Tag Archives: railway history

The Railway between Nice, Tende and Cuneo – Part 4 – St. Dalmas de Tende to Breil-sur-Roya

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The featured image above is a poster for the Nice-Cuneo line. It shows Scarassoui Viaduct with a Northbound steam service between the wars (c) Adolphe Crossard. … Public Domain. [49]

In the first three articles about the line from Cuneo to the sea we covered the length of the line from Cuneo to St. Dalmas de Tende. These articles can be found here, [9]  here [10] and here. [11]

I also want to acknowledge the assistance given to me by David Sousa of the Rail Relaxation YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@RailRelaxation/featured and https://www.railrelaxation.com and particularly his kind permission given to use still images from rail journeys that he has filmed on the Cuneo Ventimiglia railway line. [35][55]

1. The Line South from St. Dalmas de Tende as far as the French/Italian Border …

St. Dalmas de Tende (San-Dalmazzo-di-Tenda in Italian) was “the last station on Italian territory, before the northern border.  This is where the French Forces would install a large-scale border station that will handle customs clearance operations in addition to the French facilities at Breil. In the first phase, a temporary passenger building and a small freight shed were built on the vast embankment created from the spoil from the tunnels upstream of the confluence of the Roya and Biogna rivers. The original layout includes four through tracks, one of which is at the platform, five sidings, three storage tracks, a temporary engine shed, a 9.50 m turntable, and a hydraulic power supply for the locomotives.” [1: p127]

It is here, at St. Dalmas de Tende, that we start this fourth part of our journey from Cuneo to the coast. Before we do set off southwards we note that the Tende to La Brigue “tranche of the work on the line was awarded to the Tuscan contractor Enrico Lévy, and the Briga to St. Dalmas de Tende tranche was executed by the Rosassa company of Alessandria. Work began in 1912 and progressed more quickly than upstream of Tende, thanks to the opening of the construction sites during public holidays and the use of new compressed air drills.” [1: p129]

The line from Tende (Tenda) to San-Dalmazzo-di-Tenda (St. Dalmas de Tende) was opened on 1st June 1915. The three of the four daily services were connected to the Southern arm of the line which by this time had reached Airole, by a coach shuttle. [1: p131]

A temporary station was provided as a terminus of the line from Cuneo. It was sited to the Northeast of the present large station building which was not built until 1928.

A postcard image overlooking the station site at St. Dalmas de Tende prior to the construction of the large station building. This image was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Mauro Tosello on 12th June 2022. [19]
The San Dalmazzo di Tenda station before the construction of the current building. [12]
St. Dalmas de Tende Railway Station as show on OpenStreetMap. [56]
The locomotive Depot at St. Dalmas de Tende. The depot was on the Southeast side of the running lines opposite the railway Station and close to the Biogna River. The road shown on the OpenStreetMap plan of the modern station to the Southeast of the site is the road shown at the top of this plan. This drawing comes from From the December 1929 Technical Magazine of Italiane Ferrovie. It was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group on 13th February 2024 by Francesco Ciarlini Koerner. [18]
The station during construction work. There is scaffolding on the main station building, which appears to have been built in sections with a completed length nearest to the water tower. The engine shed is under construction, centre-right. This image was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Mauro Tosello on 12th June 2022. [20]
A postcard view of the Railway Station at St. Dalmas de Tende, taken from the East. The tunnel at the Southwest end of the station site can be seen on the left of the photograph. This image was shared on the Ferrovia internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Luisa Grosso on 1st November 2021. [57]
The station forecourt, seen from Avenue Martyrs de la Resistance. [Google Streetview, August 2016]
A schematic view of the line South of St. Dalmas de Tende, as far as the French/Italian border. [13]

St. Dalmas de Tende Railway Station seen, looking Northeast, from the cab of a North-bound service. [35]

Looking Southwest from alongside the end of the platform of the modern railway station at St. Dalmas de Tende with the grand edifice of the 1928-built station building fenced off on the right. [55]
A little further to the Southwest, the line bridges the Bieugne (Biogna) River over a 15-metre arch bridge and then heads into the Biogna Tunnel. [55]
The tunnel mouth is in shadow at the bottom-left of this extract from Google’s satellite imagery. The railway bridge over the River Bieugne is centre-bottom with the road bridge (D91) to the left. [Google Maps, August 2025]
The railway tunnel mouth is on the centre- left of this view from the D91 with the rail bridge over the river bottom-left and the road bridge over the river ahead. [Google Streetview, August 2016]
Looking Northeast from the D91 through the station area. [Google Streetview, August 2016]
The view Northeast from the tunnel mouth of the Biogna Tunnel, the road bridge over the river is on the left, the rail bridge over the river is immediately in front of the camera. This photograph is a still image from a video taken from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]
The portal of Biogna Tunnel and the bridges over the Bieugne immediately after Storm Alex in October 2020. This photograph was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Mario Zauli and Olivier Woignier on 3rd October 2020. [17]
One final view of St. Dalmas de Tende railway station. This the Direct 18:83 Turin Porta Nuova – Imperia Porto Maurizio, Locomotive D445.1056 heads a train of five coaches passing through St. Dalmas de Tende on 24th April 1994. This image was shared by Andrea Richermo on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group on 11th April 2020. [21]

From San-Dalmazzo (St. Dalmas), the railway forms two horseshoe loops underground, crossing the Roya three times over a distance of just over a kilometre as the crow flies.

The Biogna Tunnel is the first of these horseshoe tunnels, it is 1154 metres long. We have already seen the approaches to the tunnel from St. Dalmas de Tende Railway Station. The tunnel’s horseshoe shape can be seen on the OpenStreetMap extract below. …

The Biogna Tunnel is horseshoe shaped. [14]

The view Northeast from the southern mouth of Biogna Tunnel. [55]

Turning through 180 degrees this is the mouth of the tunnel, seen from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

Two viaducts cross the valley off La Roya, San Dalmazzo II Viaduct crosses the River Bieugne (three arches each of 15 metres, then the San Dalmazzo III Viaduct, also three 15 metres arches bridging the Avenue de France (E74/D6204) and then La Roya, before disappearing into the Porcarezzo Tunnel. [15]
The two viaducts as they appear on Google Maps satellite imagery. [Google Maps, August 2025]
In the foreground is a viaduct over the Biogna Torrent; beyond are a viaduct over the River Roya, and then the entrance to the Porcarezzo Tunnel. This section of line is near San Dalmazzo di Tenda. This image was included in an article about the line in Railway Wonders of the World. All that is left of the building at rail level in the left half of the image is the widened surface of the embankment between the two viaducts. [24]

Looking East across San Dalmazzo II Viaduct which has three arched spans, each of 15-metres and crosses the Bieugne River. [55]

Looking East across San Dalmazzo III Viaduct which spans La Roya. This Viaduct has one opening for the road and a narrower archway for pedestrians and has three further 15-metre spans. The mouth of the Porcarezzo Tunnel is in shade. [55]

The bridge over Avenue de France seen from the North. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

The same bridge seen from the South. In this image both the secondary (narrow) arch and the viaduct over La Roya can be seen. [Google Streetview, August 2025]

San Dalmazzo di Tenda Viaduct III, seen from the South on 23rd October 2020. This image was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Federico Santagati on 23rd October 2020. [22]

Reinforcement/repair works in November 2020 on San Dalmazzo di Tenda Viaducts II and III after the damage from Storm Alex on October 2 – 3, 2020. This image was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group on 20th November 2020 by Mario Zauli, courtesy of Bernard Woignier. [23]

Looking West across the same viaduct towards the Biogne Tunnel. [35]

The Porcarezzo Tunnel mouth to the East of La Roya. [55]

Looking West from the Porcarezzo Tunnel mouth across the San Dalmazzo III Viaduct. [35]

The Porcarezzo Tunnel turns through 180°, continuing to drop at a gradient of 25mm/m. It is 1249 metres in length. [16]

Southbound trains leave Porcarezzo Tunnel and immediately cross San Dalmazzo di Tenda Viaduct IV. [55]

Turning through 180° we see the Southwest mouth of the Porcarezzo Tunnel which sits above La Roya and is seen here from the cab of a Northbound train on the San Dalmazzo IV Viaduct. [35]

San Dalmazzo di Tenda IV Viaduct as it appears on Google’s satellite imagery. [Google Maps, August 2025.

The approaches to the Porcarezzo Tunnel from the Southwest cross the San Dalmazzo di Tenda IV Viaduct (six 15-metre spans) over La Roya and the E74/D6402. [35]

San Dalmazzo di Tenda IV Viaduct seen from the North. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

San Dalmazzo San Dalmazzo di Tenda IV Viaduct seen from immediately below on the North side. [Google Streetview, July 2014]

San Dalmazzo IV Viaduct di Tenda seen from the South. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

Once Southbound trains had crossed La Roya, it was just a short distance before they entered Gorges Paganini Tunnel. This is the tunnel mouth. [55]

Turning through 180° this is the view from the cab of a Northbound train leaving Gorges Paganin Tunnel (1,702 metres in length). [35]

Gorges Paganin Tunnel runs South-southwest parallel to the valley of La Roya and only a few metres beyond the valleys western face, occasionally running close enough to the valley side for gallery openings to shed light into the tunnel.

Gorges Paganin Tunnel is marked by the dotted line to the West of the river valley. It is over 1700 metres in length with occasional gallery openings in the valley side. [25]

The Gorges Paganin Tunnel is actually considered to be a series of six different tunnels separated by sections of galleries with arched openings into the valley side. These tunnels are: Foce (167m long); Tornau I (270m long); Tornau II (475 m long); Ravallone I (392m long); Ravallone II (91m long; and Balma (337m long). [1: p129]

One of a series of gallery openings in the walls of Gorges Paganin Tunnel, seen from the cab of a Southbound service. [55]

OpenStreetMap shows a short length of line within the Paganin Valley above the Hydroelectric Power Station which is next to the E74/D6204 in the valley of La Roya. [26]

Google’s satellite imagery shows the hydroelectric scheme in the Vallon de Paganin and the power station next to the road and La Roya. The railway line can be seen just to the left of centre. [Google Maps, August 2025]

Banaudo et al tell us that at “the end of the tunnel, the line opens into the Paganin Valley, which marks the northern border between Italy and France. … In this wild and steep site, where a torrent and the penstock of the Paganin Hydroelectric Power Plant tumble, the portals of the last Italian tunnel and the first French tunnel face each other, each guarded by a roadside cottage in the typical style of the FS and PLM.” [1: p129]

Having reached the old French/Italian border we can stop and take stock. We will look at the construction of the line North from the coast once our journey reaches that portion of the line. Suffice to say that by 1915 tracklaying from the coast had reached Airole.

As far as the line heading South from Cuneo is concerned track laying had reached San Dalmazzo di Tenda and the structures and track formation was in place to the Northern French /Italian border.

2. The First World War

In 1915, Italy entered the war on the side of the allies. “Leading up to WWI, Italy had formed an alliance with the Central Powers of the German Empire and the Empire of the Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance. Italy should have joined on the side of the Central Powers when war broke out in August 1914 but instead declared neutrality.” [27]

“The Italian government had become convinced that support of the Central Powers would not gain Italy the territories she wanted as they were Austrian possessions – Italy’s old adversary. Instead, over the course of the months that followed, Italy’s leaders considered how to gain the greatest benefit from participation in the war. In 1915, Italy signed the secret Treaty of London and came into the war on the side of the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia). By its terms, Italy would receive control over territory on its border with Austria-Hungary stretching from Trentino through the South Tyrol to Trieste as well as other areas.” [27]

“After the war ended, at the Paris Peace Conference that led to the Versailles Treaty, the Italian government struggled against the other Allied leaders, the Big Three (Britain, France and the US), to gain all that they believed had been promised to them. Although Italy did receive control of most of the European requests, they failed to gain their colonial ambitions and felt they did not get what they had been promised. This engendered resentment towards the Allied countries, especially as Italians felt they had paid a high price, in terms of men and money, fighting for the Allies. These resentments helped drive the success of Benito Mussolini and his fascist movement – four years after the war, Mussolini and his blackshirts gained power.” [27]

Ultimately, the war stopped all progress on the line. Banaudo et el tell us that “the work begun thirty-two years earlier by the SFAI, then continued by the RM until nationalization, was thus virtually completed by the FS. The construction of the 80.3 km of line in Italian territory cost nearly 85 million lire compared to the 76 million initially planned, representing an average expenditure of 1,058,500 lire per kilometre.” [1: p135]

In France, the war caused all work to be halted. An attempt was made to continue the work in 1915, but failed because of underground conditions encountered. In 1917, an attempt to continue activity using prisoners of war was unsuccessful.

During the war, Italian authorities lifted track between Piena and Airole in the South for use on the front. Work on the new Cuneo railway station halted.

French and British troops were sent to augment Italian forces on 1917. It seems as though many of these passed through San Dalmazzo di Tenda. Between 19th October and 15th December 1917, “192 military convoys departed from San-Dalmazzo, and the Col de Tende line saw up to twenty movements of all categories on some days.” [1: p136]

After the war, resources were in short supply. In France priority was given to the devastated areas in the Northeast of the country. The PLM received very little support. Contractors found recruitment a problem because of the drastic loss of life among working age men. Banaudo et al tell us that in France “tunnels, abandoned for nearly five years, had suffered serious deformation, particularly in areas with high water infiltration. In Italy, the situation was no better, and construction of the new Cuneo station was suspended, even though an arch of the large viaduct over the Stura River, which was to provide access to it, was already being erected.” [1: p138]

Nevertheless, work did resume, supplies began to head North from Menton on the tramway to Sospel and supplies were arriving from the South via the FS on the Italian side of the border at Airole. Transport via Airole proved better than via the Menton-Sospel tramway and by 1920 the two main contractors on either side of the border (Giianotti and Mercier) ceased to use the Menton-Sosel route. [1: p138]

1920 saw a significant budget reduction for the works in French territory – 104 million Francs to 75 million Francs. Only 17 million Francs were allowed in 1920. “The Mercier company alone was spending 4 to 5 million francs per month on its construction sites.” [1: p140] Layoffs were necessary and work slowed significantly to remain within budget.

“In June 1920, the Inspector General of Public Works announced to companies that only 700,000 francs of credit remained to complete the year, an insignificant sum that forced construction to be suspended immediately, putting hundreds of workers out of work. Elected officials from the Alpes-Maritimes immediately rushed to Paris to meet with representatives of the ministry and the PLM management. After heated discussions, a new budget was allocated by the State for railway construction. The PLM had a credit of 41 million, 25 of which were allocated to the Nice – Cuneo line. Work could resume, but the engineers and contractors in charge of it would have to take into account the irregular arrival of funds until the end when organizing their construction sites.” [1: p140]

2. The Northern French/Italian Border South to Breil-sur-Roya

Two tranches of construction work covered the length of the line from the French/Italian border to Breil-sur-Roya. Banaudo et al tell us that this length of the line “contained the highest density of engineering structures on the French route, and, with a few exceptions, the war had interrupted work there in its early stages.“[1: p142]

A schematic representation of the line between the historic Italian/French Border and Breil-sur-Roya. [13]

The view across the border from the North, a view from the cab of a Southbound service at the mouth of the Gorges Paganin Tunnel. [55]

Looking back North towards the southern portal of the Gorges Paganin Tunnel, a view from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

Once on the French side of the border the line immediately entered the Frontiere Tunnel. …

The North portal of the Frontiere Tunnel, seen from the cab of a Southbound train. [55]

Looking North across the border from the cab of a Northbound service leaving the mouth of the Frontiere Tunnel [35]

The view from the cab of a southbound train just to the Southwest of the Frontiere Tunnel mouth. [55]

The short open section of track appears on the left of this extract from OpenStreetMap. Tree cover means it is impossible to show the short section of line on and extract from Google’s satellite imagery. [28]

The view from the cab of a Northbound train approaching the mouth of Malaba Tunnel. Ahead is the southern portal of Frontiere Tunnel. A very short length of line runs between Frontiere Tunnel and Malaba Tunnel. [35]

Malaba Tunnel is 389 metres in length. This image shows the view from the cab of a Southbound service as it leaves the tunnel. [55]

Turning through 180 degrees we see the Southwest portal of Malaba Tunnel from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

This extract from OpenStreetmap shows the next open length of track running from centre-top to bottom-left. We are just entering the first length of another spiral and can see the lower length of track in tunnel under the line and then bridging La Roya. [29]

Google’s satellite imagery shows the same length of railway high above the Scarassoui Viaduct which can be seen bottom-right. [Google Maps, August 2025]

From the cab of the Southbound service, we see the mouth of Scarassoui Tunnel. The Tunnel is 181 metres in length. [55]

Turning through 180°, we look Northeast from the cab of the Northbound train as it leaves the Scarassoui Tunnel. [35]

The spiral in this location consists of a number of tunnels and open lengths of track. The first tunnel encountered travelling South is the Scarassoui Tunnel (top-right) which has a gallery of a series of arches at its southern end. A length of open track leads to Peug Tunnel, Vernardo Tunnel, Caussagne Tunnel and then Berghe Tunnel. [31]

A view North along the valley of La Roya. Top-left in this image, the line from St. Dalmas de Tende enters the image at high level and on a falling grade, through Scarassoui Tunnel. It passes through Peug Tunnel and, after running parallel to the river for a short distance, curves away to the left in tunnel. It appears again beneath Scarassoui Tunnel to cross La Roya before travelling down the East side of the river in a series of tunnels. Source not recorded. [30]

The high level tunnels of Scarassoui (its South portal can be seen at the top of this extract) and Peug. The metal frames over the open lengths of track are part of an avalanche warning system. [30]

Two views looking South inside the gallery at the southern end of Scarassoui Tunnel. [55]

A driver’s eye view of the South end of Scarassoui Tunnel. [35]

The gallery seen from below soon after it was constructed. This image appear in the Railway Wonders of the World article about the line, (c) Public Domain. [24]

Just a short distance further South, we can look over our shoulder to see the modern Scarassoui Viaduct crossing the River Roya some distance below. In a short while we will cross that viaduct. [35]

Turning through 180°, this is the view South towards the North portal of Peug Tunnel which is just 75 metres in length. [55]

The view North from the mouth of the Peug Tunnel. [35]

A view of the length of track between the Scarassoui and Peug tunnels can be found here. [29] It is a view from the valley floor close to the river, of the length of track between Scarassoui Tunnel on the right and Peug Tunnel on the left (its portal is just visible at the extreme left of the image. The gallery at the end of the Scarassoui Tunnel was added in the 1970s, © Eugenio Merzagora, courtesy of the Structure website. [29]

This Google Earth 3D satellite image gives good idea of how far up the valley side from the river and road the railway is positioned. [Google Earth, August 2025]

The view South from the mouth of Peug Tunnel, seen from the cab of a Southbound train. [55]

The southern portal of the Peug Tunnel seen from the cab of a Northbound service. [35]

A little further South and looking South from the cab of the Southbound service across the Peug Viaduct (50 metres long). [55]

Looking across the valley of La Roya we can see the line heading South . Our train will travel along that length of the line in a short while. [35]

Further South again, a driver’s view from a Southbound service along Capuon Viaduct (45 metres long) towards the North Portal of Verardo Tunnel (53 metres long). [55]

Looking back at the southern mouth of Verardo Tunnel. [35]

The cab of the Southbound train again, looking from the southern end of Verardo Tunnel over Berghe Viaduct (30 metres long) towards the mouth of the Caussagne Tunnel (275 metres long). [55]

Caussagne Tunnel curves West into the valley of the Torrent de la Ceva. The far tunnel mouth faces West-northwest.

The view back towards Vernardo Tunnel over the Berghe Viaduct from the mouth of Berghe Tunnel. [35]

The view from the cab of the Southbound train as it leaves Caussagne Tunnel, heading Northwest up the valley of the Ceva. [55]

Turning through 180°, this is the tunnel portal, seen from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

The Ceva valley is steep sided and the line sits on a narrow ledge supported above the valley floor by a retaining wall. Before entering the 1881 metre Berghe Tunnel it crosses the Ceva Viaduct (71 metres long).

The view from the cab of a Southbound train crossing Ceva Viaduct before entering the Berghe Tunnel. [55]

This extract from a photograph taken to illustrate the demands placed on cyclists riding up the Ceva Valley shows the retaining structure which holds the railway above the minor road. The tunnel mouth of the Berghe Tunnel can just be made out at the left of this image, (c) Cromagnon. [32]

The Mouth of the Berghe Tunnel, seen from the cab of a Southbound service. The Tunnel curves back to the North and then round to the Southeast. [55]

Turning through 180°, this is the View from the mouth of the Berghe Tunnel, seen from the cab of a Northbound service. [35]

Throughout the spiral the line continues on a falling grade. It opens out, well below the level it enters the spiral, onto the Scarassoui Viaduct.

The view from the mouth of the Berghe e Tunnel across the Scarassoui Viaduct. [55]

Looking back towards the mouth of Berghe Tunnel. [35]

This postcard image shows the Scarassoui Viaduct as built in 1922, (c) Public Domain. [33]
The Scarassoui Tunnel, top-left, and the Scarassoui Viaduct, bottom-right. [46]

The French engineer, Paul Séjourné decided to create a significant structure at the location of the Scarassoui Viaduct. Banaudo et al quote Séjourné: “The Scarassoui Viaduct is the first French structure that one will see when coming from Italy. It is like a gateway to France; it must be worthy of it.” [1: p142] Séjourné was of the opinion that: “Of all the structures — I mean all, even the smallest — appearance matters. It is not permissible to make ugly. It is a strange opinion to consider expensive what is beautiful, cheap what is ugly.” [1: p142] The bridge Séjourné designed was a curved viaduct (radius 300 metres) carrying the railway on a falling grade of 21 mm/m. It was 125 m long, spanning both La Roya and the E74/D6204 at a height of 42 m. Banaudo et all, tell us that “two arches of 11 m on the Nice side and a 13 m arch on the Cuneo side give access to a central arch of 48 m decorated with six vaults, according to a design that Séjourné had applied on other works. … The central arch was supported by two massive pilasters with crenellated facings, whose bases were widened to compensate for the misalignment due to the curvature of the deck.” [1: p142]

Sadly this bridge was destroyed by the retreating German forces in 1944 and it was not reconstructed in any form until the 1970s. Details of this bridge and photographs of its condition prior to reconstruction can be found here. [34] The replacement 1970s structure is shown below. …

The modern Scarassoui Viaduct seen from the E74/D6204, looking South. [August 2016]
The modern Scarassoui Viaduct seen from the E74/D6204, looking North. [August 2016]
One of the regaul=ar service trains posed on the Scarassoui Viaduct in the 21st century. [36]

Scarassoui Viaduct crosses the River Roya close to the top of this image. Trains heading South then pass through a series of short tunnels following the East bank of La Roya. [30]

The northern portal of the Camera Tunnel is in deep shade. [55]

The view back across the Scarassoui Viaduct from the northern portal of the Camara Tunnel. [35]

The view South from the southern portal of Camara Tunnel. [55]

Looking back at the South Portal of the Camara Tunnel. [35]

Just to the South of Camara Tunnel is Camara Viaduct, seen here from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

While it is not possible to see the line on the West bank of La Roya over this length of the valley from the road, it is possible to glimpse the line on the East side of the valley occasionally. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

The North Portal of Vallera Tunnel No. 1. [55]

The view North from Roches-Rouges Viaduct towards the South Portal of Vallera Tunnel No. 1. [35]

The view South from Roches-Rouges Viaduct towards Vallera Tunnel No. 2. [55]

The North Portal of Vallera Tunnel No. 2. [55]

Looking North from the tunnel mouth above. [35]

Looking South from the southern tunnel mouth of Vallera Tunnel No. 2. [55]

Looking South along Vallera Tunnel No. 2 [55]

Looking back at the South Portal of Vallera Tunnel No. 2. [35]

Looking North from Vallera Viaduct towards Vallera Tunnel No. 2. [35]

The North portal of Torette Tunnel (121 metres long). The village of Fontan can be seen to the right on the valley floor, [55]

The view from the Southern Portal of Torette Tunnel. [55]

The southern mouth of Torette Tunnel seen from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

The approach to Fontan-Saorge Railway station from the North, seen from high on the valley side to the West of the River Roya. [My photograph, 18th November 2014]

The the track duals to the North of Fontan-Saorge Railway Station. [55]

The D38 (Route de la Gare crosses the River Roya and turns South for quite a length of the road the railway towers over it, held above by a large retaining wall. [Google Streetview, July 2014]
Road and railway become much closer in height before the road passes under the railway. [Google Streetview, July 2014]
Another image from the cab of the Northbound train. Just before arriving at Fontan-Saorge Railway Station the line bridges Route de la Gare – the road between Fontan and Saorge. [55]
After passing under the railway the road continues to climb. [Google Streetview, July 2014]

The final approach to Fontan-Saorge Railway Station. [55]

Fontan-Saorge Railway Station seen from the South, © Georgio Stagni and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 3.0). [48]

Fontan-Saorge Railway Station, seen from the cab of a Southbound train. [55]

This extract from Google’s satellite imagery shows the site of the Fontan-Saorge Railway Station which sits between the two villages. It is a large site as it was designed to be a frontier station. The historic border between France and Italy was just a short distance North along the valley of La Roya. [Google Maps, August 2025]

A view of the Fontan-Saorge Railway Station from high on the West flank of the valley of La Roya in 1927/1928. This image illustrates the significant earthworks needed to create a ‘plateau’ for the station (c) Public Domain. [50]

Fontan-Saorge Railway Station, seen from the D38 (Route de la Gare). [Google Streetview, July 2014]
Fontan-Saorge Railway Station from the hillside to the East. [37]
Fontan-Saorge Railway Station seen from the Southwest. [38]
A similar view of Fontan-Saorge Railway Station in 2014, © G CHP and licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY 2.5). [39]
Fontan-Saorge Railway Station, seen from the North © G CHP and licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY 2.5). [44]
A view of Fontan-Saorge Station taken with a telephoto lens, again from high on the valley side on the opposite bank of the River roya. [My photograph, 18th November 2014]

Fontan-Saorge to Breil-sur-Roya

A schematic drawing of the remaining length of line to Breil-sur-Roya. [13]
The view from the cab of a Southbound service while idling at Fontan-Saorge Railway Station. [55]
Fontan-Saorge Railway Station seen from the South, © Georgio Stagni and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 3.0). [45]

As trains head south from Fontan-Saorge they cross Ambo Viaduct (a short viaduct – just 36 metres in length) before entering Saint-Roch Tunnel . The wall on the left carries the D38 (the road to Saorge). [55]

Ambo Viaduct and the North Portal of Saint-Roch Tunnel, seen from the E74/D6204. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

The road to Saorge climbs above the level of the railway. [Google Streetview, July 2014]

The tunnel carrying the road to Saorge runs just above the railway tunnel. Saint-Roch Railway Tunnel is named for the church close to the road as it enters Saorge. [Google Streetview, July 2014]

This is the view North along the railway towards Fontan-Saorge Railway Station from the mouth of the road tunnel on the D38. The Ambo Viaduct is in the bottom-left of the image, Fontan-Saorge Railway Station is in the top-right. [Google Streetview, July 2014]

Looking back along the line towards Fontan-Saorge Railway Station from the mouth of Saint-Roch Tunnel. The viaduct in the foreground is Ambo Viaduct. [35]

Looking Southwest across the bridge at Saorge from the cab of a Southbound service leaving the mouth of Saint-Roch Tunnel. Tracks cross the bridge 60 metres above the valley floor. [55]

Turning through 180 degrees this is the Southwest portal of the Saint-Roch Tunnel as seen from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

The bridge at Saorge in the 21st century. It was rebuilt in the 1970s after destruction in 1944. [Google Maps, August 2025]

Early during the construction of the bridge at Saorge. Here we see the formwork for the arch being constructed high above the valley floor, (c) Public Domain. [50]

Work on the bridge at Saorge started “in February 1922 from the Saint-Roch and Nosse tunnels, between which a conveyor cable was stretched for the assembly of the 40 m lowered arch. A suspended footbridge was then launched over the precipice and a 0.60 m track was placed there to supply the materials onto small 500 kg load wagons, maneuvered by gasoline-powered shunters. …  The main work of the bridge was completed in March 1923.” [1: p143]

The bridge at Saorge was completed in 1922, it spanned the valley of La Roya at a particularly tight point along the gorge. The village of Saorge can be seen beyond the bridge. This bridge was destroyed by the retreating German troops in 1944. [47]
This extract from a postcard image shows the bridge in use in the early 1930s. [51]
Looking Southeast from road level, the modern bridge seems to fly between the valley walls! [Google Streetview, August 2016]
The same structure seen from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

Looking Northeast over the bridge at Saorge towards the Saint-Roch Tunnel from the mouth of Nosse Tunnel. [35]

Significant savings on construction costs were made (even when the cost of construction of the bridge was included) by following the right bank of La Roya down towards Breil-sur-Roya. [1: p142]

The Northeast portal of Nosse Tunnel (89 metres in length). [55]

The view Southwest from the tunnel mouth of the Nosse Tunnel. [55]

Turning through 180°, looking Northeast into the mouth of Nosse Tunnel. [35]

The open length of the line between Nosse and Four A Platre tunnels. [Google Maps, August 2025]

The North Portal of Four A Platre Tunnel (316 metres long), seen from the cab of a Southbound train. [55]

The view South from the South Portal of Four A Platre Tunnel. [55]

Turning through 180°, this is the South Portal of Four A Platte Tunnel. The village of Saorge can be seen in the sunlight on the right of the image. [35]

The length of line between Four A Platre (Plaster Kiln) Tunnel and  Commun Tunnel. [Google Maps, August 2025]

The village of Saorge is a lovely ancient perched village sitting high above La Roya. We have stayed there three times over the years renting the same small apartment each time that we have been there. Most recently, we were there post-Covid and after Storm Alex. That short holiday was in November 2023.

The view from our apartment window – the railway can be seen on the far bank of La Roya, high up the valley side. The visible length of railway is that to the South of Four A Platre Tunnel. [My photograph 11th November 2014]
A closer view of the line on the West bank of La Roya, seen from the apartment window. [My photograph, 20th November 2014]
An even closer view, also from the apartment. [My photograph, 19th November 2014]
Another view, focussing, this time, on the vaulted retaining wall which is typical of a number of retaining walls along the line. [My photograph, 11th November 2014]
Saorge village, seen from the road below. [My photograph, 13th November 2014]

The northern mouth of Commun Tunnel (60 metres in length), seen from the cab of the Southbound service. [55]

The view South from the South portal of Commun Tunnel towards Precipus Tunnel over the Petit Malamort Viaduct. [55]

This satellite image shows Petit Malamort Viaduct which cannot easily be seen from the road network. [Google Maps, August 2025]

Turning though 180, just a short distance further along the line, this is the view back towards the South Portal of Commun Tunnel from the Petit Malamort Viaduct (56 metres long). [35]

Petit Malamort Viaduct and the North portal of  Precipus Tunnel (623 metres long). [55]

Between Saorge and Breil-sur-Roya construction works were delayed for a time by high pressure water ingress into tunnels. [1: p142]

Looking North across Precipus Viaduct (46 metres long) toward the South Portal of Precipus Tunnel. [35]

The Precipus Viaduct seen, looking West from the D6204 in the valley floor. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

Looking North from the North Portal of Combe Tunnel. [35]

The South Portal of Combe Tunnel. [35] 262

Looking South across a minor road crossing on the North side of Breil-sur-Roya. [55]

Looking back North across the same road crossing to the North of Breil-sur-Roya, seen from the cab of a Northbound train. The D6204 is off to the right of the image, the museum is off to the left of the camera. [35]

Maglia Bridge looking South from the cab of a Southbound train. [55]

Maglia Bridge looking North from the cab of a Northbound service. [35]

Maglia Bridge seen from Route de la Giandola. [Google Streetview, October 2008]

The bridge carrying the Route du Col de Brouis over the railway. [55]

Looking back North from the same bridge over the railway. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

Looking ahead towards Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station from the bridge which carries Route du Col de Brouis over the railway. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

Looking Back North through the same bridge. This is the view from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

Looking South from the D6204 adjacent to the level crossing at the North end of the station site, along the line towards Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station. Beyond the crossing is the Eco Musee, Breil-sur-Roya, Haut-Pays et Transports, an exhibition of vintage trains, trams & buses. The road on the right is Avenue de l’Authion. [Google Streetview, August 2016]

The same location looking to the North. The D6204 is on the right of the picture. [35]

The Eco Musee at Breil-sur-Roya, seen from the road to its North, Avenue de l’Authion. [Google Streetview, 2009]

The Eco Museum was founded in 1989 to showcase the history and heritage of the Roya valley, it became a museum focused mostly on industrial heritage in 1991. It now houses exhibits of hydropower and transportation. The collection comprises lots of interesting locomotives, railcars, trams, postal vans and other vintage vehicles.

Looking North from adjacent to the end of the platform at Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station. [35]

Looking North at Breil-sur-Roya as a Southbound service arrives at the Station. [35]

Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station facing North.  [35]

The approach to Breil-sur-Roya from the South, seen from the cab of a Northbound train. [35]

The northern end of the site of Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station. [Google Maps, August 2025]
The southern end of Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station site. [Google Streetview, August 2025]
Breil-sur-Roya Railway Station, seen from the North, © Thierry Szymkowiak, 2021. [Google Maps, August 2025]

We finish this fourth length of the journey from Cuneo to the coast of the Mediterranean here at Breil-sur-Roya South of Breil, there are two routes to the coast. One heads to Ventimiglia, the other to Nice. The next article will look at the line heading South towards Ventimiglia.

In Breil, the earthworks for the international station were constructed starting in June 1920. The area was around 1 kilometre in length and 300 metres wide. To build this the, “National Road 204 had to be diverted towards the Roya for about a kilometre, as was the Goulden power plant canal. The natural ground was cleared on the northern side and raised with excavated material from the tunnels on the southern half. At this end of the station, the modest single-arch bridge over the Lavina valley, which provides access to the Nice and Ventimiglia lines, required considerable work. The foundations for the abutment on the Nice side had to be dug into a gypsum bed sloping to a depth of 16 metres (compared to 2.20 metres on the Breil side, where hard rock quickly emerges).  and a 15.12 m high reinforced concrete cantilever to the abutment anchored it in the loose fill.” [1: p141]

The next article in this series can be found here. [4]

References

  1. Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 1: 1858-1928; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
  2. Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 2: 1929-1974; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
  3. Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 3: 1975-1986; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
  4. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/08/25/the-railway-between-nice-tende-and-cuneo-part-5-breil-sur-roya-to-ventimiglia/
  5. T.B.A.
  6. T.B.A.
  7. T.B.A.
  8. https://youtu.be/2Xq7_b4MfmU?si=1sOymKkFjSpxMkcR, accessed on 20th July 2025.
  9. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/07/22/the-railway-from-nice-to-tende-and-cuneo-part-1.
  10. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/07/26/the-railway-from-nice-to-tende-and-cuneo-part-2.
  11. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/08/06/the-railway-from-nice-to-tende-and-cuneo-part-3-vievola-to-st-dalmas-de-tende
  12. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stazione_di_San_Dalmazzo_di_Tenda, accessed on 6th August 2025.
  13. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%A9ma_de_la_ligne_de_Coni_%C3%A0_Vintimille, accessed on 22nd July 2025
  14. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/44.05269/7.58357&layers=P, accessed on 6th August 2025.
  15. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/44.053045/7.588590&layers=P, accessed on 6th August 2025.
  16. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/44.04865/7.59084&layers=P, accessed on 7th August 2025.
  17. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BAdGi6PXQ, accessed on 7th August 2025.
  18. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19U2VzU6gT, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  19. https://www.facebook.com/groups/FerroviaCuneoVentimiglia/permalink/5329737250380256/?rdid=6Xne0EJn2Z4xCUiE&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fp%2F1C8mWmX57o%2F#, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  20. https://www.facebook.com/groups/FerroviaCuneoVentimiglia/permalink/1747294131957937/?rdid=QhA9x5D943zrICPG&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fp%2F1E6w5RsWSL%2F#, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  21. https://www.facebook.com/groups/FerroviaCuneoVentimiglia/permalink/2971697712850900/?rdid=pZp8Yw6OStV8hyrR&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fp%2F1BGRNJYMxk%2F#, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  22. https://www.targatocn.it/2020/10/23/leggi-notizia/argomenti/attualita/articolo/da-domani-saranno-ripristinati-i-treni-tra-limone-piemonte-e-saint-dalmas-interrotti-dopo-la-tempest.html, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  23. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=801433303751161&set=a.157399714821193&__cft__[0]=AZVgB6QBUAuJT_DsZIqZ5_2XW0bESgQUEP3m5sxA2OJLo9XgziRW311bq9dmsWjaMc5L_ePAmzHP9npOmKEubKp7ERTvP3oBmTP94pOMjZYuw_o8iiIlqIzYH2OVjBbmlDI9E2K8X6HBY-CEio542oAV074y9Ax1zJ4eTCIZRryUdlu8cF2cwBh2YnzMKY4LZAM5xt-Jx-_1z4bzNFzanPZQEsRglGr2Xs3JPNfE9V75Bw&__tn__=EH-y-R, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  24. https://www.railwaywondersoftheworld.com/link-mediterranean.html, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  25. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/44.03686/7.58127&layers=P, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  26. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/44.030812/7.575750&layers=P, accessed on 8th August 2025.
  27. https://www.history.co.uk/articles/italy-in-world-war-one, accessed on 9th August 2025.
  28. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/44.024441/7.569864&layers=P, accessed on 10th August 2025.
  29. https://structurae.net/en/media/325629-peug-tunnel-northern-portal-on-the-left-and-scarassoui-tunnel-southern-portal-with-21-m-long-artificial-section-added-in-1970-s, accessed on 19th August 2025.
  30. Sadly, I cannot find the link to the original photograph. I failed to record it when downloading the image.
  31. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/44.01911/7.55805&layers=P, accessed on 10th August 2025.
  32. https://climbfinder.com/en/climbs/berghe-inferieur-fontan, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  33. https://cartorum.fr/carte-postale/210107/fontan-fontan-pont-du-sarassoui, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  34. https://www.inventaires-ferroviaires.fr/kc06/06062.01N.pdf, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qX8v5gceVU, accessed on 31st July 2025.
  36. https://lamialiguria.it/en/2023/11/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-railway-of-marvels, accessd on 11th August 2025.
  37. https://www.cparama.com/forum/fontan-alpes-maritimes-t24510.html, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  38. https://www.geneanet.org/cartes-postales/view/186296#0, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  39. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gare_de_Fontan_-_Saorge-7.JPG, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  40. Franco Collidà, Max Gallo & Aldo A. Mola; CUNEO-NIZZA History of a Railway; Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo, Cuneo (CN), July 1982.
  41. Francohttps://www.geneanet.org/cartes-postales/view/186296#0 Collidà; 1845-1979: the Cuneo-Nice line year by year; in Rassegna – Quarterly magazine of the Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo; No. 7, September 1979, pp. 12-18.
  42. Stefano Garzaro & Nico Molino; THE TENDA RAILWAY From Cuneo to Nice, the last great Alpine crossing; Editrice di Storia dei Trasporti, Colleferro (RM), EST, July 1982.
  43. SNCF Region de Marseille; Line: Coni – Breil sur Roya – Vintimille. Reconstruction et équipement de la section de ligne située en territoire Français; Imprimerie St-Victor, Marseille (F), 1980.
  44. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gare_de_Fontan_-_Saorge-5.JPG, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  45. https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_de_Fontan_-_Saorge#/media/Fichier%3AFontan-Saorge_staz_ferr_D.445.jpg, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  46. https://www.cparama.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=105348, accessed on 11th August 2025.
  47. https://www.cparama.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1224, accessed on 12th August 2025.
  48. The link to this specific photograph has been lost (12th August 2025).
  49. https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Adolphe-Cossard-ferroviario-c-1929-8-pulgadas/dp/B09M64HCCX?th=1, accessed on 12th August 2025.
  50. https://www.vermenagna-roya.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Ferroviaire-à-Fontan-et-Saorge.pdf, accessed on 12th August 2025.
  51. https://www.cparama.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26208&p=110561, accessed on 12th August 2025.
  52. T.B.A.
  53. T.B.A.
  54. T.B.A.
  55. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbzk68KoRj8&t=4533s, accessed on 4th August 2025.
  56. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/44.055854/7.584440, accessed on 5th August 2025.
  57. https://www.facebook.com/groups/194416750579024/search/?q=st.%20dalmas%20de%20tende, accessed on 5th August 2025.

A Tramway in the Valley of the River Roya? (Early 20th Century)

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A proposed tramway that did not get built. … The featured image is a  map showing the full length of the proposed line which followed National Route No. 204 in France.

Late in the 19th century before a link from Vievola to the Mediterranean was really on the agenda. Alongside the experimental ‘Train Scotte’, [1: p40][2][3] a “local engineer, M. Chatelanat, proposed building a tramway line between Vievola station … and Ventimiglia. He knew the region well, having just overseen the construction of the rack railway from Monte Carlo to La Turbie. [4] Here is the project he presented in an application filed on 7th February 1899.” … [1: p47]

The submission made by M. Chatelanat began, “The electric tramway for which we are requesting a concession is intended to facilitate the movement of passengers and goods in the Roya Valley through a rapid, convenient, and economical means of communication. Currently, to reach Nice and the other communes of the department, the population of the French part of this valley must either travel more than 60 kilometers along the old Nice-Cuneo road, crossing the foothills of Brouis and Braus, in unsafe conditions due to the steep slopes, the height of the passes, and, in winter, the seasonal inclement weather. Or, since the opening of the national road from Breil to Ventimiglia, travel approximately 30 kilometers and cross two customs lines to join the coastal railway line in Ventimiglia. … Between the coast and Upper Piedmont, especially the province of Cuneo, there is a very intense movement of population every year, but if you want to go by train, you have to make a long detour via Savona, which is long and expensive. The province of Cuneo sends to Nice and the coast some of its products that our region cannot obtain elsewhere. On the other hand, our particular products from the South are in demand and consumed in the upper Po Valley. Facilitating the movement of travelers and this exchange of products between Piedmont and the coast will at the same time allow the French populations of the Roya Valley to come easily and quickly to Nice to stock up and connect with the entire French coast without having to cross the Braus and Brouis passes, such is the goal we are pursuing.” [1: p47]

There were a number of projects of this nature being explored at the time. The tramway between Menton and Sospel is an excellent example. [5][6] Others in the valley of the River Var and in the valley of the River Paillon were also built.

M. Chatelanat continues to explain how up to that time it had not been possible to devise a railway scheme that enable a link between Nice and Cuneo. His proposed tramway was not claimed to be a replacement for the planned railway, but while awaiting the development of the railway scheme, the tramway would “provide great services by greatly reducing the communication difficulties between the two regions.  The project [would] not provide the speed of the railway, it [would] require two transshipments at Ventimiglia and Tende. Nevertheless, the transport of goods [would] be significantly more economical and passengers [would] find facilities and comfort there which [would] undoubtedly give the population satisfaction, if not complete, at least acceptable. The electric tramway, executed at a width of 1 metre with gradients of up to 70 mm/m and curves down to 20 metres in radius [could not] be used for the passage of standard-gauge locomotives and wagons, and therefore [could not] be used in the event of war.” [1: p48]

Concern about possible conflict was paramount in the minds of many and projects were vetted and often vetoed by the military. M. Castelanat went on to explain that power for the section of the line  would be supplied from a hydraulic plant close to Breil-sur-Roya which could easily be put out of action, and if the overhead cables were also removed no use would be possible. He was sure that no advantage would be gained by a future enemy and that “The tramway must therefore be considered a commercial means of communication with no possibility of use in the event of war.” [1: p49]

Castelanat confirmed that electrical operation would mean no problem would be encountered with gradients up to 7% without the need for any regrading of the highway. He planned stations at Breil, Giandola, Saorge, Fontan, and Berghe. The tramway would use National Road No. 204 without any deviations and would cost around 1,400,000 francs. This tramway would, strictly speaking, be only a section of an international line which would have its origin in Ventimiglia and which would go up the valley of the Roya.

A conference including all the statutory interested parties was arranged for 23rd November 1899. Differing views were expressed about whether the tramway could provide a military advantage to the enemy in the case of war. A few months after the conference, on 2nd May 1900, “Chief Engineer Aubé of the Ponts et Chaussées (Roads and Bridges Department) reached the following conclusions: ‘The establishment of the planned electric tramway has lost much of its appeal since the military authorities ceased, with certain reservations, to oppose the construction of the railway from Nice to Sospel and to the Italian border, near Fontan. This line would, in fact, provide the French population of the Roya Valley with the access to Nice they were willing to seek in an economical manner by means of the tramway connecting them to the international station at Ventimiglia‘.” [1: p50]

The effect of the military’s withdrawal of their opposition to the Nice-Sospel-Fontan line was to  render the tramway proposals obsolete. It was 1904 before “an international conference finally approved the construction of the Vievola – Breil – Ventimiglia and Breil – Sospel – Nice railway sections. … [Nevertheless] two tram lines were created [in the area]: one from Menton to Sospel, which operated from 1912 to 1931, [5][6] and a line from Ventimiglia to Bordighera, which operated from 1901 to 1936.” [1: p50]

Instead of the ‘Train Scotte’ and a tramway, from perhaps as early as 1900, but definitely by 1st September 1906, a service connecting with trains was introduced between Vievola station and Ventimiglia. The two images below show the mixture of different vehicles in use. Both focus on the road on the West side of the station building at Vievola.

The public road to the West of Vievola Railway Station building with an interesting range of vehicles preparing to travel to Ventimiglia – stagecoaches, other horse drawn carriages, modern internal combustion engined vehicles. This image was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Mario Zauli on 24th November 2014, © Public Domain. [8]
A postcard view of the same location. The image looks North along the face of the station building. [9]

Banaudo et al provide details of a bus service which started on 1st September 1906. The bus service between Vievola and Ventimiglia provided two buses a day from Vievola to Ventimiglia, the first leaving Vievola at 12:15 and arriving in Ventimiglia at 17:00, the second leaving Vievola at 20:40 and arriving in Ventimiglia at 0:40. The cost of the full journey was 5 lire/person. [1: p52]

The advert in the local paper commented that, “Without making the tedious Bastia-Savona detour, travelers can reach the Nice or western Ligurian coast from Cuneo and nearby towns in just a few hours, take care of their business, and return to their hometowns the same day, if they wish, even finding enough time in Vievola to refuel. Every modern comfort will be available in the station buffet, since, with appropriate consideration, the owner, Mr. Giuseppe Borgogno, has asked the Italian State Railways Administration to expand and repurpose the space for this purpose.” [1: p52]

Banaudo et al share details of services which developed over the next few years with pictures of the various buses in use. [1: p52-56]

Other photographs of these bus services include:

This photograph shows two of these autobuses at San Dalmazzo di Tende. It was shared on the Ferrovia Internazionale Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nizza Facebook Group by Mario Zauli on 28th April 2022, © Public Domain. [10]

References

  1. Jose Banaudo, Michel Braun and Gerard de Santos; Les Trains du Col de Tende Volume 1: 1858-1928; FACS Patrimoine Ferroviaire, Les Editions du Cabri, 2018.
  2. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/07/26/the-railway-from-nice-to-tende-and-cuneo-part-2
  3. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2025/07/26/miscellaneous-steam-powered-road-vehicles-scotte-steam-road-vehicles
  4. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2017/11/23/monaco-to-la-turbie-rack-railway-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-15
  5. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/02/23/the-sospel-to-menton-tramway-revisited-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-51
  6. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2018/06/08/the-menton-to-sospel-tramway-revisited-again-chemins-de-fer-de-provence-61
  7. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=11/43.9593/7.5662&layers=P, accessed on 27th July 2025.
  8. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19YSXYvX1Y, accessed on 27th July 2023.
  9. https://www.cparama.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=105633, accessed on 26th July 2025.
  10. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19KFiXiVc2, accessed on 27th July 2025.

The Mother of All Inventions. …

3 Replies

Why were railways created?

What were the circumstances which brought about their existence?

History does not make it easy to take out one example from a steady continuum of change. …

David Wilson writes: “There have been track or plateways since Roman times. You might say that these could be brought within the term railway and therefore the Romans invented the railway.” [1: p61]

Except there were railways of a sort, at least as far back at 600 BCE, possibly going back even further, maybe as far back as 1000 BCE. The clearest example being the Diolkos Trackway. [2] This was a paved trackway near Corinth in Ancient Greece which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth.

David Wilson continues: “For most people, however, the railways began with the Stockton and Darlington (S&D), though I’m sure many people already appreciate that history is not always what it seems.” [1: p61]

David Wilson tells us that if one wished to take the view that the first ever railway was the first to have been authorised by Parliament, then the first railway was built in Leeds – The Middleton Railway. “The Middleton Railway was given Parliamentary Assent in 1758 and began using steam traction in 1812, two years before the advent of Mr Stephenson’s first locomotive, ‘Blucher’, and 13 years before the opening of the S&D.” [1: p61]

But there is more to consider. … The Lake Lock Rail Road opened in 1798 (arguably the world’s first public railway). It carried coal from the Outwood area to the Aire and Calder navigation canal at Lake Lock near Wakefield. [3][4] The Surrey Iron Railway was the first railway to be authorised by the UK Parliament (21st May 1801).  It was a horse-drawn railway which ran between Wandsworth and Croydon. [5][6][7][8][9] It was followed by The Carmarthenshire Railway or Tramroad (authorised by Act pf Parliament on 3rd June 1802). It was a horse-drawn goods line, located in Southwest Wales, the first public railway first authorised by Act of Parliament in Wales.[3][10][11][12]

The Low Moor Furnace Waggonway was constructed in 1802. It connected Barnby Furnace Colliery to Barnby Basin on the Barnsley Canal. It was replaced in 1809 by The Silkstone Waggonway which operated until 1870. [19][20] The Merthyr Tramroad, between Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon, also opened in 1802. [5][13][14][15][16][17][18] The Lancaster Canal Tramroad (also known as the Walton Summit Tramway or the Old Tram Road), was completed in 1803. It linked the north and south ends of the Lancaster Canal across the Ribble valley. [21][22]

The first steam locomotive to pull a commercial load on rails was Penydarren (or Pen-y-Darren) was built by Richard Trevithick. It was used to haul iron from Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon, Wales. The first train carried a load of 10 tons of iron. On one occasion it successfully hauled 25 tons. However, as the weight of the locomotive was about 5 tons the locomotive’s weight broke many of the cast iron plate rails. [5][13][14][15][16][17]

We could go on to mention:

  • The Croydon, Merstham & Godstone Goods Railway opened in 1805; [23]
  • The Sirhowy Tramroad opened in 1805; [24]
  • The Ruabon Brook Tramway (also known as Jessop’s Tramway or the Shropshire Union Tramway) also opened in 1805; [25][26][27][28]
  • The Middlebere Plateway (or Middlebere Tramway) opened on the Isle of Purbeck in 1806; [29][30][31][32]
  • The Monmouthshire Canal Tramway, open by 1806; [33][34]
  • The Oystermouth Railway, opened in 1806; [35][36] and
  • The Doctor’s Tramroad, Treforest which opened in 1809. [37][38][39]
  • The Monmouth Railway authorised by the UK Parliament in 1811. [5][72][73]
  • The Kilmarnock & Troon Railway which opened in 1812. [5][74][75][76][77]
  • The Killingworth Waggonway of which a first stretch opened in 1762 and which was extended in 1802, 1808 and 1820. [78][79][80][81][82][83]
  • The Haytor Granite Railway of 1820 which not only transported granite from Dartmoor as freight but ran on granite rails. [84]

The drawing of the locomotive Blücher (below) was done by Clement E. Stretton, © Public Domain. Blücher was built by George Stephenson for the Killingworth Waggonway. It was the first of a series of locomotives which established his reputation as an engine designer and eventually “Father of the Railways”.

We could list other railways opening before the S&D in 1825. The use of steam power at The Merthyr Tramroad and The Middleton Railway preceded its use on the S&D. A very strong claim to be the most significant development in the early 1800s could be made on behalf of The Middleton Railway. But it is the Stockton & Darlington (S&D) Railway which has caught the imagination and it is the 200th anniversary of the S&D which is being celebrated in 2025 as the beginning of the railway age.

Why is this?

It is clear that the claim to fame of the Stockton and Darlington (S&D) is lessened, at least, by the prior claim of the Middleton Railway both as first to be sanctioned by Parliament and first to make commercial use of steam power. The claims associated with other railways which preceded the S&D also must be significant. However, there is one important and fundamental difference between it and them. David Wilson says that, unlike the Middleton Railway, “the S&D was constructed with a view to carrying other companies’ goods and, to a lesser extent, to carry people.” [1: p61]

In addition, he says, “Bear in mind the distinction between the carriage of goods and people, and between carrying one’s own goods and those of others. In many ways this type of division is what distinguishes the modern concept of the railway as a system for the transport of goods and passengers on a hire and reward basis from the early plateways and railways such as the Middleton, which were not essentially built to carry anything other than goods, typically coal, for their owners.” [1: p61]

Perhaps, though, there are more grounds for the place taken in history by the S&D. Rather than just running between a pithead and a coal wharf on a canal, river or road and serving specific industrial concerns, the S&D also was built by public subscription and linked one town to another.

David Wilson continues: “To arrive at a description of what constitutes a railway we have to enlarge our definition to include not only Parliamentary Sanction, the use of rails or tracks, and the carriage of goods, but also the carriage of the public, the carriage of public goods and that one settlement be joined to another by the laying of a line paid for through the issue of shares. Thus … a railway is a set of tracks laid between two centres of habitation, which carries goods or people for commercial reward and has been authorised by Act of Parliament. It will have been built through the raising of public funds, either through the sale of shares in it or via government spending from the public purse.” [1: p61]

Let’s return to the era before the existence of the steam locomotive, the era of that list of lines highlighted above (and many more).

David Wilson comments: “The growth of the coal mining industry in the later part of the 17th and early 18th century had led to a growth in the plateway systems used to move the coal from the pit head to [a road], canal or river for shipment to the growing cities and the newly built mills. By as early as 1645 there were wagonways taking coal from the Durham coalfields down to the Tyne. By 1800 there were more than 100 miles of these plateways in the Tyneside area alone.” [1: p61]

Similar developments were taking place elsewhere in the UK:

  • The first overground railway line in England may have been a wooden-railed, horse-drawn tramroad which was built at Prescot, near Liverpool, around 1600 and possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to a terminus about half a mile away. [40]
  • The Wollaton Waggonway in Nottinghamshire was in use by 1604. [5]
  • In East Shropshire and around the Severn Gorge; [41][42] A railway was made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1605 to carry coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. It is possible that Clifford’s ‘railway’ was in use as early as 1570 and a similar line may well have been constructed by William Brooke near Madeley, again down to the River Severn. [43: p21] By 1775, there were a number of both short and long tramroads in the area around the Severn Gorge.
  • The Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway was built by the York Buildings Company of London, to transport coal from the Tranent pits to the salt pans at Cockenzie and the Harbour at Port Seton, in Haddingtonshire, now East Lothian. [5][44]
  • The Alloa Wagon Way was constructed in 1768 by the Erskines of Mar in Alloa, to carry coal from the Clackmannanshire coalfields of central Scotland to the Port of Alloa. [45]
  • The Halbeath Railway opened in 1783, from the colliery at Halbeath to the harbour at Inverkeithing. [46][47]
  • The Charnwood Forest Canal, sometimes known as the ‘Forest Line of the Leicester Navigation’ was, under the guidance of William Jessop, using railways to supplement the canal between Nanpantan and Loughborough wharf, Leicestershire by 1789. [5][48]
  • The Butterley Gangroad (or Crich Rail-way) was built by Benjamin Outram in 1793. [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57]
  • The Earl of Carlisle’s Waggonway opened in 1799 from coal pits owned by George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle around Lambley to Brampton, Cumbria. [51][58] There is some confusion over dates. The earliest opening date quoted is 1774, the latest 1799. [59] Dendy Marshall says that it was built in 1775. [60] C.E. Lee says it was constructed in 1798. [59][61]

It is perhaps easy to loose sight of the scale of these industrial undertakings. The rapid expansion of mining, plateways and railways “led to an increase in the numbers of horses in use … and a growth in the amount of horse feed needed. By 1727 The Tanfield Waggonway, in Co. Durham, carried 830 wagon loads of coal daily that’s a lot of horses.” [1: p61][5][62][63] “In 1804, the Middleton Colliery line was carrying 194 loads per day. Each wagon held about 2.5 tons and required the use of one horse and driver.” [1: p61]

A crisis in the use of horses and wagons occurred early in the 19th century with the advent of the Napoleonic Wars. The conflict became a significant drain on both horse and horse feed availability. The resulting inflation in the price of horses and feed lowered the profitability of each wagon load of coal. David Wilson says that, “The more visionary (or greedy, depending on your point of view) pit owners started to search for alternatives to the horse to move their goods to market. They provided their pit engineers with money and materials to experiment with steam power to replace horse power.” [1: p61]

Of course, steam power wasn’t new. Knowledge of the power of steam had been around since before the Common Era in Greek society [64][65][66] and the pits themselves had steam engines for pumping out the water and for lifting coal to the surface, or as winding engines on rope-worked inclines. [66][67] Newcomen’s first engine was installed for pumping in a mine in 1712 at Dudley Castle in Staffordshire. [66][68] What was new was first, the expiry of Boulton & Watt’s patent for a high-pressure steam engine, [5][69] and second, the idea of making the steam engine mobile, thus creating the steam locomotive. What eventually became even more revolutionary was the idea of creating a network of railways to serve the whole country. [1: p61]

We sometimes talk of a ‘perfect storm’ (a particularly violent storm arising from a rare combination of adverse meteorological factors), when we are talking about a series of adverse conditions occurring at the same time – a situation caused by a combination of unfavourable circumstances. The opposite of a ‘perfect storm’ is usually assumed to be a period of calm. However, the true opposite of a perfect storm is the occurrence (co-occurence) of a series of positive factors which combine to produce something significantly valuable. Wilson says that “as with almost anything man-made, there must be certain ingredients present. To bake a cake you need eggs, flour, milk etc. and in creating a railway you need, metalworking skills, engineering expertise, labour, capital and an incentive.” [1: 61]

The early years of the 19th century saw a timely co-incidence of these and other factors:

  • growing shortages of horse and feed coupled to the rising prices of both;
  • poor road conditions;
  • a rapidly developing understanding of engineering – Wilson suggests that this was “as a consequence of the more theoretical works of philosophers such as Newton, Descartes and Leibniz. … Such men have a reputation as creators or exponents of the mechanistic world view. Prior to the works of these men many had thought, and indeed some still do think, that the earth was a living entity. However, the views espoused by Newton, Descartes and Leibniz came to be accepted, the world was made up of dead, lifeless and inert matter, here to benefit mankind;” [1: p62]
  • the availability of skilled and unskilled labour – particularly the ‘navigators’ who were skilled in the techniques of earthworks, tunneling and bridge building – the men who had earlier built the canals. (“These men were to become the skilled labour of the railway construction industry and in turn they passed on their skills to the former farm labourers who were recruited to railway works as the lines progressed along their routes“); [1: p62]
  • developing metalworking skills – “the Darby family, who set up the … Coalbrookdale foundry. had acquired new skills in metalworking from tinkers, in what is now the Netherlands;” [1: p62] After constructing Ironbridge, “the Coalbrookdale ironmasters began to widen their horizons. One of their number, John “Iron Mad” Wilkinson, constructed what was reputedly the first iron barge and, more importantly, … the smiths of Coalbrookdale collaborated with Richard Trevithick in the construction of his locomotive – they cast the cylinder block and the plates for the construction of the boiler;” [1: p62]
  • the increasing availability of financial capital;
  • the increasing birth rate and the better health of the work-force which provided the necessary labour while engineering work was still labour-intensive.

The Availability of Capital

Among the physical factors listed above is an interesting financial factor which will bear some scrutiny. Wilson tells us that “the capital to build the world’s first public railway came, not from the Government, but from the Society of Friends, the Quakers.” [1: p62] He notes too that the Darby family whose Coalbrookdale plant had such a formative influence in the early days of the industrial revolution, were also Quakers. Wilson explains that Quakers were isolated from much of society and public life because of a refusal to sign up to the articles of faith of the established church. However, the same religious views made them sympathetic to works performed for the public good. Various Quaker families began to take an interest in the developing railway sphere. The website quakersintheword.org [70] tells the story of the significant role played in financing railways played by the Quakers.

“In 1818 a small group of Quaker businessmen, including Edward Pease and his son Joseph from Darlington, Benjamin Flounders and the banker Jonathan Backhouse, met to discuss the possibility of building a railway from Darlington, passing several collieries, to the port of Stockton.” [70] 

The Act of Parliament required for the work to take place faced significant delays in the parliamentary process. “The delay proved very significant, as in April 1821 Edward met George Stephenson and recruited him as an engineer for the railway. The original intention had been that the coaches would be horse drawn, just like all the others now in existence. However, George convinced Edward that steam engines were the future for railways, and that he could build them. The Pease family then put up much of the capital that enabled Stephenson to establish a company in Newcastle, where he built the locomotives.” [70]

After the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, “the railway network grew under the guidance of Edward’s son Joseph, who opened the Stockton & Middlesbrough branch in 1828. … In 1833 Joseph became the first Quaker to enter Parliament and the railway interests passed to his brother Henry. In 1838, Henry opened the Bishop Auckland & Weardale line, followed by the Middlesbrough and Redcar line in 1846. Henry wanted to traverse the Pennines and in 1854 he started the Darlington & Barnard Castle line, which opened in 1856.” [70]

Quakers were often involved in railway developments in the 19th century, for instance, “in 1824, a group of merchants, including Quaker philanthropist and anti-slavery campaigner James Cropper, went to see the Stockton and Darlington railway.  They soon began building the Liverpool and Manchester railway, which opened in 1830.” [70]

Incidentally, Quakers “were also responsible for two innovations that improved the way these new passenger railways worked – timetables and tickets. James Cropper produced a 12-page timetable for the Liverpool and Manchester railway, probably the first railway timetable ever.  It was the forerunner of Quaker George Bradshaw’s Railway Companion, published in 1839. Bradshaw’s became a household name for anyone using the railways. … The second innovation was the railway ticket. In 1839 Thomas Edmundson, another Quaker, was appointed station master at Milton, on the Newcastle and Carlisle line.  He was unhappy that customers paid their fares directly to him without receiving a receipt.  Consequently he introduced the railway ticket, which came into general use with the creation of the Railway Clearing House in 1842.” [70]

The Birth Rate and Increasing Health of the UK Population

Wilson points us to one more significant factor in the development of railways in the early 19th century. “Seemingly disconnected and irrelevant factors were playing their part. During the period from the end of the civil war (1649) onwards there was a growing awareness of the value of the human being as resource, and a concerted effort was made to increase the birth rate and to cut the death rate. … This did not stem from any rise in humanitarianism but from a recognition that people were worth money. After all, in the 1640s and on into the 19th century, slavery was still common throughout the so-called civilised world, including Britain. Improvements in diet and sanitation increased life exресtancy. It is no coincidence that the first workhouses began to appear around the middle of the 17th century – a reasonably fit and healthy population produced more than a sickly and unfit one.” [1: p62]

“By the beginning of the 19th century, the conditions were in place for a major economic expansion. A growing empire and military strength ensured the supply of raw materials and provided a growing market place for the products made from them. An expanding population provided the physical means by which the empire might be held together. Technology provided the ability to carry out the grand design. The workhouses and other reforms had created a disciplined workforce.” [1: p62-63]

By 1850, a quarter of a million workers – a force bigger than the Army and Navy combined – had laid down 3,000 miles of railway line across Britain, connecting people like never before. [71]

And Finally …

Wilson suggests one other, less definable, reason for the dramatic welcome given to steam technology in particular. He suggests that there was a more visceral connection to steam power which predisposed humanity to embrace the technology.

No doubt, the S&D was at the forefront of engineering developments it was “the white heat of technology, the frontier of science.” [1: p63] Wilson asks us to consider that there was (and still is) a connection between “a piece of primitive industrial technology, the steam locomotive and its enduring popularity, and an ancient, and some might say mystical, view of the world.” [1: p63]

Wilson says: “Prior to the advent of the mechanistic world view in which cause and effect, hard science and hard facts are the order of the day, people held to a more animistic philosophy. Miners would pray to the earth before digging it up. … In this more mystic view of the world things were not made of chemicals and atoms, molecules and the force of gravity. They were composed of the four elements – earth, air, fire and water.” [1: p63] He asks us to consider whether “the reason so many people took to the steam engine and the railway when it began was that the steam locomotive has a unique blend of the four elements not only in its construction but in the very forces and requirements necessary for its movement. … [It] is made from the ores of the earth, heated by fire which needs air to burn. The metals from the forge are then tempered by water whilst being shaped on the anvil. In order to make the steam locomotive work, coal, or part of the earth, is consumed along with air in a fire which turns water into steam which in turn brings the locomotive to life.” [1: p63]

We all know that all men, are just little boys at heart. Increasingly women are involved in the preservation movement. There seems to be a deep emotional connection for many of us between the steam beasts of earth, wind, fire and water that reigned over the railway networks for the world for more than a century and a half and our own psyche, something deeply ‘elemental’!

Whatever the cause, the early 19th century saw humanity embrace steam-power and the benefits it brought with open arms and wallets.

References

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  67. In 1712, Thomas Newcomen’s atmospheric engine became the first commercially successful engine using the principle of the piston and cylinder, which was the fundamental type of steam engine used until the early 20th century. The steam engine was used to pump water out of coal mines. [66]
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The Callander and Oban Railway

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In July 1923, The Railway Magazine carried an article about the Callander & Oban Railway (C&O) written by G.F. Gairns. [1]

Gairns commented that the C&O constituted the third of the three great mountain lines: the Perth-Inverness line of the Highland Railway; the West Highland Line of the North British Railway; and the Callander & Oban Railway (including the Ballachulish Extension).

The Callander & Oban Railway. [1: p11]

A short series of four articles about the Ballachulish line can be found here, [2] here, [3] here, [4] and here. [5]

The C&O had previously been written about in the Railway Magazine, specifically in the issues of September 1903, August 1904, and August and September 1912. Gairns leaves the detailed history to those previous articles, apart from a brief introduction, and focusses in 1923 on a journey along the line from Stirling to Oban and to Ballachulish.

An excellent presentation of the various scenes which preceded the Callander & Oban Railway can be found in the early pages of John Thomas’, ‘The Callander & Oban Railway‘. [62: p1-26]

Ultimately, an agreement was signed between the Scottish Central Railway (SCR) and the Callander & Oban (C&O) was signed on 17th December 1864 which affirmed that the SCR would subscribe £200,000 to the scheme. “The C&O was to have nine directors, five appointed by the Scottish Central and four by the promoters. The line was to be ‘made, constructed and completed in a good, substantial sufficient and workmanlike manner, and without the adoption of timber bridges and culverts’. … The rails were to weigh 75 lb per yard and were to be laid in 24 ft lengths on larch sleepers placed at an average distance of 3 ft.” [62: p26-27]

As part of the agreement, once at least 20 miles of line directly connected to the Dunblane, Doune & Callander Railway had been constructed and passed by the Board of Trade, the Scottish Central Railway undertook work it in perpetuity, on the basis that it would receive half of the gross revenue.

The Callander & Oban Railway bill was drawn up and presented in Parliament in January 1865. … The bill sought:

“First, a Railway commencing about Five Furlongs South-westwards from the Schoolhouse in the Town of Oban called the Oban Industrial School, and terminating by a Junction with the Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway, about One and a Half Furlongs Eastward from the Booking Office of the Callander Station of the Railway.

Secondly, a Tramway commencing by a Junction with the Railway above described about One Furlong South-westwards from the said Schoolhouse, and terminating on the Pier on the East Side of the Harbour of Oban about Two Chains Eastward from the South-western end of the said Pier.” [62: p27]

148 railway bills were passed in a two-day session of Parliament on January 1865. These included the C&O and the Dingwall & Skye Railway.  Both these schemes had a similar primary purpose – to reach ports on the West Coast of Scotland to give the fishing trade access to markets in the rest of Scotland and further South.

Thomas comments: “The Callander & Oban Railway Act was passed on 8th July 1865. The  first sod was not cut for over fourteen months. Five years were to pass before a revenue-earning wheel was to turn on the line (and on only 17½ miles at that), and it would be fifteen years before a train entered Oban. … But even before the Act was passed sweeping changes had transformed the railway political scene. Ten days earlier, on 29th June, the Scottish Central had won permission to take over the Dunblane, Doune & Callander as from 31st July 1865; and the Central had enjoyed its new-found gains for one day. On 1st August 1865 the Central itself had been absorbed by the Caledonian, which acquired all its assets and liabilities including the obligation to finance and operate the Callander & Oban. At the outset the C & O directors found themselves with formidable new masters.” [62: p28]

As much as the Callander & Oban had looked attractive to the Scottish Central. “It was not at all attractive to the Caledonian, whose shareholders, had no stomach for squandering cash among the Perthshire hills. … The 1861 census had shown that Oban and Callander between them possessed fewer than 3,000 inhabitants, and the scattered hamlets between the two could produce barely a thousand more. The certain dividends lying in the coal and iron traffic of the Clyde Valley were infinitely preferable to the nebulous rewards from the fish and sheep of the West Highlands.” [62: p29]

From the beginning there was a faction on that Caledonian board which wished to drop expansion towards Oban at the earliest opportunity, “but the terms of the SCR-Caledonian amalgamation agreement forbade such a course. And there was another reason, if a negative one, why the Caledonian should use caution. The amalgamations of 1865 had given the Edinburgh & Glasgow to the North British, which as the result had now penetrated deep into traditional Caledonian territory – Glasgow and the Clyde coast; and the North British already possessed and exercised running powers into Callander. If the Caledonian abandoned its awkward foster-child on the Callander doorstep, it was reasonable to suppose that the North British would attempt to pick it up.” [62: p29]

The Callander & Oban directors had undertaken to find £400,000 along the route of the railway. This proved to be a monumental task. Their first attempts brought in 201 individual shareholders who subscribed for a total of £56,360 worth of shares! The C&O may well have been stillborn had it not been for the appointment of John Anderson as the Secretary to the C&O.

Given palpable hostility between the directors, Anderson “was left to conduct the line’s affairs single-handed.” [62: p32] Thomas goes on to describe in some detail the different methods he used to achieve progress. The machinations involved need not, however, detain us here

Gairns writes:

“The Callander and Oban Railway Company was constituted in 1865. The Dunblane, Doune and Callander Railway was already in existence, having been opened in 1858. The Callander and Oban line was opened: Callander to Killin Junction, 1870; Killin Junction to Tyndrum, August, 1873; thence to Dalmally, May, 1877; and to Oban, July, 1880. At Balquhidder, at first known as Lochearnhead, the line from Crieff makes connection. This route, with connecting lines, was opened, Perth to Methven, 1838; Methven Junction to Crieff, 1866; Gleneagles (previously Crieff Junction, 1856; Crieff to Comrie, 1893; Comrie to St. Fillans, 1901; St. Fillans to Balquhidder (Lochearnhead), 1905. The Callander and Oban line has always been worked by the Caledonian Company, and is now [1923] included in the London Midland and Scottish Railway.

Dunblane is the ordinary junction for the Callander and Oban line, but trains which are not through to or from Glasgow use Stirling as their southern terminus. In some instances, ordinary Caledonian main line engines work the trains to and from Callander, the special C. and O, engines being attached or detached there, though this is mainly a traffic arrangement, convenient in the case of certain trains. At Dunblane there is an island platform on the down side, thus enabling branch trains to wait on the outer side to make connections. To Doune is double track, and the country mainly pastoral. Thence to Callander is single line, controlled by electric train tablet, as is the whole of the Callander and Oban line. The scenery continues to be of lowland character, though picturesque, but signs of the mountain country beyond show themselves. Between Doune and Callander is an intermediate crossing place – Drumvaich Crossing – to break up the long section of nearly 7 miles between stations. The original line diverged into what is now the goods station at Callander, the present station having been built when the Oban line was made. Callander station is distinctly picturesque, an ornamental clock tower surmounting the footbridge, and the station buildings being neat and attractive, while the platforms are decorated florally. It also has refreshment rooms on the platforms. On the up and down sides there are short bay lines from which locals can start as required. For down trains there is also a ticket platform, half a mile or so short of the station, but this is now used only by a few trains.” [1: p10]

The original location of Callander Railway Station as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1862, published in 1866.  [6]
The original location of Callander Railway Station as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1899, published in 1901. By this time the site had become Callander’s Goods Station. [7]
The location of Callander’s first Railway Station in the 21st century, as it appears on the ESRI satellite imagery provided by the National Library of Scotland (NLS). [6]
Callander Railway Station as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1899, published in 1901. [9]
Callander Railway Station as shown on the 25″ Ordnance Survey of 1899, published in 1901. [13]
The location of Callander Railway Station in the 21st century as shown on the ESRI satellite imagery provided by the NLS. [9]
Coaches awaiting the arrival of the train, about 1895, © Public Domain. [62: p48]
A busy morning in 1959. A diesel excursion, No. 45153 on 9.18 am Oban -Glasgow, and No. 45213 on an up freight, © Public Domain. [62: p48]

Wikipedia tells us that “closure [for Callander Station] came on 1st November 1965, when the service between Callander and Dunblane ended as part of the Beeching Axe. The section between Callander and Crianlarich (lower) was closed on 27th September that year following a landslide at Glen Ogle.” [8]

Callander Station from the roadbridge Mar'73.
This is an embedded link to a Flickr image of Callander Railway Station (seen from the road bridge at the East end of the Station) in 1973, (c) David Christie. [10]
A very similar view in the 21st century. [Google Streetview, October 2016]
The road bridge at the East end of Callander Raiway Station in 1967 (Ancaster Road Bridge). (c) J.R. Hume, Public Domain [11]
Callander Railway Station forecourt in the 1940s, seen from the East. This image was shared on the Callander Heritage Society Facebook Page on 18th December 2023, (c) Public Domain. [12]
A similar view in the 21st century. [Google Streetview, October 2016]
Lookin West from Callendar Railway Station after the lifting of the rails. The tall signal box allowed for visibility beyond Leny Road Bridge which is just off the scene to the left. This image was shared on the Callendar Heritage Facebook Page on 27th September 2023. [14]

The old railway passed under Leny Road, Callander at the western end of the station site. The first image below shows the alignment of the railway looking Northeast from Leny Road. The pelican crossing marks the location of the old bridge. The second image shows the public footpath which follows the old railway to the South side of Leny Road.

The location of Leny Road Bridge, Google Streetview, July 2023]
The location of Leny Road Bridge, Google Streetview, July 2023]

The first length of the railway to the West of Callander is shown on the RailMapOnline.com image below.

The route of the Callander & Oban Railway to the West of Callander as shown on the satellite imagery provided by RailMapOnline.com. Loch Lubnaig is at the top-left of this image. [15]
This embedded image from the Canmore National Record of the Historic Environment looks Northeast along the Callander & Oban railway towards Callander Railway station. The Bowstring Girder Bridge in the foreground is mentioned by Gairns below. The stone-arch bridge in the distance is the bridge that carried Leny Road over the old railway, (c) J.R. Hume. [16]

Gairns mentions the Pass of Leny and the Falls of Leny, below. The falls are shown on the map extract immediately below. The Falls can be seen in the right half of the extract.

The Falls of Leny and the Callander & Oban Railway. Note that the river – Garbh Uisge – is crossed twice by the railway. These bridges were bowstring Girder bridges like that seen above. [17]
Pair of BRCW Type 2's.River Leny bridge. 7th August 1965.
This image is embedded from Flickr and shows one of the two girder bridges shown on the map extract above. The photograph was taken shortly before the closure of the line. (c) locoman1966. [18]

Gairns continues:

“Crossing the River Leny [Garbh Uisge] by a bowstring girder bridge, mountain country is entered in the Pass of Leny, and Ben Ledi and Ben Vane on the one side (the former skirted by the line), Ben Each, and, in the distance, Ben Vorlich, on the other, give evidence of the nature of the country traversed. The Falls of Leny can be seen on the right providing the intervening foliage is not too full. St. Bride’s Crossing, at the head of the Pass of Leny, is now only used as a crossing place at periods of special pressure. For nearly two miles the line then proceeds along the western shore, and almost at the water’s edge  of Loch Lubnaig ‘the crooked lake’. A short distance beyond St. Bride’s Crossing is Craignacailleach Platform, used by children of railway servants going to school in Callander the 5.40 a.m. from Oban and the 6.45 pm from Callander, daily except Saturdays. At the picturesque little station of Strathyre, both platforms are adorned by ornamental shrubs, and on the up side there is a fountain, rockeries, rustic gate ways, etc.. lending further interest to this pretty station among its beautiful natural surroundings.

Before reaching Strathyre station the River Balvag is crossed. It keeps close company with the railway until near Kingshouse Platform, where a glimpse is had of the hills encircling Loch Val.  Kingshouse Platform is used as a halt, trains calling as required, for the convenience of visitors to the Braes o’ Balquhidder.” [1: p10-11]

The adjacent RailMapOnline.com satellite image shows the railway running up the West side of Loch Lubnaig. Strathyre, mentioned by Gairns above, can be seen to the North of the Loch.

This portion of the old railway has been metalled to support its use as National Cycleway No. 7. South of the Loch, there is now a car park close to the upstream of the two bridges noted above.

The old railway formation is now the National Cycle Route No. 7. The blue line marks the route of the railway. The River Garbh Uisge is to the right of this North facing photograph. [Google Streetview, March 2009]
Another North facing view, this time alongside Loch Lubnaig. The tarmacked cycle route follows the line of the old railway. [Google Streetview, May 2022]

North of Loch Lubnaig, the old railway ran North through Strathyre, first crossing the river to the East bank and few hundred metres short of the Railway Station.

This extract from the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1898, published in 1901 [19] shows the small village of Strathyre, its railway station and the bridge over the River Leny [Garbh Uisge].

Looking South from the main platform at Strathyre Railway Station towards Callander in September 1956, (c) T. Morgan and made available for use here under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0). [20]
Looking back through the station site from a minor road just to the North. [Google Streetview, July 2023]
Looking North along the old railway from the same minor. [Google Streetview, July 2023]

North of Strathyre the line continued North-northeast towards Balquhidder.

RailMapOnline.com again – the satelitel image shows the route of the line North from Strathyre through Balquidder. [15]

King’s House Inn on the modern A84 had its own Halt – Kingshouse Platform. This was a request halt serving both King’s House Inn (just to the east of the line) and the road to Balquhidder Glen (to the west). The halt was built at the expense of the King’s House Inn. It was a single platform, on the east side of the line, with a waiting shelter. Both platform and building were built in timber. Traffic handled included passengers, children using the school train and milk churns. As can be seen below, the halt was located south of the road to the glen.

Kingshouse Platform (Halt) as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1898, published in 1901. [21]
Looking back along the line towards Strathyre from the road up the Glen. [Google Streetview, July 2023]
Looking Northeast along the line towards Lochearnhead Railway Station from the road up the Glen. [Google Streetview, July 2023]

A short distance Northeast of Kingshouse Platform was Lochearnhead Railway Station sited some distance South of the community of the same name.

Lochearnhead Railway Station. [22]
Lochearnhead Railway Station as it appears on the 25″ Ordnance Survey of 1898, published 1901. [23]
The same location in the 21st century, as it appears on the ESRI satellite imagery provided by the NLS. The old railway ran from bottom-left to top-middle of this extract. [24]

The station was renamed Balquhidder Station on 1st July 1904, when the line to Crieff, Gleneagles and Perth was completed. The station then became the junction station. The branch came in from the North, paralleled by the Oban line for some distance, from the head of Loch Earn. Balquhidder station had an island platform on the up side to provide for connecting trains. A new station was built on the branch to serve Lochearnhead village. [25]

Balquhidder Railway Station looking Southwest towards Callander on 27th September 1961. The branch line was off to the left of this image, (c) Ben Brooksbank and authorised for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0). [26]

Gairns continues:

“Leaving Balquhidder the Oban line climbs steeply along the hillside as it finds its way up Glen Ogle, overlooking, in the ascent, the Crieff line as it follows the shores of Loch Earn eastward, and giving views over the waters of the Loch, amidst their mountain setting, which are said to be the finest in the British Isles. … Nearly 8 miles separate Balquhidder and Killin Junction stations, though there is an intermediate crossing – Glenoglehead. This was the site of the original Killin station, before the opening of the Killin Branch Railway. The whole length of ‘gloomy’ Glen Ogle – a wild rocky valley, four miles in length, described as the Khyber Pass of Scotland – is traversed, with its rocky boulder-strewn slopes, the railway being carried in places on brick or masonry viaducts around the face of the rock where the cutting of a ledge was well-nigh impossible. For most of the ascent the view from the train is down almost precipitous slopes, continued upwards on the other side.” [1: p11]

The Oban line runs South to North on this extract from the RailMapOnline.com satellite imagery. The branch turns away to run East along the North side of Loch Earn which just peeps into this satellite image at the bottom-right. [15]
Four pictures of Glen Ogle Viaduct. The first was taken from the opposite side of the valley, (c) Euan Reid, Octobr 2024. [Google Maps, November 2024]
Summer (c) Craig McArdle. (2023)
Autumn (c) Sky T. (2021)
Winter (c) Ken Schwart (2022)
This next extract from RailMapOnline.com’s satellite imagery shows that to the North of Glen Ogle the old railway turned to the West. The line entering the extract from the top and meeting with the Callander & Oban Railway is the Killin Branch. [15]

Gairns continues:

“At the northern end of the Pass the line curves westward, overlooking the Loch Tay branch which runs from Killin Junction to the little town of Killin, with an extension of about a mile to a pier on Loch Tay to connect with the railway steamers which serve the whole length of the Loch, glimpses of which are had from the Oban train. The branch is on a lower level and its track can be seen for a long distance from the main line. The branch railway is one of very heavy gradients. At Killin Junction it makes connection with the main line which has descended from Glenoglehead to meet it. The station here has the usual island platform on the up side, to accommodate the branch trains clear of the main line.” [1: p11-12]

Looking South towards Lochearnhead, the A85 and the route of the old railway run immediately adjacent to each other alongside Locham Lairig Cheile which is just off the right side of this photograph. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Looking North towards Glenoglehead Crossing at the smae location as the image above. Lochan Lairig Cheile ican be picked out on the left of the image. [Google Streetview, May 2022]

Glenoglehead Crossing permitted two trains on the line to pass each other.

A Google Maps satellite image extract showing the location of Glenoglehead Crossing in the 21st century. It was once known as Killian Railway Station (even though over 3 miles from Killin) and was at that time the northern terminus of the Callander & Oban Railway. [Google Maps, November 2024]

From Glenoglehead the line dropped down to Killin Junction. The two map extracts above come from the same 6″ Ordnance Survey sheet surveyed in 1899 and printed in 1901. [27]

The location of Glenoglehead Railway Station with the original station building in private hands. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The route of the old railway descending from Glenoglehead. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The line ran West on the Southern slopes of Glen Dochart. {Google Streetview, May 2022]
An enlarged extract from the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1899 showing the location of Killin Junction. [27]
A similar length of the line on the RailMapOnline.com satellite imagery. [15]
Killin Junction Railway Station and Signal Box. This view looks Southwest through the station towards the Signal Box. This image is one of a number which scroll across the screen on [28]
Killin Junction Railway Station. This view looks Northeast. The image is one of a number which scroll across the screen on https://railwaycottagekillin.co.uk/history [28]

Just to the Southwest of Killin Junction the line was carried over the Ardchyle Burn on a stone viaduct – Glendhu Viaduct.

Glendu Viaduct carried the old railway over the Ardchyle Burn, (c) Richard Webb and made available for resue under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0), [29]

A short distance to the West of the viaduct, a farm acess track was carried over the railway on a stone arched bridge.

Farm access bridge over the old railway. This image was shared on the Re-Appreciate the Callander & Oban Line Facebook Group by John Gray on 6th October 2018. [32]

Along the length of the old railway between Killin Junction and Luib Railway Sation two more structures are worthy of note. First, Ledcharrie Viaduct at around the half-way point between Killin Junction and Luib spans the Ledcharrie Burn. [33] The second is Edravinoch Bridge which was a girder bridge which once spanned the Luib Burn. The aboutments remain but the girders were removed for scrap on closure of the line. [34] Bothe the pictures below were taken by John Gray and shared by him on the Re-Appreciate the Callander & Oban Line Facebook Group on 4th October 2018. John Gray’s photographs are reproduced here with his kind permission.

Ledcharrie Viaduct. [33]
Edravinoch Bridge. [34]

The next station on the old railway was Luib Railway Station in Glen Dochart.

River, road and railway in close proximity at Luib Railway Station. The 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1898, published in 1901. [30]
The site of Luib Railway station is, in the 21st century, Glen Dochart Holiday Park. [15]
https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/36542360150
This view looking West from Luib Railway Station is embedded from Ernie’s Railway Archive on Flickr, (c) J.M. Boyce. Note the signal box and the stone water tower base. [31]
The old road alignment and under bridge to the West of the Luib Railway Station site. [35]
Just to the West of Luib Railway Station the line crossed what became the A85. There is no clear indication on the groud of the location of the bridge as road improvements have swept away the vestiges of the old railway in the immediate vicinity. [Google Maps, November 2024]

Gairns continues:

“Westward past Luib to Crianlarich, Glen Dochart is traversed, with the River Dochart, until it merges into Loch Iubhair, succeeded in turn by Loch Dochart, and the public road, for company close alongside. Here splendid views are hard on both sides, bare mountain slopes being relieved by wooded areas, while rushing burns and streamlets add further interest. On both sides are peaks of considerable height, notably Ben Dheiceach (3,074 ft.) to the North, Ben More (3,843 ft.) immediately ahead, and Stobinian (3,821 ft.) to the South, with many others in the distance.

Crianlarich is important as it provides for interchange traffic with the West Highland line to Fort William and Mallaig, which here crosses. The stations are within a short distance, and there is siding connection for interchange goods traffic. The Callander and Oban station is a neat double-platformed station with rather attractive buildings on the down side, Just beyond the station the North British Railway crosses by an overbridge, and Crianlarich Junction is then reached, this controlling the connection with the West Highland line.” [1: p12-13]

Two different railways crossed at Crianlarich. The Callander & Oban Railway ran East-West. The West Highland Line ran North-South. The East-West line and station were opened on 1st August 1873 by the Callander and Oban Railway. This was the first railway station in Crianlarich. The station was originally laid out with two platforms, one on either side of a crossing loop. There were sidings on the south side of the station. After the West Highland Railway opened in 1894, Crianlarich could boast two railway stations. The West Highland Railway crossed over the Callander and Oban Railway by means of a viaduct located a short distance west of the Lower station. The West Highland Railway’s Crianlarich station was (and still is) located a short distance south of this viaduct. [36]
The two lines plotted on the modern satellite imagery provided by RailMapOnline.com. The blue line being the Callander and Oban Railway, the red line being the West Highland Line. The link line between the two stations/railways was put in by the West Highland Line and is shown in red. [15]

Crianlarich Junction was situated half a mile west of Crianlarich Lower station. Opened on 20th December 1897, the junction was located at one end of a short link line that ran to Crianlarich station on the West Highland Railway. There were two signal boxes: “Crianlarich Junction East” (32 levers) and “Crianlarich Junction West” (18 levers). Following closure of the line east from Crianlarich Lower, the line between there and Crianlarich Junction was retained as a siding, with the link line becoming the main line for trains to and from Oban. [37]

Crianlarich Lower Railway Station on the Callander and Oban Railway. The picture appears to have been taken in circa. the 1920s. Note that by this time the second platform and the loop had been removed. It is also [possible to see the high level viaduct which carried the West Highland line over the road (A85), the Callander and Oben Railway and the River Fillan. This image was shared by Brian Previtt on the Disused Stations Facebook Group on 25th October 2024, (c) photographer not known, Public Domain. [38]

The line to the West of Crianlarich Junction remains in use in the 21st century.

Gairns continues his description of the line:

“Onwards through Strath Fillan magnificent views are had, and for some miles the West Highland line runs parallel, but on the opposite side of the valley, climbing up the hillside, after crossing the viaduct over the River Fillan until both lines are almost on the same level, with the valley between. Both lines have stations at Tyndrum (a favourite mountain resort), though these are some half-a-mile apart. The Callander and Oban station is a neat tree-shaded [location], with the goods yard at a lower level.” [1: p13]

The Callander & Oban Railway’s Tyndrum Railway Station sat to the South of the Hotel which the West Highland Line’s station to the North. [39]

Wikipedia tells us that Tyndrum Lower Station “opened on 1st August 1873 as a terminal station. This was the first railway station in the village of Tyndrum. Until 1877, it was the western extremity of the Callander and Oban Railway. In 1877, the Callander and Oban Railway was extended from Tyndrum to Dalmally. Concurrently, the station was relocated 301 yards (275 m) west, onto the new through alignment. The new station was on a higher level, as the line had to climb steeply to reach the summit about 0.6 miles (1 km) to the west. The old terminus then became the goods yard. The through station was originally laid out with two platforms, one on each side of a passing loop.” [40]

Tyndrum Lower and Upper Tyndrum Railway Stations can be seen on this extract from RailMapOnline.com’s satellite imagery. The image shows the route(also in blue) of a tramroad which served Tyndrum Lead Mines and Glengarry Lead Smelter (a little to the East of Tyndrum). After the closure of the smelter transfer to wagons of the Callander & Oban Railway took place at Tyndrum Lower Railway Station. [15]
Tyndrum Lower Railway Station in 2015 – a single platform Halt. The platform is on the North side of the line. This view looks East toward Crianlarich, (c) Alex17595 and made available under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0). [41]
Looking West along the line from the access road/carpark at Tyndrum Lower Railway Station. [Google Streetview, April 2011]

Gairns’ description of the line continues:

“Passing Tyndrum station a final view is had of the West Highland line [before] it turns its course northwards, while the Callander and Oban line makes a long sweep southwesterly through Glen Lochy, wild and bare. An intermediate crossing, Glenlochy breaks the 12-mile run from Tyndrum to Dalmally. Approaching the rather pretty station at the latter place, Glen Orchy is joined, fine views being had along it. Dalmally, at the foot of Glen Orchy, has been described as ‘the loveliest spot in all that lovely glen’. A short run of less than 3 miles crossing the Orchy and rounding a bay on Loch Awe, and incidentally giving beautiful views up the Loch, and Loch Awe station is reached, right on the water side, and with a pier alongside for the steamers which ply along the Loch. For four miles or so the line runs high on the base at Ben Cruachan and follows the shores of the Loch through the gloomy Pass of Brander in which the waters of the loch merge into the brawling River Awe most turbulent of Highland salmon streams, Three miles beyond Loch Awe station the Falls of Cruachan Platform is a convenience for visitors to the celebrated Falls, a glimpse of which is had from the train in passing. The crossing place is, however, Awe Crossing, a mile or so beyond. A further run of 41 miles and Taynuilt is reached, beyond which the shores of Loch Etive are followed to Connel Ferry, a run of 64 miles, with one intermediate station – Ach-na-Cloich – and providing lovely views over the loch and the hills and mountains. beyond.” [1: p13]

Glenlochy Crossing, which Gairns describes as “An intermediate crossing, Glenlochy breaks the 12-mile run from Tyndrum to Dalmally.” This image shows what is recorded on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1898, published in 1900. [41]
The same location as it appears in the 21st century on the ESRI satellite imagery provided by the NLS. The site of Glenlochy Crossing is in the trees close to the centre of this image. which runs diagonally down the centre portion of the imageof this image. The A85 runs to the West of the old railway’s route which runs diagonally down the centre portion of the image. The River Lochy passes immediately to the West of Glenlochy Crossing (left of centre). [41]

Glenlochy Crossing was a passing loop opened in 1882 to increase the capacity of the line. It broke the singl-track section between Tyndrum Lower and Dalmally. The building shown just to the East of the line was similar to that found at other crossings (such as Drumvaich Crossing and Awe Crossing0. It combined a railway cottage with a signal cabin. When first built the loop had two trailing sidings one at each end of the loop. We know that the loop was lifted in 1966 when the building was also demolished. There is still a footbridge across the River Lochy which gave access to the Crossing but that is now locked against public access. [42]

The Callander & Oban Railway closely followed the South bank Of the River Lochy, only turning away to the South to cross Eas a Ghaill (a tributary which approached the River Lochy from the South) by means of Succoth Viaduct.

Succoth Viaduct. This is an embedded link to an image on the GetLostMountaineering.co.uk webpage. The viaduct carries what was the Callander & Oban Railway over Eas a Ghaill. [43]

The line runs almost due West from Succoth Viaduct at a distance from the River Lochy until it reaches Dalmally Railway Station.

Dalmally Railway Station as it appears on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897, published in 1900. [44]
Dalmally Railway Station as it appears on the satellite imagery provided by RailMapOnline.com. [15]
Looking West through Dalmally Railway Station, this mage was shared by Donald Taggart on Google Maps, (c) Donald Taggart (March 2020)
A similar view of the station buildings at Dalmally from Platform No. 2, (c) Anna-Mária Palinčárová. (June 2017), shared by her on Google Maps.

This photograph was taken from the Road overbridge at the West end of Dalmally Railway Station site, (c) inett (November 2017) and shared on Google Maps.

the road overbridge at the West end of Dalmally Station site seen from the ned of Platform No. 1, (c) Marian Kalina (November 2017) and shared on Google Maps.
The Station approach, seen from the West, Dalmally. [Google Streetview, November 2021]
The road over the bridge at the West end of Dalmally Railway Station site. [Google Streetview, May 2022]

West of Dalmally the line ran on towards a viaduct which crossed the River Lochy at Drishaig. However, we need to note that the road layout in this immediate area is considerably different to what was present at the turn of the 20th century.

The Southeast approach to the viaduct over the River Orchy as it appears on the 1897 Ordnance Survey, published in 1900. [46]
The smae area as it appears on the 21st century RailMapOnline.om satellite imagery with two roads appearing where non were evident at the turn of the 20th century. [15]
The view East from the bridge carrying the A819 over the railway. [Google Streetview, November 2021]
The view West from the bridge carrying the A819 over the railway. [Google Streetview, November 2021]

Just a short distance to the West, the line crossed the River Orchy at the East end of Loch Awe.

Further West of Dalmally, the line bridged the River Orchy at Drishaig. The mineral Railway which branched off the Callander & Oban Railway at Drishaig served the Ben Chruachan Quarry which was high on the East flank of Ben Chruachan. [45]
The same location as it appears in satellite imagery in the 21st century. [15]
An aerial image of Lochawe Railway Bridge with the A85 bridge behind. This aerial image was shared on Google Maps in September 2022, (c) Kevin Newton. [Google Maps, November 2024]
Lochawe Railway Bridge seen from ground level. This image was shared on Google Mpas in April 2021, (c) Wojciech Suszko. [Google Maps, November 2024]

The Ben Cruachan Quarry Branch was standard-gauge and ran North from Drishaig. It is shown here as it appears on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897, published in 1900. The line North from Drishaig appears on the map extract on the left. [47]

Ben Cruachan Quarry itself, shown on the next 6″ OS Map Sheet. The quarry was on the eastern slopes of Ben Cruachan. The full extent of the quarry’s internal railways is not shown. [48].

Ben Cruachan Quarry was multi-levelled and was accessed by the railway which zig-zagged to gain height. The RailScot website rells us that”The ground frame for this short Ben Cruachan Quarries Branch (Callander and Oban Railway) was released by a tablet from Loch Awe station for the section to Dalmally. The quarry had its own pair of 0-4-0ST locomotives.” [49]

Just a short distance Southwest of Drishaig was the Lochawe Hotel which had its own railway station alongside the Loch.

Lochawe Railway Station and Hotel in 1897 as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey sheet of that year. [50]
The same location as shown on the satellite imagery of RailMapOnline.com. [15]
A postcard view of Lochawe Railway Station and Hotel, (c) Public Do9main. [52]
Lochawe Railway Station in 2015. The removed second platform can be seen easily, (c) Tom Parnell and licenced for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 2.0). [51]

The line ran across the North shore of Loch Awe to a Halt named for the Falls of Cruachan – Falls of Churachan Platform.

The Falls of Cruachan Platform as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897. [50]
The same location in the 21st century. There is a significant hydro electric scheme at this location which has a visitor centre and its own Railway Station – Falls of Cruachan Railway Station. [15]
A train approaching Falls of Cruachan Railway Station from the West in 2024, (c) Alex Morgan. (July 2024)
The Falls of Cruachan Railway Station sat immediately above and t the North of the A85, (c) Alex Morgan. (July 2024)

The line continues West/Northwest along the Northside of the River Awe. It crosses the river just North of The Bridge of Awe. Just prior to reaching the Viaduct the line bridged the minor road which served properties on the North side of the River Awe.

The bridge over the minor road mentioned above – seen from the Southwest. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The bridge over the minor road mentioned above – seen from the Northeast. [Google Streetview, May 2022]

A matter of not much more than a couple of hundred metres to the West of the minor road, the line bridges the River Awe.

The Bridge of Awe with the Railway Viaduct just to the North, as they appear on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897, published in 1900. [53]

The same location on RailMapOnline.com’s satellite imagery. [15]
An aerial image of the railway viaduct. [54]
The railway viaduct over the River Awe. Network Rail Undertook a £3.5m project to refurbish Awe viaduct in 2024/25. The viaduct is a three-span wrought iron viaduct, completed in 1879. During the 7-month project, engineers replaced the timber deck (which supports the track). They removed the old paint, carry out repairs to the metallic parts of the structure and repainted those parts of the structure to protect against rusting. [54]

Over the river, the line heads for Taynuilt.

The A85 runs directly alongside the line on the approach to Taynuilt. This photograph looks Northwest along the road/railway. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Taynuilt village and Railway Station as they appear on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897. [53]
The same length of the line as it is shown on the RailMapOnline.com satellite imagery. [15]

On the way into Taynuilt the line crosses a minor road which serves the East end of the village. That road can be seen at the righthand side of the satellite image and the map extract above.

The minor road bridge seen from the Northwest. [Google Streetview, Novermber 2021]
The minor road bridge seen from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, May 2022]

The next bridge spans the railway adjacent to Taynuilt Railway Station it carries the B845.

The view East along the line from the B845 overbridge. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The view West from the B845 into Taynuilt Railway Station. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The view East from Taynuilt Railway Station to the bridge carrying the B845 over the line, (c) Robert Hamilton (October 2017). [Google maps, November 2024]
Taynuilt Railwaty Station forecourt. [Google Streetview, November 2021]
The view East from the A85 towards Taynuilt Railway Station. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The view West from the A85. [Google Streetview, May 2022]

A little further to the West the railway passes under the A85 again.

The bridge over the railway in 1897. [53]
The bridge over the railway in 2024. [53]
Looking West along the A85 showing the parapets of the bridge over the Callander & Oban Railway. {Google Streetview, November 2021]

The line now drops down to the shores of Loch Etive and in due course arrives at Auch-na-Cloich.

In 1897, the station at Auch-na-Cloich bore the name ‘Ach-na-Cloich, as the 6″ OS map extract shows. It bore that name right through to closure on 1st November 1965. [55][56]
The remaining buildings at Ach-na-Cloich, seen from the public road adjacent to Loch Etive. [Google Streetview, April 2011]

The line continues to hug the shore of Loch Etive passing over the A85 a couple of local roads on its way to Connel Ferry Railway Station.

The next bridge over the A85,seen from the Northwest. [Google Streetview, November 2021]

The next image comes form Gairns’ article in The Railway Magazine and shows a train approaching Connel Ferry from the East.

This photograph shows the Pullman viewing car in use on the line alongside Loch Etive with the iconic Connel Ferry Bridge as a backdrop. [1: p16]
Connel Ferry Village and Railway Station in 1897. [57]
The same location as shown by RailMapOnline.com on their modern satellite imagery. The single blue line heading Southeast from the West end of the station site represents extensive wartime sidings – Achaleven Sidings which were installed in 1940 and lifted in 1948. This group of railway sidings were identified from vertical air photographs taken in 1947 (CPE/Scot/UK 247, frames 4028-4029, flown 31 July 1947), running for about 484m SE from the S boundary of the station. Only two sidings with rails in situ are visible on the air photographs. [15][59][60]
An aerial view of Connel Ferry Railway Station and signal box looking Southeast from above Connel Ferry Bridge. This is an extract from No. SAW039391, (c) Historic Scotland. [61]
The substantial stone-arched bridge visible on the extract from the Aerial image above carried the railway over Lusragan Burn. [Google Streetview, November 2021]
Connel Ferry Railway Station, looking West towards Oban, © G.F. Gairns, Public Domain. [1: p14]
Connel Ferry Railway Station looking East in the 1950s. [58]

In its heyday when it served a branch to Ballachulish, Connel Ferry Railway Station had three platforms, a goods yard and a turntable. Later this was reduced to just the single platform, after the branch closed in 1966, [64] as it remains today. [63][65]

As we have already noted, the journey along the branch can be followed by reading articles elsewhere on this blog. We will continue our journey with Gairns along the main line to Oban. ….

Gairns continues

“At Connel Ferry, junction for the Ballachulish line, there is a wide island platform serving the up and down main lines, and a single platform on the up side designed for branch trains, though generally these use the main platform to facilitate passenger and luggage transfer. The station has sidings and [a] goods yard. Its height above the village entails high viaducts both on the Oban line and on the approach to the famous Connel Ferry bridge, crossed by Ballachulish trains. Fine views are had of the bridge from the Oban line as it pursues its course high up on the hillside until it cuts inland to attain the summit of Glencruitten. This is at the top of the 3-mile incline at 1 in 50 by which the line zig-zags down to reach the shore at Oban, giving views now over Oban and the landward hills above it, and then, with final sweep round, over the Kerrera Sound and Kerrera Island, to the mountains of Mull and the Firth of Lorne.

Before reaching the terminus a stop is usually made at Oban ticket platform, adjacent to the goods yard and engine shed. Oban station has picturesque build ings surmounted by a clock tower, and the circulating area is adorned with hanging flower baskets. Refreshment and dining rooms are provided. The three main platforms are partly covered by a glazed all-over roof, though their outer curved portions are open. Alongside are two open arrival platforms permitting cabs, &c., to come directly alongside the trains, The station is immediately alongside the steamer pier and harbour premises, the location being peculiarly convenient to the principal hotels, the sea front, and the Corran Esplanade.

Oban – ‘a little bay’ – so widely favoured as a holiday resort, as a boating and yachting centre, and as headquarters for touring the Highlands and the Hebrides in all directions, has been described as the ‘Charing Cross of the Highlands’. Whether readers will agree with this as a happy choice or not, it certainly justifies it as a great steamer traffic and touring centre. Messrs. David MacBrayne, Ltd., operate steamers between Oban, the Sound of Mull and Tobermory to Castlebay and Lochboisdale (‘Inner Island Service’), Ardrishaig via the Crinan Canal, to Staffa and Iona, to Ballachulish, Kentallen and Fort William, and thence via the Caledonian Canal to Inverness, besides many local trips and excursions.” [1: p13-15]

Connel Ferry is the last station before Oban. The railway line runs behind (South of) Connel and then turns away from the coast and the A85.

The line Southwest of Connel Ferry Railway Station, as shown on railmaponline.com’s satellite imagery. [15]
This extract from the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897, published in 1900 shows the next bridge on the line where a local road passes under the railway. [66]
A similar area in the 21st century. [Google Maps, December 2024]
The bridge shown on the Ordnance Survey extract and on the modern satellite image from Googlee Maps.  This view looks Northwest along the lane under the bridge from the Southeast. [Google Streetview, November 2021]
Looking Southeast along the lane this time. Google Streetview, November 2021]
The next length of the line as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897, published in 1900. [66]

Trains encounter a number of accommodation bridges/underpasses which allow field access under the line of the railway. The one shown below, at the highest magnification possible from the public highway, is typical of one type of culvert.

A narrow lane approaches the railway from the Northand an underpass sits to the East of the road where there is a slight gaps in the trees. [Google Maps, December 2024]
A typical farm/field access under the railway. [Google Streetview, November 2021]

Just a short distance Southwest is another underpass, this time of stone arch construction.

A further underbridge constructed as a stone arch. [Google Streetview, June 2011]
The narrow highway is in the top-left of this staellite image – the stone-arch bridge is just to the right of centre. [Google Maps, December 2024]
The next length of the line as shown on railmaponline.com’s satellite imagery. [15]

Another few hundred metres to the Southwest a further underpass is a girder bridge.

The highway and the railway are in close proximity at this location. [Google Maps, December 2024]
Looking Southeast under the railway, rather than being a stone arch this underpass is a girder bridge. [Google Streetview, June 2011]

The next underpass is a stone arched structure.

The next underpass is only just visible from the road. [Google Streetview, June 2011]
It is located bottom-right of this image. [Google Maps, December 2024]

These two locations appear on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897. …

The next length of the railway as shown on the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1897, published 1900. [67]
These two extracts (this and the one above) from the 6″ Ordnance Survey take us as far along the railway as the last railmaponline.com satellite image above. [68]
The railway cottages in the 21st century. [Google Streetview, November 2021]
The railway cottages in the 21st century. [Google Maps, December 2024]
The next loength of the line as it appears on railmaponline.com’s satellite imagery. The outskirts of Oban can be seem on the left of the image. [15]
Two extracts from the 6″ Ordnance Survey take us almost as far at the length of line on the railmaponline.com satellite imagery above. [68]
This third extract from the 6″ Ordnance Survey completes the length covered by the railmaponline.com satellite image above and covers the length on the right on the satellite image below. [69]
The final length of the line into Oban as shown by railmaponline.com. [15]
This extract from the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1898 covers the length of the line on the bottom half of the satellite image above. [69]
Looking South out of Oban along the A816, Soroba Road, The railway crosses the road on a simply supported girder bridge. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
This extract from the 6″ Ordnance Survey of 1898 shows the final length of the line and the two stations (passenger and goods) which existed at the turn of the 20th century. [69]
The same area as it appears on Google Maps in the 21st century. Glenshellach Terrace marks the north side of what was the Goods Station. [Google Maps, December 2024]

Running into Oban the line is crossed by three road bridges:

The first of these is a stone-arch bridge which carries Lochavullin Road. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The second was the stone-arch bridge which carried Glenshellach Terrace on which the photographer is standing. The third is Albany Street bridge which can be seen in the middle distance in this photograph. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Looking back South from Albany Street bridge towards Glenshallach Terrace bridge. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
The Station Throat, Oban, © G.F. Gairns, Public Domain. [1: p14]
The view from Albany Street bridge into Oban Station. The bridge sits over the station throat. [Google Streetview, May 2022]
Oban Railway Station Building. [1: p10]
Oban Railway Station passenger facilities in the mid-20th century (c) Public Domain. [70]
Oban Railway Station building in the21st century. [Google Streetview, April 2011]
Oban Railway Station showing the railside of the terminus and platforms, © G.F. Gairns, Public Domain. [1: p14]

For the sake of completeness, we note that Gairns’ narrative returns to Connel Ferry for commentary on the Ballachulish Branch.

“Commencing at Connel Ferry station, the branch train reaches the famous bridge by a viaduct approach over the village of Connel Ferry. The Connel Ferry bridge, claimed to be the Forth Bridge’s ‘biggest British rival’, was opened for traffic on 21st August 1903. The bridge, which is of cantilever type (hence the analogy suggested with the Forth Bridge), has a length of 524 ft. between the two piers, the clear span being 500 ft., and the headway above high-water level, 50 ft. Extreme height from high water to the topmost point of the bridge is 125 ft., while the middle span, carried by the two cantilever spans, has a length of 232 ft. This bridge not only enabled a district hitherto most inconveniently situated in regard to rail traffic to be placed in communication with the Callander and Oban Railway at Connel Ferry, but provided a means of crossing Loch Etive, where previously a very lengthy detour had to be made to get from one side to the other, the only alternative being a very uncertain ferry service,

The difficulty having been solved from the railway point of view, there still remained the problem of providing for the transit of motor-cars and other road vehicles across the Loch, and for several years after the opening of the bridge the Caledonian Railway Company conveyed private motor-cars across the bridge by placing them on flat trucks and hauling them, passengers included, by road motor vehicles adapted to run on rails across the bridge.

This … was continued for a considerable time, but, several years ago, the Caledonian Railway Company adopted the alternative method of adapting the bridge also for the passage of motor vehicles, cycles, etc., under their own power. There is not, however, sufficient room for a roadway clear of the railway track, so that it is necessary to restrict the passage of road vehicles to periods when no train is signalled. At each end of the bridge, therefore gates under the control of the bridge keeper, are provided to close the bridge to road traffic when a train is due, and the tablet instruments are controlled by electric circuits in connection with the road gates, to ensure that unless the gates are properly closed, a tablet cannot be used. The roadway over the bridge comes close up to the rails, there being just sufficient room for a vehicle to pass between the rails and the side of bridge, and the bridgekeeper has to see that vehicles from both directions are not allowed on the bridge at the same time. These facilities apply only to private motor-cars and horse-drawn vehicles, and not trade vehicles, of either class. Cyclists and pedestrians also use the bridge. In each case the crossing of the bridge is subject to toll, the men in charge at the Connel Ferry and Benderloch ends acting as toll-keepers. … In August [1922], the bridge was used by 6,009 foot passengers, by 852 motor-cars, and by 290 cycles. [1: p15-16]

Gairns continues:

“Passing North Connel halt, at the North end of the bridge, the line follows the shore to Benderloch station. At Barcaldine Crossing a platform is provided, where trains call as required. So far, the country traversed has been ‘comparatively’ flat and uninteresting, but as it crosses a peninsula to reach the shores of Loch Creran, mountain vistas again open up. Short of Creagan station the line crosses the Narrows to the Loch by a two-span girder bridge with approach viaducts, fine views being had on both sides.

Again crossing a peninsula. Appin is reached, and for the remainder of the journey the line follows closely the shores of Loch Linnhe. As it curves round after leaving Appin station, a good view is had of the ruins of Castle Stalker. Alongside the Loch splendid views are had, and Duror and Kentallen stations are sufficiently picturesque to harmonise with the general character of the scenery. At Ballachulish Ferry station tickets are collected, and the line then curves round to follow the shores of Loch Leven to the terminus at Ballachulish. This is a neat two-platformed station, with dining and refreshment rooms, and the district is impressively mountainous. A short distance from the station is a small harbour, whence a David MacBrayne steamer used to ply three times daily to and from the Kinlochleven wharf of the British Aluminium Company, for goods, passenger and mail traffic. This steamer service has now been withdrawn, a road having been built by German prisoners during the [First World War] and opened for traffic at the end of [1922].” [1: p16]

The Branch terminus at Ballachulish, © G.F. Gairns, Public Domain. [1: p14]

As noted close to the start of this article, the Ballachulish Branch has been covered extensively in an earlier series of articles which can be found here, [2] here, [3] here, [4] and here. [5]

Gairns goes on to reflect on the use of the Callander and Oban line. He says that its use is “complicated by the fact that its gradients are systematically so severe.” [1: p16] Indeed 1 in 50 gradients occurred:

“several times for considerable distances, curves are numerous, and in several places reduced speed is necessary owing to the danger of tumbling rocks, notably alongside Loch Lubnaig in Glen Ogle and the Pass of Brander, and automatic alarm wires are erected on some stretches, a fall of rock encountering them causing warnings to be given in adjacent signal cabins and watchmen’s huts, and putting the special signals to danger. On the steep grades both goods and passenger trains are operated under special restrictions, stops being made at the summits and brakes tested, or, on goods trains, a proportion pinned down before descending. Mountain mists and fogs, occasional torrential rainstorms or cloudbursts and other ‘episodes’ peculiar to mountain lines, also complicate the working at times. But even in winter there is a steady traffic in meeting the transport needs of the wide areas rendered accessible by this line, of the various townships and villages (many are centres for other places within a considerable radius), country houses, castles and large estates, and in carrying mails, supplying coal and, in due season, conveying cattle and other live stock.

The winter train services are, naturally, much reduced as compared with those of the summer, but even the winter service provides four through trains each way daily, a local each way between Oban and Dalmally, and several additional trains between Callander and Glasgow. Sleeping cars and through carriages are provided between Euston and Oban in winter on Fridays only from London, returning on Mondays. The down vehicles are conveyed on the 8.25 a.m. from Stirling, due in Oban at 12.15 p.m. It is also possible to reach Oban at 4.45 p.m. from London by the 11 p.m. from Euston the night before, and by the 5 a.m. from Euston at 9.50 p.m., the same night, though not, of course, with through carriages.” [1: p16-17]

Gairns goes on to cover train movements on the line in some detail. While the copious detail he provided need not detain us here, it is worth noting the care with which connections to the various railway branches, steamer and motor-coach services associated with the main line were arranged. There were also a significant number of excursions and tours to suit passenger’s differing budgets.

Gairns’ final paragraph concentrated on the motive power in use on the line in the early 1920s and is worth recording here:

“The locomotives generally employed are the well-known ‘Oban’ 4-6-0s, with 5-ft. coupled wheels, together with Mr. Pickersgill’s new ‘Oban’ class recently introduced, though odd trips are taken by 0-6-0 goods engines, which also render assistance on the steep grades. On the Killin branch and the Ballachulish extension 0-4-4 tank engines of the 4 ft. 6 in. class are used. Between Dunblane and Callander main line 4-4-0 locomotives from Glasgow or Stirling and 0-6-0 goods engines are used, as well as the Oban 4-6-0s on the through trains, a change being sometimes made at Callander. The Callander and Oban line and the Ballachulish extension are controlled by electric train tablet apparatus. Ordinary train staff is used on the Killin branch.” [1: p18]

References

  1. G.F. Gairns; The Callandar and Oban Railway; in The Railway Magazine, London, July 1923, p10-17
  2. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/01/01/the-ballachulish-railway-line-part-1
  3. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/01/02/the-ballachulish-railway-line-part-2
  4. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2019/01/05/the-ballachulish-railway-line-part-3
  5. https://rogerfarnworth.com/2024/07/16/the-caledonian-railway-rail-motor-car
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  28. https://railwaycottagekillin.co.uk/history, accessed on 4th November 2024.
  29. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q116203468#/media/File:Glendhu_Viaduct.jpg, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  30. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75655490, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  31. https://www.flickr.com/photos/irishswissernie/36542360150, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  32. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=980038522183226&set=pcb.800198413666581, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  33. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=978725508981194&set=pcb.799156517104104, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  34. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=978725332314545&set=pcb.799156517104104, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  35. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75655487, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  36. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75655649, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  37. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crianlarich_Lower_railway_station, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  38. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160616125076909&set=gm.28307289845525004&idorvanity=1730959503584733, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  39. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75655466, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  40. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndrum_Lower_railway_station, accessed on 6th November 2024.
  41. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.0&lat=56.42498&lon=-4.83030&layers=6&b=ESRIWorld&o=100, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  42. https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/G/Glenlochy_Crossing, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  43. https://getlostmountaineering.co.uk/walks.php?id=1253, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  44. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.6&lat=56.40080&lon=-4.98135&layers=6&b=ESRIWorld&o=100, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  45. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.6&lat=56.40862&lon=-5.02492&layers=6&b=ESRIWorld&o=100, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  46. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.6&lat=56.40455&lon=-5.01399&layers=6&b=ESRIWorld&o=100, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  47. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483093, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  48. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483090, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  49. https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/B/Ben_Cruachan_Quarry, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  50. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483096, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  51. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Loch_Awe_Railway_Station_(22837896929).jpg, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  52. https://www.forgottengreens.com/forgotten-greens/argyllshire-acharacle/loch-awe-dalmally, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  53. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483078, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  54. https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/awe-inspiring-works-taking-place-to-restore-200-year-old-viaduct-in-the-highlands, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  55. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75482830, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  56. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ach-na-Cloich_railway_station, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  57. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75482821, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  58. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204060151459, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  59. https://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/A/Achaleven_Sidings, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  60. https://canmore.org.uk/site/299480/connel-ferry-station-sidings, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  61. https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/SAW039391, accessed on 7th November 2024.
  62. John Thomas; The Callander &Oban Railway: The History of the Railways of the Scottish Highlands – Vol. 4; David St. John Thomas Publisher, Nairn, Scotland, 1966, 1990 and 1991.
  63. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connel_Ferry_railway_station, accessed on 1st December 2024.
  64. https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/connel/connel/index.html, accessed on 1st December 2024.
  65. https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst91901.html, accessed on 1st December 2024.
  66. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75482821, accessed on 21st December 2024.
  67. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483058, accessed on 22nd December 2024.
  68. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483043, accessed on 22nd December 2024.
  69. https://maps.nls.uk/view/75483055, accessed on 22nd December 2024.
  70. https://thisisoban.com/24-incredible-images-of-the-old-oban-railway-station, accessed on 22nd December 2024.

The Micklehurst Loop – Part 1A

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Just after I posted my first article about the Micklehurst Loop, I was sent a series of photographs by an online acquaintance, Tony Jervis. In February 1981, he visited the same length of the Micklehurst Loop as covered in that article. Tony’s pictures show the line before removal of the two viaducts but after the lifting of the length of line retained to serve the Staley and Millbrook Sidings opposite Hartshead Power Station.

Tony also pointed out a further YouTube video from Martin Zero which is embedded towards the end of this addendum. …..

My first article on the Micklehurst Loop can be found using this link:

The Micklehurst Loop – Part 1

At the time of Tony Jervis’ visit on 14th February 1981, only one section of the Spring-Grove Viaduct had been removed – a simply supported span which  took the line over the Spring-Grove Mill. Toney was very happy for me to share these pictures as an addendum to my original article and he very kindly provided some notes to go with a number of the photographs. I have provided some annotated OS Maps to go with the pictures.

I have retained the reference numbers of the photographs used by Tony Jervis. I find the images fascinating. The first three photographs speak for themselves and are centred on Knowl Street Viaduct at the bottom end of the loop immediately adjacent to Stalybridge New Tunnel.

The 25″ OS Map showing the area to the East of Cocker Hill where the Micklehurst Loop broke out of Stalybridge New Tunnel and immediately spanned the River Tame. The locations of three of Tony’s photographs marked. [1]

Photograph 15, 1981, (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

Photograph 632-16, shows the length of the viaduct and is taken from above the Eastern Portal of Stalybridge New Tunnel, 1981, (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

Photograph 632-17,shows the skew span over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal looking towards the Centre of Stalybridge, 1981, (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

The next few pictures were taken in and around the Staley and Millbrook Station. The software I use allows me to add arrows which are vertical or horizontal but not at an angle, so the locations of the pictures shown on the OS Map immediately below are approximate.

25″ OS Map of Staley & Millbrook Station site at the turn of the 20th century. [1]

Photograph 632-18 shows Spring-Grove Mill was spanned by a simply-supported girder bridge which had already been removed when Tony Jervis visited in 1981, (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

Tony comments about the above image: this picture shows “the gap in the viaduct over the roof of Spring Grove Mill.  I assume the gap was spanned by a horzontal girder bridge, which would have been easier to lift away for scrap than demolish a viaduct arch.  In the background, the power station’s coal conveyor and bunkers are still intact, though the station had been closed about 18 months earlier.  The goods shed … was still in the hands of Firth Hauliers.” [2]

The Goods shed and part of the conveyor are still in place. The viaduct, the mill chimney,the section of the mill visible to the extreme left of the image, the coal handling facilites are long-gone in the 21st century.

Photograph 632-19A, 1981, the portion of the mill on this (West) side of the viaduct and the mill chimney, still present in 1981, were demolished along with the viaduct in the later part of the 20th century (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

Tony Jervis, writing in 1981, comments: “the station platforms were up to the right at the top of the grassy bank but would not have been accessible for passengers from this side.  Beyond the third arch was a span across the top of Spring-Grove Mill, which was presumably modified to allow the railway to be built.  I assume the span was some sort of flat girder bridge which has since been craned away.” [2]

Photograph 632-20A, 1981, (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

He continues: “Passengers for the northbound platform would have climbed a covered passage from the booking office and come through this subway (picture 632-20A) whence another short covered ramp or steps would have led up to the platform waiting room. Note the glazed white tiles designed to slightly lighten the subway’s gloom. Since I appear not to have photographed them, I assume that the station platforms had long been swept away.

Photograph 632-21A, 1981, (c) Tony Jervis. [2]

Tony Jervis says: “Picture 632-21A (below) is taken from the middle of Grove Road east of the viaduct.  The red brick wall would have been the end of the booking office; the station master’s house would have been out of shot to the left.  In the distance is the entrance to the subway. There are marks of the platform retaining wall, which is partly of red brick at the bottom and blue engineering brick further up, that suggest a flight of stairs with an intermediate landing led up the southbound platform and that a lower ramp alongside followed the grass bank up to the subway.  One might wonder, thinking of travel a century ago, whether there might have been a need for sack trucks or even a four-wheeled luggage trolley to reach  the platforms.  The white notice forbidding tipping and trespassing is not in the middle of the road but at the edge of the triangular station forecourt; it won’t show up on the posted picture but above the words is the BR “kinky arrow” symbol. Looking at the 25-inch OS plan, it is interesting to note that the formal entrance to nearby Staley Hall was from Millbrook village to the south but from the back of the building a footpath dropped down to Grove Road alongside the the stationmaster’s house, a tradesmen and servants’ entrance maybe?”

Tony has also provided photographs which were taken late in the evening on 14th 1981 of the Goods Yard across the river and canal from Hartshead Power Station. Their locations are again  marked on the 25″ OS Map immediately below ……

25″ OS Map of the Staley & Millbrook Coal Sidings site. The extract does not show the full extent of the sidings which were in place in the mid-20th century..[1]

Photograph No. 632-21B        9-644    14 Feb 1981    SD 976000 S    Former coal drops at Staley & Millbrook Goods Depot alongside Spring Grove Viaduct. The ruined structure on the horizon is Staley Hall. These drops were just to the North of Spring-Grove Viaduct, (c) Tony Jervis, 1981 – [Tony comments: The “B” suffix is because I managed to give two slides the same number when I numbered them back in 1981.] [2]

Tony Jervis comments: “These coal drops are near the end of the two sidings on the 25-inch OS map closest to the running lines.  They are not marked on the map but the road approach for coal merchants’ lorries is clearly shown.  I did wonder if the apparent tramway in Grove Road in one of [the photographs in the previous article] was a way of transferring coal from here round to the mill’s boiler house (below the chimney, one presumes) but I have seen no indication of it on any map.  The viaduct over Spring Grove Mill starts by the rusty car.  The building on the hill is Staley Hall and the “tradesmen’s” footpath I mentioned in a previous description can be seen descending the bank.” [2]

Photograph No. 632-22        9-646    14 Feb 1981    SD 976001 N    Staley & Millbrook Goods Warehouse and the former Hartshead Power Station coal conveyor, (c) Tony Jervis, 1981. [2]

Tony comments: This picture shows “the goods shed when in use by Firth Transport.  The cleaner ballast in the foreground was the southbound running line and the smoother patch to left of that is presumably where the walkway is today.  In the background is the part of the coal conveyor that remains in situ today.” [2]

Photograph No. 632-23        9-645    14 Feb 1981    SD 977002 NW    Hartshead Power Station Sidings and start of coal conveyor, Staley & Millbrook Goods Depot, (c) Tony Jervis, 1981. [2]

Tony comments: “One of the two towers on the edge of the power station coal sidings.  I presume the “stepped” areas fenced in orange surrounded conveyor belts lifting the coal from siding level up to the high-level conveyor.” [2]

Photograph No. 632-24        9-647    14 Feb 1981    SD 977002 WNW    Site of Hartshead Power Station Sidings and coal conveyor, Staley & Millbrook Goods Depot, (c) Tony Jervis, 1981. [2]

Tony comments: “Swinging left about 45 degrees from the previous photo, I’m not sure what purpose this building served.  There is a capstan in front of it, suggesting that locomotives were not allowed to traverse the length of surviving track and wagons thereon were moved by cable.  Could it have been an oil depot of some sort? The tall pipes at the far end could have been used to empty rail tank cars. Some power stations could burn oil as well as coal; was Hartshead one of them?” [2]

Photograph No. 632-25A      9-648    14 Feb 1981    SD 978002 WSW    Staley & Millbrook Goods Warehouse; Hartshead Power Station beyond, (c) Tony Jervis, 1981 [2]

Tony comments: that it was really too dark by the time this picture was taken, none-the-less  by screwing the contrast control to its maximum a grainy image of the shed and power station  appears reasonably clear but very grainy. [2]

Flicking back and forth between this short article and the latter part of my first article about the Micklehurst Loop (https://rogerfarnworth.com/2021/01/31/the-micklehurst-loop-part-1), will allow a comparison with images of the Staley and Millbrook Station and Goods Depot Sites early in their life and in the 21st century.

To complete this short addendum to my first post here is another video from Martin Zero.

Tony Jervis comments: [4] “After watching the half-hour video, I read some of the comments by other viewers, some of whom had worked on the site.  The tunnel turned out to be the power station’s engine shed and the steps led down to a conical underground coal hopper from which conveyor belts took the coal onwards or, perhaps, removed fly-ash.” 

“Martin also found on the surface a length of surviving rail track with a lump of iron between the rails that might have been a “mule” or “beetle” for moving wagons slowly past an unloading point.  It was mentioned by some people that there had also been an “oil conveyor” — surely a pipeline? — leading from the sidings owards the power station. That makes me wonder if my postulation that the low building in my “S & M Goods 4” posting (slide 632-24) may have been a tank wagon unloading station was in fact correct.”

“Martin did also show a circular object buried in the ground nearby which could perhaps have been the base of the capstan that appears in my photo.  But the area is nowadays so afforested that it was impossible to work out accurately how the various items and buildings he found related to one another.”

 

References

  1. https://maps.nls.uk, accessed on 2nd February 2021.
  2. Photographs taken by an acquaintance on the “bygoneLinesUK@groups.io” group, online, Tony Jervis. They are reproduced here with his kind permission.
  3. https://youtu.be/IL6yY5UFTPI, accessed on 6th February 2021.
  4. From an email dated 6th February 2021.

The Micklehurst Loop – Part 1

14 Replies

I am indebted to Alan Young for a number of the images in this and the following articles about the Micklehurst Loop. This is his drawing of the Loop which appears at the head of his article about the Loop on the ‘Disused Stations‘ website. It is used with his kind permission, (c) Alan Young. [7]

During January 2021, my wife and I walked the majority of the length of the Micklehurst Loop from Stalybridge to Diggle. This was the goods relieving line for the main Stalybridge to Huddersfield railway line. It had been hoped to alleviate congestion by making the mainline into a 4-track railway but the geography mitigated against this and a route on the other side of the Tame Valley was chosen instead.

The maps used in this sequence of articles are predominantly 25″ OS Maps from 1896 through to 1922 and have been sourced from the National Library of Scotland. [1] There are a number of websites which focus on the Loop which are excellent. The sites concerned are noted immediately below and the relevant link can be found in the references section of this page or by clicking on the highlighted text here:

  1. The most detailed treatment of the line and its stations can be found on the Disused Stations – Site Records website. The particular pages on that site which cover the Loop were provided by Alan Young. One page covers the route and pages covering each of the stations can be accessed from that page. [7]
  2. Particularly good for old photographs of the Loop is the Table 38 webpage about the railway. [12]
  3. 28DL Urban Exploration has pages about Stalybridge New Tunnel under Cocker Hill [19] and about Hartshead Power Station. [20]

Part 1 – Stalybridge to Staley & Millbrook Station and Goods Yard

This first map extract shows the Western end of the Micklehurst Loop. It left the mainline at Stalybridge Station which can be seen on the left side of the extract. Both the mainline and the loop entered tunnels under Stamford Street, Stalybridge. [1]This modern satellite image covers approximately the same area of Stalybridge as the map extract above. The route of the former Micklehurst Loop is highlighted by the red line.Looking west towards Stalybridge Station circa 1960 from Stamford Street BR standard Class 5 No.73162 takes the Micklehurst Loop as it pulls away from Stalybridge Station with a Huddersfield-bound freight and approaches Stalybridge New Tunnel. Photo by Peter Sunderland courtesy of Alan Young. [7]

The Western portal of Stalybridge New Tunnel sits just to the East of the Bridge that carries Stamford Street over the route of the Loop. It is difficult to photograph and access is not easy. While search for images of the line I came across a video on YouTube:

This video shows the Western end of the tunnel and then covers a walk through the full length of the tunnel and a glance out of the Eastern Portal. [8]

This next map extract shows the Micklehurt Loop emerging from the tunnel under Cocker Hill. The main line is in tunnel further North. Just South of the tunnel mouth Old St. George’s Church can be picked out, an octagonal church building which has now been replaced by St. George’s Church which is off the map extract to the North. Immediately to the East of the tunnel entrance, the Loop crossed the course of the River Tame and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on a Viaduct.Much has changed in the satellite image above which covers approximately the same area. The canal basin can just be picked out, as can Knowl Street. The course of the River Tame is unchanged. Old St. George’s is long-gone. There is no evidence left of the Viaduct which carried the line.

Old St. George’s Church was located almost directly over the tunnel. It was an unusual church building and over its life was rebuilt twice on essentially the same plan. “The first was built in 1776. It was the first recorded church in Stalybridge and it did fall down shortly after it was built. The next church was demolished around a hundred years later because of structural problems and the last church was demolished in the 1960’s as it was no longer used.” [3]The last incarnation of Old St. George’s Church on Cocker Hill. This coloured monochrome image is held in the archives of Tameside MBC. The Micklehurst Loop can be seen exiting the tunnel below the church to the right and immediately crossing the River Tame on Knowl Street Viaduct. [4]This monochrome image is provided with permission,  courtesy of Alan Young, once again. [7] He comments: “looking north up the River Tame the western end of Knowl Street Viaduct in Stalybridge is seen in this undated view. Having crossed this 16-arch viaduct the Micklehurst Loop promptly plunged into Stalybridge New Tunnel through Cocker Hill (left). This section of line ceased to handle traffic in 1972, when coal movements to Hartshead Power Station (near Staley & Millbrook) ceased, and the line was taken out of use in July 1976, but it was not until 1991 that the viaduct was demolished.” [7]

The Eastern Portal of the tunnel, which was directly below the church can still be reached with a little careful clambering. The image below has a Creative Commons Licence. (CC BY-SA 2.0).The East Portal of Stalybridge New Tunnel which is directly below the site of Old St. George’s Church © Copyright Tom Hindley and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence. (CC BY-SA 2.0). [5]

Knowl Street Viaduct carried the Loop over the River Tame, Knowl Street and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and a series of arches in between. There were 16 arches in all.This photograph taken from the East alongside Knowl Street Viaduct is included with permission, courtesy of Alan Young. [7] Alan comments: “The Micklehurst Loop diverged from the original Huddersfield-Manchester line a short distance east of Stalybridge station, entered Stalybridge New Tunnel (about 300yd in length) then promptly crossed the broad valley of the River Tame on Bridge No.3 (also known as Knowl Street Viaduct). This impressive curving viaduct, in the blue engineering brick used by the LNWR on the Loop’s major structures, was 330yd in length with 16 arches. In addition to crossing the River Tame, the viaduct also strode across Huddersfield Narrow Canal and three roads. In this undated westward view, the viaduct and Stalybridge New Tunnel through Cocker Hill are shown. Coal trains that served Hartshead Power Station ceased to run over the viaduct in 1972, but it was not until July 1976 that the line was officially taken out of use. Fifteen years elapsed before the viaduct was demolished in 1991.” [7]A further image used with permission, courtesy of Alan Young. [7]  Alan comments: “Looking north-east from a point close to the eastern portal of Stalybridge New Tunnel. The Knowl Street Viaduct, 330yd in length and with 16 arches, is seen crossing the River Tame then curving away towards the next station of Staley & Millbrook. The local passenger service on the Micklehurst Loop, on which this viaduct was located, ceased in 1917, but occasional passenger trains and many freight workings continued into the 1960s; coal traffic continued to pass over the viaduct until 1972 en route to Hartshead Power station near Staley & Millbrook station and the line was officially taken out of use in 1976. Nature is taking over the former trackbed as seen on this undated photograph. The viaduct was demolished in 1991.” [7]A modern view of Knowl Street taken from Google Streetview. Knowl Street Viaduct crossed Knowl Street at this location. The spandrel walls on the North side of the Viadct passed very close to the gable end of the terraced building to the East of Knowl Street, the righthand side in this view.

After crossing the Huddersfield Narrow Canal the Loop line regained the embankment shown on the next OS Map extract below. Just to the North of the point where the viaduct crossed the canal is a stone bridge carrying what is now (in the 21st century) the canal-side walk. That bridge is shown at the centre of the Google Streetview image below and at the bottom left of the OS Map extract. It is named Knowl Street Bridge and carries the number 97. [8]

After crossing the Canal the line was carried on embankment, passing to the West of Brookfield House and running North by Northeast parallel to the Canal with Huddersfield Road a distance away to the South. Across the valley of the River Tame to the West were Riverside Mills.The approximate line of the railway, shown in red, runs parallel to the canal. We parked in a small car park just off the south of this satellite image, as illustrated below. The image shows that the site of the Riverside Mills is now occupied by the premises of Smurfit Kappa, Stalybridge. [9]Stalybridge and the Southwest end of the Micklehurst Loop.

Brookfield House was  “a large detached house built in the early 19th century for James Wilkinson, and shown on the 1850 Stayley Tithe Map. All that remains is the former mid-19th century lodge house at 93, Huddersfield Road, with the entrance to the former drive with stone gate piers on its south side. The grounds of Brookfield House are clearly shown on the 1898 OS Map, and included an oval lake and glasshouses, …. Brookfield House was demolished and the lake filled in between 1910-1933. The grounds are now overgrown with self-set woodland.” [2]This next OS Map extract illustrates, at the the top right, how tightly the river, railway and canal follow each other at times up the Tame Valley. The railway sits above the canal which in turn sits a little above the river. Also evident is the name used on this series of OS Maps for the Loop Line – the “Stalybridge and Saddleworth Loop Line.”

Alan Young explains: “Although described as both the ‘Stalybridge & Saddleworth Loop‘ and ‘Stalybridge & Diggle Loop‘ on Ordnance Survey maps, the line is more commonly known as the ‘Micklehurst Loop’.” [7]

River Meadow Cotton Mills were owned by Henry Bannerman who was a successful farmer in Perthshire, Scotland At the age of 55 in 1808 he “moved with his family to Manchester, determined to get involved in the burgeoning Lancashire cotton industry.” [10]

At one time the company had “four cotton mills in the Manchester area: Brunswick Mill in Ancoats, Old Hall Mill in Dukinfield and the North End Mill and River Meadow Mill, both in Stalybridge.” [10]

In 1929, the Lancashire Cotton Industry was struggling. It had not regained its markets after the First World War. In an attempt to save the industry, the Bank of England set up the ‘Lancashire Cotton Coroporation’. Bannermans’ mills were taken over a few years later. The mills were acquired by Courtaulds in 1964 and all production ceased in 1967.” [10] After closure the four-storey mill which was Grade II Listed “was used by Futura before they moved to Quarry Street and then S. A. Driver warp knitters, dyers , printers and finishers.” [11] As can be seen in the satellite image below, the Mill is now demolished.Souracre and River Meadow Cotton Mill and Souracre in the 21st century .

North of Souracre and visible at the bottom left of this next OS Map extract were Hartshead Calico Print Works East of Printworks Road and close by Heyrod Hall. Also visible on this map extract are Stayley Hall and the first Station on the Micklehurst Loop – Stayley and Millbrook Station.

Hartshead Print Works – is visible just below centre-left on the OS Map extract above. The works was listed in the Stalybridge Directory of 1891 as owned by John L. Kennedy &Co. Ltd, Calico Printers. lt was purchased in 1899 by the Calico Printers Association. [18]

Heyrod Hall – is shown on the top left of the OS Map extract above.

Stayley Hall – is a Grade II* Listed Building which dates back to at least the early 15th century.[14] The first records of the de Stavelegh family as Lords of the Manor of Staley date from the early 13th century. Stayley Hall was their residence. [15]

It came into the possession of the Assheton family through marriage and united the manors of Stayley and Ashton and thence into the family of Sir William Booth of Dunham Massey. In the middle of the 16th century. [15]

Stayley Hall 1795. [21]

In the middle of the 18th Century the Earldom of Warrington became extinct and the Hall, alonng with all the Booth’s estates passed to Harry Grey, 4th Earl of Stamford. Stayley Hall was owned by the Booth family until the death of  Roger Grey, 10th Earl of Stamford in 1976. [15]

Wikipedia concludes its history of the Hall as follows: “In 2004 the Metropolitan Borough Council announced that they had granted permission to a developer to build 16 homes next to Stayley Hall. A condition of the planning consent was that the hall be restored.[3] The developer has converted the hall and outbuildings into houses and apartments, most of which are now occupied.” [15]

Early 25″ OS Map covering the length of the passenger facilities and most of the goods facilities at Staley & Millbrook Station. [1]

Staley and Millbrook Station – Alan Young’s on his webpage about the Station comments as follows: “Staley & Millbrook station stood on a steep slope immediately south of Spring Grove Viaduct.  The two facing platforms were equipped with waiting rooms, most likely of timber construction, with glazed awnings, as is thought to have been the building style at all four of the Loop’s stations. The platforms, too, were most likely of timber construction as that material was used for the platforms at Micklehurst, where they were also on an embankment, and timber would be a much lighter load than masonry for an embankment to support. The stationmaster’s house and adjoining single-storey office range to its west faced Grove Road across a small, triangular forecourt. The station house was constructed of dark red brick with string courses of blue engineering brick and pale stone lintels.” [18]Staley & Millbrook Station building and the Sprong-grove Viaduct take from the East on Grove Road in the early 20th century. The picture shows a clean and relatively well maintained site, very different to what remains in the 21st century, please see the pictures below. [18]Staley and Millbrook Railway Station and Spring-grove Mill. [16]

Staley and Millbrook Station buildings have long-gone as has the Viaduct, the first arch of which spanned Grove Road and looked to be a graceful structure. Also of interest in the monochrome picture of the Station and Viaduct above is what appears at first sight to be evidence of a tramway or industrial railway in the cobbles of Grove Road. I have not as yet been able to find out anything about what this feature actually is. The feature is not marked on the map extract immediately above. Closer examination of the picture above suggests that rather than being part of a short industrial line the cobbles may have been laid to facilitate a particular movement around the Spring-grove Mill.

In the 21st century, this length of Grove Road has been tarmacked – a thin layer of tarmac covers the original sets. The next two pictures were taken on 30th January 2021 on a second visit to the site after walking the route of the Loop.

Taken from East of the route of the Micklehurst Loop, this photograph shows the location of the old station building. It sat facing the road on the left-hand side of the panorama. The Southern abutment of the viaduct sat adjacent to the station building, in the area of trees between the 5-bar field gate and the stone wall towards the right of the picture. The masonry wall is in the location of what were terraced houses between the canal and the railway viaduct. (My photograph, 30th January 2021)Another panorama, this time taken from the canal bridge to the West of the Loop. What is left of Spring-grove Mill can be seen on the left side of the image. Grove Road, heading towards Millbrook is central to the image. The masonry wall is the location of the terraced houses mentioned above. The first trees beyond it mark the line of the viaduct. The station building was sited beyond to the West. (My photograph, 30th January 2021)

Spring-grove Mill – As we have already noted, Spring-grove Mill is shown straddled by the viaduct on the OS Map extract above. When Staley & Millbrook station opened, “there was already some population and industry in the immediate neighbourhood. Spring Grove Cotton Mill faced the station across Grove Road, and map evidence suggests that the railway’s viaduct sliced through the existing mill building. A terrace of three cottages, also pre-dating the railway, stood immediately north of the platforms, and Stayley Hall was about 100yd south of the station. Millbrook village, with three cotton mills, was about ten minutes’ walk uphill east of the station.” [16] [18]The remaining buildings of Spring-grove Mill. The lighter (cream painted) brickwork is the part of the mill shown on the map extracts as being on the East side of the viaduct. The portion of the Mill to the West of the viaduct has been demolished. The red-brick portion of the remaining building would have been under the arches of the viaduct. The Western spandrels of the viaduct arches would have followed a line running from the intersecting kerb-stones in the right-foreground over the redbrick part of the present building. (My own photograph – 30th January 2021)

Spring Grove Mill was a cotton mill from 1818 to 1868 and then was a woollen mill for 100 years, it was the last steam-powered mill in the area. [17] The image of Hartshead Power station below, includes Spring-grove Mill in the bottom right-hand corner. By the time the aerial photograph was taken Grove Road appeared to extend across the Canal and the River Tame towards Heyrod.

Hartshead Power Station was also located North of Souracre to the West of the River Tame. It was a coal-fired station and was served by trains on the Micklehurst Loop up until the 1970s. The picture immediately below was posted by Tameside Council on their Facebook page in 2015.An aerial picture of Hartshead Power Station taken before the Second World War. It was opened by the Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley and Dukinfield (SHMD) Joint Board in 1926 and the cooling towers were erected in the 1940s. The station closed in 1970 and was demolished in the 1980s. Although the Good Shed visible to the top right of the image still stands. The Micklehurst Loop curves from the bottom right to the top left of the picture. [13]This enlarged extract from the image above show the coal transfer facilities and railway sidings associated with the power station . [13] The resolution of the image is not wonderful but it does highlight the traffic which was brought to the site throughout the middle 50 years of the 20th Century.

OS 1:25,000 Map form the early- to mid-20th century, sourced from the National Library of Scotland – Hartshead Power Station. One of the two cooling towers is not shown in full as it crosses the map join. [14]

The full extent of the Hartshead Power Station site at Souracre can be seen on the adjacent OS Map extract from the middle of the 20th century, which also shows the location of Stayley Hall and the Stayley and Millbrook Station build just North-northwest of Stayley Hall.

Approximately the same area is shown below on a relatively recent extract from the ESRI World Image website which is the satellite mapping used by the National Library of Scotland. [13]

The Good Shed which is considered further below is visible on both the map extract and the satellite image and the extent of the railway sidings on the East side of the Loop line is evident.

ESRI Satellite Image extract showing the current status of the Hartshead Power Station site with the approximate route of the Micklehurst Loop Line shown in red. The Goods Shed is still standing and can be seen just to the right of the red line. Along with the Loop line all of the lines in the sidings have ben lifted. [13]A view from the East looking across the power station site with the Good Shed and coal transshipment facilities in the foreground. the lack of trees compared with the satellite image and all other pictures of the site in the 21st century is striking, © Copyright David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. [23]

The substantial Goods Shed was built at the same time as the Loop initially with two sidings to its East. These sidings were expanded with the advent of the power station in the early 20th century. The site is now overgrown and is returning to nature. The only exception being the Goods Shed itself. There is an excellent video showing its current condition on ‘Martin Zero’s’ YouTube Channel which is embedded below. My own pictures of the site also follow below.

The Goods shed at Stayley and Millbrook Station presided over a large expanse of sidings which served Hartshead Power Station on the opposite side of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the River Tame. [22]Looking South towards the location of the passenger facilities at Staley and Millbrook Station. The Goods shed is on the left (the East side of the Loop line). (My photograph, 18th January 2021).The Goods Shed taken from the same location as the last photograph – a substantial three-storey structure. (My photograph, 18th January 2021).

The next part of this walk following the line of the Micklehurst Loop sets off from this goods shed traveling North.

References

  1. https://maps.nls.uk, accessed on 18th January 2021.
  2. Copley Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Proposals; Tameside MBC, March 2013, p9-10.
  3. https://cockerhill.com/2010/07/06/old-st-georges-church-cocker-hill, accessed on 23rd January 2021.
  4. https://public.tameside.gov.uk/imagearchive/Default.asp & https://cockerhill.com/2010/07/06/old-st-georges-church-cocker-hill, accessed on 23rd January 2021.
  5. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3119673, accessed on 22nd January 2021.
  6. http://nwex.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6918, accessed on 27th January 2021.
  7. http://disused-stations.org.uk/features/micklehurst_loop/index.shtml, accessed on 25th January 2021.
  8. https://canalplan.org.uk/waterway/cjdf & https://canalplan.org.uk/place/1hv4, accessed on 27th January 2021.
  9. https://www.smurfitkappa.com/uk/locations/united-kingdom/smurfit-kappa-stalybridge, accessed on 28th January 2021.
  10. http://cosgb.blogspot.com/2010/12/henry-bannerman-sons-limited.html, accessed on 28th January 2021.
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mills_in_Tameside#Mills_in_Stalybridge, accessed on 28th January 2021.
  12. http://www.table38.steamrailways.com/rail/Micklehurst/micklehurst.htm, accessed on 24th January 2021.
  13. https://scontent.fman2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/10923473_10152970711638376_5311634515634523408_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=2&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=TvOmLmn5KTcAX_Ayq7O&_nc_ht=scontent.fman2-1.fna&oh=2306db45618ba15e6bc27d582f00e643&oe=6037BA9F, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  14. Mike Nevell; Tameside 1066–1700; Tameside Metropolitan Borough and University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. p. 112 & 141, 1991.
  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stayley_Hall, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  16. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=784689891661955&id=121283594669258, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  17. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tameside.gov.uk/countryside/walksandtrails/lowerbrushes.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjXrum3xMHuAhVMTBUIHYmQAeQ4ChAWMAJ6BAgSEAI&usg=AOvVaw2DR5SZ9N3AM7__DD-ZN0Bv, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  18. https://gracesguide.co.uk/John_L._Kennedy_and_Co, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  19. https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/stalybridge-new-tunnel-stalybridge-july-2012.72653, accessed on 26th January 2021.
  20. https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/hartshead-power-station-heyrod-and-millbrook-2015-2019.119500, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  21. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1795-Antique-Print-Stayley-Hall-Stalybridge-Greater-Manchester-after-E-Dayes-/292642997239, accessed on 29th January 2021.
  22. https://youtu.be/VdmWydx4VBw & https://www.facebook.com/martinZer0/?comment_id=Y29tbWVudDoxNTU4MjI2MDIxMDExNzUxXzE1NjA0NDMwMjQxMjMzODQ%3D, accessed on 31st January 2021.
  23. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2204271, accessed on 31st January 2021.