tourists and travellers

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that the line to Mallaig was built to carry,

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it was something much more basic - fish.

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And not just any old fish, one kind of fish in particular.

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Now, here's a riddle, why is a steam engine like a herring?

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Because they were once both the commonest things in the world

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and they are now both almost extinct.

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Mallaig was actually created by the railways

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and through the railways grew to be the largest herring port in Europe

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up till about 20 years ago.

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This year not one single herring has been landed in Mallaig so far.

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The main fish coming here now is the crayfish, or langoustine,

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which is taken away, not by rail any more, but by lorry

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and driven 1,000 miles or more down to the south of Spain

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where they get the best prices.

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So, if you're on holiday in the Costa Brava

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and you have a plate of large prawns they've probably come from here.

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Before the trains came,

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the 30 mile journey from Fort William to the coast

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had to be done in a horse-drawn coach

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bumping crazily over rough cart tracks.

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It took seven and a half hours to get there,

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so long that you could never get back the same day.

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The railway reduced this time to little over one hour,

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an improvement of something like 80%.

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It was almost as if balloons had been replaced overnight by Concorde,

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with nothing else at all in between.

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It was here at Corpach, near Fort William

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on January the 21st 1897, that Lady Margaret Cameron of Locheil,

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who was not just a lady but also the wife of one of the directors,

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used this silver spade to turn the first sod in the Mallaig railway.

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And it was the last really hard work she did,

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because she was replaced almost immediately by 3,500 navvies,

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who worked for the next four hard years to complete the work

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that she had so bravely started.

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But, they did finish one year ahead of schedule.

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Mallaig wasn't just reached by the railway,

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it was built by the railway.

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The railway company looked at a map of Scotland

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for a good place for a fishing port,

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put its finger on tiny, nearly uninhabited dot

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and said, "We'll build a town, a harbour and a pier, here."

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It wasn't just fishing vessels that came to call at the new harbour,

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it became a great jumping-off place

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for the ferries over the sea to Skye and Lewis, as it is today.

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You could say the first big place down the line from Mallaig is Glasgow,

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but they wouldn't agree with you at Fort William,

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the railway capital of the West Highlands,

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where most of the engines were always kept.

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Shed 65J, dock 6, class 5MT Stanier Black 5 from the old LMS.

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One modified K4 name McCallum Mhor. Five K1s, Peppercorns design.

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Two K2s usually based at Mallaig. And as yard pilots two J36s.

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All to be maintained and serviced engines to coal.

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And some to repair.

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- What engine am I getting today, Jim? 
- 1784, Johnny.

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The engines leave Fort William shed.

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To work south to Glasgow.

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And west to Mallaig.

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And we shall be working west to Mallaig today

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behind this 1947 vintage Black 5.

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Black 5s were LMS engines,

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so they wouldn't have been seen up this LNER line in the old days.

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This particular one is the only one of the many Black 5s

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to be fitted with the Stephenson link motion,

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that complicated series of connecting rods.

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I wonder if that makes it a one-off special or a failed experiment.

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Well, either way I'd give my eye teeth

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for a chance to travel on the footplate.

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Another time. Thanks.

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Well, at least I've still got my eye teeth.

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Our driver today is veteran Fort William man Willie Corrigan.

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There's something special about driving a Black 5.

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Quite good engines to drive and the fellas look after them pretty well.

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The Black 5s are all right,

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but the K2's really the engine for Mallaig.

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The Black 5s are just a wee bit high in the wheel for the Mallaig line.

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They used them sometimes for ballast working

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but they were never on the Mallaig line

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because it was a turntable end, they were too long for that.

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This train anyway, it's just up and down.

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But they used to be up and down maybe two or three times a day.

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Not so much hard work for the driver,

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but quite hard for the fireman, shovelling coal and that.

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But, oh, it's quite an innocent line.

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It's a lovely run

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and I've been doing it for the best part of 40 years.

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I've not got tired of it yet.

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We come out of Fort William under the shadow of Ben Nevis

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and prepare to leave the first section of single track.

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Only one engine is ever allowed onto a section of single track,

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for obvious reasons.

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And the driver is entitled to be there

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only if he has the token for that stretch of line.

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As he leaves the section

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he hands over the token to the Banavie signalman

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and collects the new one.

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In 1936, a luxury train, called the Northern Belle,

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ran right round Britain.

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When it got to Fort William

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the passengers were given the choice between two excursions -

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a motor trip to Loch Ness to see the monster

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or a rail trip past Glenfinnan.

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Only two people on the whole train chose to go to Loch Ness.

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Now, the attraction of going to Glenfinnan

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was not to see the famous monument of Bonnie Prince Charlie's first landing,

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which after all commemorates a great Scottish failure.

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Of course, the Scots have always had a great weakness for romanticising their own failures.

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Most of their famous battles are actually defeats.

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From the massacre of Glencoe up until the last time they entered the World Cup.

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And they're not always so quick to glamourize their successes.

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What the passengers on the Northern Belle were off to see that day

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was a great Scottish success, the Glenfinnan Viaduct,

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the brain child of a young Glasgow contractor Robert McAlpine.

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Today Glenfinnan, tomorrow the world

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and McAlpines are still up with the leaders in modern construction and engineering.

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So, I asked Bill McAlpine, Robert's great-grandson,

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to give me the low-down on his ancestor,

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the man known to one and all as Concrete Bob.

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If I'm right this was the longest concrete viaduct in the world

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when it was built by your great-grandfather.

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- Yes. 
- Why did he build it in concrete, why not stone?

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Well, he was a great enthusiast for concrete

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and here he had an opportunity to use it,

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because the engineer designed the viaduct

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and usually specified what it was to be made of,

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but on this occasion he persuaded the engineer

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that concrete would be a good material.

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You can see it's still standing,

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there's a train going over at the moment.

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- It's not falling on us. 
- Not a tremor here.

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HOOTER SOUNDS

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Was that actually very revolutionary at the time?

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Well, it was, because it was a new material

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and nobody likes change very much.

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But on this particular contract

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it proved to be very satisfactory material,

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because to move masonry, to get masonry and move it up here

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would be very, very expensive.

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And so, concrete which was created by finding quarries

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and grinding up the rock,

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or using the rock which came out of the tunnels,

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mixing it with cement was an ideal material.

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Stone perhaps looks better, although in the environment

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and looking at this viaduct today actually in concrete,

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it fits in with the surrounding scenery much better.

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These great solid piers, are they in fact solid?

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I believe they are hollow in the centre.

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I've always been brought up with the story that on one occasion they were filling them,

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they had built the four walls and they were filling it with rubble

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and a horse and cart was backing to tip

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and he just went a bit too far

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and the horse and cart went down one of these massive piers

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and there was nothing to do, but carry on filling.

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- They're still there? 
- Whether that's true or not I wouldn't like to... I rather disbelieve it.

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An idea the Mafia later took up.

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I think so, yes. I think the man stayed up but the horse and cart..

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Apart from that if somebody came to McAlpines today

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and said, build us a viaduct out of concrete,

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- would you do it in a very different method? 
- Um, I don't...

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Yes, it would be reinforced concrete,

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in that there would be steel in the concrete

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and it would probably be not quite so massive and so on.

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Although if you look at it, 100 years and it's still there,

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this is probably a pretty good way of doing it.

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You think this is good for all time?

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I think so, certainly good enough for another 100 years, yes.

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Well, the line may still be here in 100 years' time

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and Glenfinnan Station may be still open for business,

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but it's very doubtful if there will still be a signalman at Glenfinnan.

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Four bells given.

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CLANGING

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Four bells received.

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And another brass token from the Victorian one-armed bandit

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to hand on as a passport for the driver

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to go through the next stretch.

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But as he goes through the old routine of ringing through

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for permission to let the train through,

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he is already aware that he is the last signalman left hereabouts.

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The latest plan, apparently,

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is not only to do away with the traditional token system,

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but also to get rid of signals altogether

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and to give the drivers radio sets

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so they can report their position to Fort William

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and ask for clearance to continue.

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CB on trains, in fact.

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The one thing they can probably never replace

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is the man on the engine.

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On the contrary, it means even more reliance will be placed

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on the local driver and his knowledge of the line.

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It's a hard line to know.

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Well, you've got years of it.

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Especially at night, in the dark, it's pitch black,

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you've really got to know the line to drive an engine up there.

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Ever since the train left Fort William,

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it has been climbing almost all the way.

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You have to start again from Glenfinnan on a gradient of 1:50,

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which is a test for any driver

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and a lot of hard work for the fireman.

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It's an extraordinary thing,

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but almost all famous lines start low down,

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go up in the middle and then come down again at the end.

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The Settle - Carlisle line does.

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The Orient Express does.

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And so does the Mallaig line.

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And unless you're actually driving the train,

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the climb to the top is the best bit.

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There's a feeling of heroic effort,

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masses of steam and smoke and by far the best photographs.

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But if you are driving the train you get a different view,

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one of setting off into the unknown

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however well you think you do know it.

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You go away on a train, so you don't know when you're getting back.

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One time in 1947 we left on Tuesday and we never got back until Friday.

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The trains were stuck in the snow in the West Highlands.

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It was really hard work

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and it wasn't only that, you couldn't get food anywhere.

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There was no place to get a cup of tea

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once your piece ran out, you know.

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As the train eases its way over the top

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and starts the long descent to the sea,

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it goes through what the guide books like to call "glorious scenery".

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But glorious scenery is a phrase

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that strikes fear into the heart of any railway engineer,

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cos all it means to him is immense construction difficulties.

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When Bill McAlpine's great uncle, Malcolm McAlpine

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was in charge of building this section of the line,

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he found that the stone he was tunnelling through

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was even tougher than the machinery he had available.

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Because on a line like this you have to start in a whole lot of places

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and you start at the most difficult place.

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You start at Glenfinnan Viaduct, of course, digging the rock tunnels.

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There was a good story about that

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because Malcolm had to go to the dentist in Glasgow

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and we'd been having terrible trouble

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because we had these new compressed air drills from America

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and we priced the job on using these and the tremendous progress.

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And when we got up here

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the cost of coal for the steam-driven compressors was enormous

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because you couldn't get the coal to the line.

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You could bring up by ship

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and then it had to come by horse and cart over all this terrible country.

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And we were losing money and the company was going bankrupt.

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And he went to have his teeth drilled in Glasgow

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and the dentist had a water-driven drill.

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So he said, if he can drill my teeth with water

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I can tunnel rock with water.

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And so, they dammed up one of these lochs,

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had a water turbine to produce electricity,

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drove the compressors electrically

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and had a pipeline tapped off for compressed air

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all the way along the line and drilled.

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- It actually worked as well? 
- Yes, tremendous success.

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- So there's a use in going to the dentist after all. 
- That's right, sometimes.

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The opening of the line came too late to help many of the inhabitants

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who had already been driven out by the Highland Clearances,

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the idea behind which was that sheep were more important than men.

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When the Crofters Commission reported to the Parliament in London 100 years ago,

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they revealed a state of misery and poverty in the West Highlands

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which nowadays we would call Third World conditions.

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Even Parliament was stunned into action

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and the Mallaig extension became the first line in Britain

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ever to get government help.

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Not that this was much consolation to the local people

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who had already lived a life of deprivation and suffering.

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# Ah, for the glens are lyin' bare

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# And the wee bit farm deserted... #

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During the Clearances men's homes were burnt and pulled down around them to drive them off.

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Many of them had to make new lives,

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knowing they would never see Scotland again.

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# Grows in rows o'er the broken hearted

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# Black is the wood on the roofance was braw

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# But blacker still is your heart, Victoria

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# Sent your men untae our glens

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# You'll need the Good Lord

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# Lookin' o'er ye

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# Many hae gane tae Americay

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# You burnt their hames and garred them wander

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# Gor a' would have stayed wi' the de'il himsel'

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# As bide an hour wi' the cruel Gillanders. #

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Oh, the railway made an immense difference to this part of the world.

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When it came through here in about 1900,

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it opened up the whole of the countryside

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between Glasgow and Fort William

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and then Fort William to Mallaig.

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And they reckon that the railway made Mallaig.

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And I remember clearly, the fish specials leaving Mallaig

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day and night, seven days a week, Sunday included.

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It had been a long time before they were able to run fish trains on the Sabbath.

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Old traditions die hard round here.

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And Ronnie McLellan still combines his job as an engine driver

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with something much more ancient, the art of crofting.

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I inherited the croft in 1954.

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- You've been driving on the trains all that time. 
- Oh, yeah.

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I've been on the trains since 1941.

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- Long before I inherited the croft. 
- Oh, I see.

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How do you combine the two, isn't it almost impossible?

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Well, I think when you're brought up on a croft

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you find that the croft itself won't keep you.

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It's necessary also to have a good job.

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But I think when you're born on a croft there's some attachment

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which makes you feel as if you've always got to stick by it.

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How serious is the threat to close it down now?

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Oh, I don't think there's any threat at the moment.

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There's been rumours of the railway closing

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for quite a number of years now.

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In fact, about two years ago

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they were considering closing down the depot at Mallaig,

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but it was proved then to the powers that be

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that it wasn't a very wise thing to do,

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so we've still got the depot at Mallaig

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and it looks as if the railway is beginning to pick up.

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We've got a steam train and we've got a few specials.

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There's something about the steam

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that the diesel will never compete with.

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There's a bit of everything about the steam,

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a bit of romance, there's a bit of science.

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What is there about the diesel?

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Oh, the diesel is just a big box.

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A big box and you open the power handle and what more can you do?

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Hope and pray that it goes.

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That's another one ready for market.

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So, when you come home from driving on the railway

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- you look forward to getting back to... 
- Oh yes, always have done.

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Yes, yes, it's a complete contrast from railway working,

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although I've always been happy on the railway.

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Happy in my job.

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It's also a great thing just to forget all about it for a while.

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And go out after the sheep, go to the hills.

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It's a different way of life completely.

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During its 85 years the West Highland line to Mallaig has won and lost many battles.

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I think the saddest loss of all was when British Rail decided

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it could no longer compete with the roads for the fish trade.

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SHEEP BLEAT

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It left behind nothing but folk memories of the days

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when driver and fireman used the fire box

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to cook herrings on their shovels.

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Or when the rails were so wet from the drips from the fish specials

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that engines could hardly get up the hill out of Mallaig.

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The fish trains finished well before the fish did

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and in the 1970s Mallaig was still catching herring

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as if there was no tomorrow.

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Sophisticated echo sounders located the shoals

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and giant nets swept the seas clean.

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Then, one year all the herring had gone

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and there was indeed no tomorrow.

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The days when the smoke from 13 kipper factories

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hid Mallaig from the sunlight suddenly seemed very far off.

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The steam special stops in Mallaig for an hour

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and during this hour the station souvenir shop closes for lunch.

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I never found out why,

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unless it was to give the passengers

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the incentive to wander down to the quay

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and see the crayfish being landed.

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"Come to Mallaig and see what the Spanish get for lunch."

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Oh, grand journey, lovely journey. It's lovely.

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It's a pleasure to come up the line when it's nice and dry, you know.

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But I was quite pleased with the run today.

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It's a good engine too.

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It's in good fettle right enough, comes up the hills there no bother.

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Now, there is an unspoken fear in Mallaig

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that the crayfish may one day go the same way as the herring did.

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Of course here they don't eat crayfish, they eat fish and chips.

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And if I were to tell you that these chips have probably come

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1,000 miles from the south of Spain, would you believe me?

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Spanish first crop potatoes.

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Makes you think, doesn't it?

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Today the last relic in Mallaig of the great herring days

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is George Lawrie's kipper factory.

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Even then the herrings he so carefully splits and smokes

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have to be brought from further down the coast.

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But the ceremony of stacking up the smokehouse,

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laying the fires and then letting the smoke do its work at leisure

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is uncannily like the ritual of firing a railway engine

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and getting up steam.

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Long may they both continue.

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