Six Scottish rail journeys to rival the ‘Harry Potter express’

A train on the Glenfinnan viaduct. Picture: A Hisgett

It’s rare for anything Scottish to win an international award two years in a row, but the West Highland Line (WHL) from Glasgow to Mallaig has done just that. Last week it picked up the Top Rail Journey prize in the Wanderlust travel awards, just as it had done in 2009.

First time round, the WHL was joined on the podium by the Peruvian lines from Cuzco to Lake Titicaca and from Cuzco to Machu Picchu – hardly surprising, given that Peru has an unfair advantage in railway competitions given the Paddington connection. This year, by contrast, the WHL saw off the challenge of a distinctly odd couple: the Trans-Siberian and Eurostar. A case, it seems, of communists and venture capitalists being beaten by a bunch of bens, glens and Bonnie Prince Harry Potter enthusiasts. (The Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter films crosses Glenfinnan viaduct.)

For all its undoubted merits, it’s a shame that the WHL dominates the Scottish railway plaudits, as there are some other notable bits of track. So here, in no particular order, is The Caledonian Express (sorry, Mercury) selection of Other Interesting Scottish Railways (and Associated Railway Things):

The West Highland Line branch to Oban

Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe. Picture: NZ Willowherb

A fine line, unfairly treated. How many prizes has it won, compared with its sibling from which it splits at Crianlarich? Not many. Yet it passes beneath mighty Cruachan, skirts Loch Awe with views of Kilchurn Castle, and journey’s end is Oban: all seafront hotels and to-and-fro ferries, surely the equal of Mallaig. Well, not quite, since Mull is not the equal of Skye.

Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh

Plockton. Picture: adulau

Also hard done by in comparison with the WHL is the Dingwall–Kyle line. OK, so it doesn’t cross quite such romantic country, but it does pass through Plockton and end at Kyle – and, somewhere up near Achnasheen, for few seconds the north-western view allows a glimpse of Liathach.

Dingwall–Kyle has been devalued by the Skye bridge. Once the classic ferry railhead, now it just sort of stops and leaves you wondering about buses and taxis across to the not-quite-an-island.

But it’s still a heck of a journey, especially in winter on the wide Strath Bran stretch with its great sense of space. The Bergen to Oslo line appears to have a similar feel, and the Norwegians stuck a camera on the front of an engine to produce a soothing, Eno-esque piece of footage.  Dingwall–Kyle deserves the same.

The Cairn Gorm funicular

The Cairn Gorm funicular. Picture: keepwaddling1

Unfashionable, controversial, the funicular will never rival the WHL in beauty contests – but it does have an odd appeal. The way its boxy carriages swing round the bend at halfway. The way the top bit of track is buried in a tunnel, as if to thwart tourists in search of a view. The way the whole upper half is Really Quite Steep, an attempt to mix Aviemore with Alton Towers.

It has the wrong kind of engine, of course. Were it to take a more gentle route courtesy of a nice little steam chugger, after the manner of the Snowdon Railway, it would be a huge hit and would win prizes. That, though, is never going to happen: the ptarmigan would choke on the fumes and there would be an outcry. Shame, though.

The Glasgow to Edinburgh stopping train

Glasgow Central station. Picture: Ashley R. Good

The antithesis of the WHL, this strange throwback clunks out of Glasgow Central and meanders cross-country by a sluggish 90-minute backwater route. The businessman’s express between the two great cities feels a world away.

Addiewell is no Adlestrop – there’s not much rural idyll in Monklands and West Lothian – but there is a definite charm about a train that pauses every few minutes like so many of the long-gone ones did.

It will never win awards, though, because no one has ever seen a stag standing poised against the sunset on the West Calder shale bings.

The grand old Flying Scotsman (wherever you may find it)

The Flying Scotsman. Picture: jimd2007

Please allow me a personal memory. My late father worked on the railways all his days, and knew a good steam engine when he saw it. We lived in Derbyshire, and twice in the late 1960s my dad took me to see the green-liveried 4472 LNER Flying Scotsman – formerly the king of the east-coast route – pass by in full steam and at full throttle. This was after it had been taken out of regular service, but before it spent time in the USA.

One of these occasions was at dusk, at a place named Pye Bridge. Down an embankment, below track level, we stood and waited. And waited. And my dad began to get restless, because he knew (a) how thrilling the thing was, and (b) it was late. Then came a distant whistle, and “gouts of steam” – to use Larkin’s phrase – could be seen approaching at speed, round a steady curve.

Suddenly it was there, right above us, hammering past – this wonderful in-full-flow green machine, two tenders and a stream of coaches, all steam-smells and precision engineering. It was gone in seconds but has stayed with me for 40 years. If forced to choose the single happiest memory of my dad, this could well be it.

The Forth Bridge

The Forth Bridge. Picture: ahisgett

What’s the most impressive structure in Scotland? Some would choose a castle – domineering Edinburgh, fairytale Inveraray, clifftop Dunnottar. Others might favour something ecclesiastical – St Magnus Cathedral, maybe – or a modern secular building such as the Glasgow School of Art or the Holyrood parliament. (One of those is a joke.)

Nothing, however, comes close to the Forth Bridge, with its monumental cantilever crisscross. Put a train on it – any old train, even a dull ScotRail Sprinter – and it comes to life, becomes a working, practical, human thing, rather than a mere symphony of girders and rivets.

Dalmeny to North Queensferry is a short stretch of railway. But for all the beautiful bleakness of Rannoch Moor and the romance of Glenfinnan, and with all due respect to the readers of Wanderlust, it’s the best two miles of track in the country, if not the world.

- Wanderlust: Top Rail Journey

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