The West Highlander The Train Now Departing

MELANCHOLY VIOLIN AND GUITAR PIECE

'The steam locomotive and the Highlands of Scotland.

'Beautiful maybe but both can be uncompromising and difficult,

'requiring a special kind of loyalty.

'By no means are the days always bright and sunny,

'nor are the engines without a similarly varied temperament,

'as they yield their power from fire and water.

'For the authorities back in the 1960s, there was one solution -

'let the steam trains go.

'Then in the 1980s, they had an astonishing change of heart -

'bring steam back again.

'Let people visit the Highlands in the old way.

'Encourage them to see spectacular scenery in a spectacular fashion,

'and let the drivers who had switched from steam be given

'the chance of switching back again.

'Men like Callum MacRaild,

'one of the special breed of West Highland Railwaymen.'

When I left school at 15, I certainly had no thoughts about the railway.

I got a temporary job in the post office as a telegram boy,

and at the end of the year, I was earning £2.2s.6d. a week,

and my bother Neil, who was on the railway, he said,

"Well, you'll get £3.5s as a cleaner",

so I immediately changed my employment.

And once I was on the railway for a few months,

there was no way I would ever leave it.

It's something that just gets into your blood

and you just wouldn't think of any other job.

Some people did start and leave

but there was no way that I would ever have left the railway.

Coming from a family, as I did, of mostly railwaymen -

my two grandfathers were on the railway,

my father was on the railway, I had eight uncles on the railway,

and I have two brothers that were on the railway.

One is now retired.

So I think once I started, there was no way out of it.

That was me - I was a railwayman. I didn't know it.

I think you must be devoted to the railway.

When you join the railway, you don't just go for eight hours a day.

You've got to be a railwayman. After that, you do other things.

But the railway has the first call on you.

And they know about that

because they send for you any time it suits them.

You just get a line - turn out all speed and they expect you to come

and I think if you're a true railwayman, I think you'll be there.

Just about three weeks before our first baby was due, he was due to be

home about 9 o'clock at night and it came midnight - no word from him.

One o'clock, two o'clock.

He eventually came home at 3 o'clock in the morning

to find an extremely anxious wife!

He'd had to walk about two miles across Rannoch Moor to get help.

The train had broken down. I think that time in a snowdrift as well.

And by the time he came home, I'm afraid I was in quite a state!

And also very angry that nobody had told me about it.

Well, Helen usually knows when I'm away down the road,

and I've no doubt she thinks about it and wonders how I'm getting on

because it's a difficult job when there's snow.

But she puts up with it and she doesn't complain

and she doesn't tell me she worries

but I'm no doubt she is a wee bit bothered.

I started 1948. And of course it was all steam engines then.

Nothing else. We didn't know what diesels were then.

All hard work and dirt.

But we didn't mind.

It was a good type of work, you know,

there was plenty friendship among the boys.

And although it was hard work, everyone got stuck in,

and if someone had a difficult job to do,

his mates were there to help him and we all helped each other.

'Someone also getting stuck in on a difficult job in those days

'was the famous Dr Beeching, who killed off railway lines,

'almost as if he was on commission.'

CALLUM: Dr Beeching was just a name to us.

He was doing damage down south but he never quite reached our area

and we treated him like a sort of disease.

If you can keep clear of it, you'd just leave him alone

and hope that it wouldn't affect you.

Dr Beeching, to my mind, was just a butcher.

A 5-year-old could have done what Dr Beeching did

because he just looked at a profit-and-loss account

and he said, "Well, this line's paying and this one's not

"so we'll cut it away." I think it was criminal.

So that's about all I can say about Dr Beeching.

'So not only did the line from Fort William to Mallaig

'on the west coast survive but, surprisingly, so did an LNER engine

'actually designed for working the West Highlands.

'British Rail has to hire it from the enthusiasts who own it.'

CALLUM: I had fired steam engines for 15 years before the diesels came

and we had a lot more to do than we have now

because we very often came in off a job and disposed of our own engine,

which meant pulling the fire or dropping the fire,

coaling and watering it,

cleaning ash pans, smoke boxes, that sort of thing.

When you were cleaning a fire,

you had to go down underneath the engine in a pit,

And clean the ash pan.

Very often, the wind would just decide to change

and you'd got all the white dust off the ash pan covering you.

And you would come up then and clean the smoke box.

That's black ash and you would end up you were black.

It was rather like the Black and White Minstrels,

because one minute you were white, the next minute you were black.

At the end of the day,

it was doubtful just what colour you would end up.

But then it all came off.

HE CHUCKLES: A good wash and you were clean again.

- How are things today? - Not so bad, apart from the weather.

Aye, well, I hope it clears up.

CALLUM: 'When the engine comes up to Fort William,

'the owners send their representatives with it,'

who look after it.

They're mechanical men. They're fitters or mechanics.

They maintain it.

When we come in at night, they dispose of it.

They take the fire out of it and clean the ash pan, smoke box,

and they check the engine over,

anything that's needing repaired is done by them.

So we really have the nice part of it.

We just step on and drive it, which is quite nice.

Much better than the old days, when we had everything to do.

When you go out with the steam engine, you're not too sure

of what's going to happen

because there are several factors that are unknown.

You're not too sure what the coal's like.

The engine might not be doing quite as well.

Say, if the fire hasn't been cleaned properly,

the ash pan is a wee bit dirty, or something like that.

There are one or two factors you're not sure about until you get going.

It's just a case of doing everything you can as best you can

and just watch for the results.

'Where it gets going is from Fort William, past Glenfinnan

'and up and over the hills to Arisaig and, finally, Mallaig,

'560 miles from London and the port for Skye.

'Then it's back to Fort William again.'

CALLUM: Fort William is more or less the end of the line.

We're very remote from the like of Glasgow,

which is just over 100 miles away.

There are drawbacks because if you need something special,

say, something for your electric cooker or something for your car,

you just can't get it in Fort William.

It's a wee bit better now. As the town grows,

there are more outlets for these sorts of things

but there's still a lot of things

you can't get in Fort William and you have to send for them.

These are things you have to put up with

because there are so many benefits,

you have to accept there are a few drawbacks as well.

'Fort William may be a long way north of Glasgow,

'but the steam is an extra attraction for someone to photograph.

'And people do come from far and wide

'to get a breath of the past alongside modern times.

'But past and present mingle oddly on the line itself.

'Not only are there steam locos and diesel engines

'but all the trains are controlled by radio rather than signals.

'Traffic control is at Banavie, first stop on the Mallaig line

'and any airline pilot and flight controller might feel

'quite at home listening in to the radio chat

'on this particular runway.'

I'm just doing an audio test to check the dial on it.

TRAIN HORN TOOTS

Railcom Banavie. 2123.

Requesting into the system at Fort William branch. Over.

2123. Railcom Banavie. Roger to enter the system at Fort William.

Press and hold. Send. Over.

Railcom Banavie. 2123. Request a token

from Fort William to Glenfinnan. Over.

2123. Railcom Banavie.

The long section token Fort William-Glenfinnan.

Present, hold, receive. Over.

Railcom Banavie. 2123. Roger. Out.

TRAIN WHISTLE

It's a nice feeling to feel that

you have the power of this great monster at your fingertips.

And when you open the throttle and hear the sharp beat of it

and you know that everything is perfect mechanically,

it's a lovely sound of it and you are controlling it.

It's a nice feeling. Just a nice feeling.

I feel it's more a living thing than the diesel.

The diesel, you just sit in it and open a lever, pull a handle

and it goes.

But the steam, the fact that you have to do everything

to get the results, you feel it's more a living thing.

It's a job to me.

It's a job I'm doing and I realise that it's quite a nice job

and I think most of the passengers would do my job for nothing.

In fact, some of them might even pay to do it.

TRAIN WHISTLE

Everyone in the steam train is enjoying themselves.

We're in the habit of running trains in Fort William here,

especially in the winter time, with very few passengers.

And a lot of them complain about things, anything at all.

The public are very critical of the railway and I think,

sometimes, unfairly.

But, all of a sudden, we have a steam train

and there's something like 350 passengers on it.

And everyone is enjoying it and it's infectious and we feel that too.

We enjoy it too because they're enjoying it.

And there's never a complaint.

I would say without hesitation that the Mallaig line is the nicest line,

I think, in Britain. It has to be.

I've travelled fairly extensively in Europe

and I've never seen anything to compare.

I've seen things that were different and I've seen railways that

were very nice but the Mallaig, to me, is just out of this world.

The beauty is, you can't describe it.

You'd have to see it to appreciate it.

'Not only are there the Highlands and the lochs

'and the islands but a great feeling of history

'as at Glenfinnan where Bonnie Prince Charlie raised his banner.

'And of the crofters being cleared from the land.

'And then of Scotland being discovered by tourists, by Romantics,

'and by the railway.'

TRAIN WHISTLE IN DISTANCE

It was a terrific engineering work.

Sir Robert McAlpine was the engineer and he must have been some man

because when you look at some of the work on the Mallaig line...

They say it is one of the most expensive lines in Britain to build

because of all the tunnels and rock cuttings.

I think it was the most expensive line in Britain per mile.

TRAIN WHISTLE

And then there's the like of Glenfinnan Viaduct,

which is a masterpiece.

They called Sir Robert McAlpine Concrete Bob.

And it's no wonder because he was one of the pioneers of concrete.

And Glenfinnan Viaduct, I reckon, is a monument to his capability.

Every season of the year is different.

In fact, every week, almost, is slightly different.

You get all the different types of lighting.

And then, of course, throughout the year, you have the autumn

with the lovely colours, lovely brown and auburns.

The heather turns beautiful colours.

CLAP OF THUNDER

The Mallaig line can be very nice in very wet weather,

as well as good weather.

There are days I've gone to Mallaig when there was torrential rain

and the streams and small rivers are just foaming

and there's something very beautiful about that,

as well as seeing it in good weather.

The K1 is a very nice wee engine, a very strong wee engine.

It was built for the Mallaig line

and the size of the wheel is just right for the Mallaig line.

Very powerful and it's no bother to pull six carriages up there.

When they came out first, they were absolutely lovely wee engines.

It's very nice to see one back again on the Mallaig line.

Railcom Banavie. 2123.

I now have blank display and request the Glenfinnan-Arisaig token. Over.

2123. Railcom Banavie. Roger.

You feel you're never on your own, now.

At one time, you could fail, maybe, in the middle of a moor

and have several miles on either side that you had to walk.

But with this system, no matter what happens, we can just radio

the controller and, within a very short time, something is been done.

HELEN: When we got married and for years after we were first married,

there was nothing else but steam trains up here,

so I didn't really give them too much thought.

But I did miss them when the diesels came in.

We used to live, at one time, in a flat and it overlooked the depot,

the goods depot where Callum left from.

In the early hours of the morning,

you used to hear the goods trains going out. It was lovely.

A clear, frosty night,

you would hear the sounds of the engine going away from miles away.

It was beautiful. Loved it.

CALLUM: If you were locked in a dark room and you smelled,

you would know exactly what it was if you smelled the steam engine.

The smell and the sound.

There is a lovely sharp crack off them when they're in good form.

Just lovely. Lovely sound.

HELEN: I just love the sound of it.

Steam engines, I think,

are much more beautiful to look at than a diesel engine.

There's just something about it that's different.

I think it's lovely to see them come back again.

CALLUM: I think of myself as a practical chap,

quite keen on mechanics and that sort of thing.

And the steam engine, to me,

is a massive thing with hundreds of beautifully engineered parts.

You could more or less take one of a 100 parts home and polish it up

and put it on your mantelpiece as an ornament, you know. Lovely movement.

You can see it working.

I think that's what appeals to small boys too.

They can stand at the side and see the motion.

You can see what it's doing and, I suppose,

if you explained it to even a child, they can understand how it works.

It's very simple.

When you think of the weight of a steam engine,

you're talking about maybe 130 tonnes.

And when you look at the side roads, connecting roads,

even the wheels revolving with their balance blocks,

there's massive amounts of weight revolving there

and the centrifugal force must be terrific.

And everything must be balanced,

because if anything was out of true, it would rattle the engine to bits.

It would shake it to bits.

When you go over the hill at Glenfinnan,

you see Loch Eil stretched out in front of you

and it must be three or four miles.

A lovely, little loch with islands in the middle

and with a reflection in the water. It's a beautiful sight.

The West Highland Railway is certainly a one-off.

I don't know of any other railway anything like the West Highland.

I think the Highlander is a certain type of person

and things happen in the West Highland just automatically.

It's often said they wouldn't need a management in the West Highland,

because the men know the job and they come out and do the job.

And if there's problems,

very often, they're sorted out before the management know of them -

by men who have just happened to be there

and take the responsibility of sorting things out.

I've heard it said we do miracles every day on the West Highland

but the impossible takes a wee while longer!

TRAIN WHISTLE SOUNDS

When I started at 16, we had to do 313 firing turns, I think it was,

and then you were called a first-year fire man.

Your mate was a friend and I think that was because you worked together,

you were dependent on each other.

The driver couldn't do anything without the fire man's help.

They had to fight this great monster between them

and they only got results according to how they worked.

I think there was more of a friendship

between the driver and his fire man

than there is between the driver and the second man today.

When the steam engines went away and the diesels came,

I put a stone in weight on within a year.

So that just proves that

although we didn't realise it at the time, we must have been working.

Railcom Banavie. 2123.

The Arisaig-Mallaig token now on display

and request permission to proceed. Over.

2123. You permission is received from Arisaig. Over.

2123. Roger, out.

WOMAN SINGS IN GAELIC

You start off at sea level

and you end up at sea level in Mallaig.

And it's just breathtaking.

Every time we come round there, I just look at that scene

and I just am amazed every time.

I've been 40 years going up to Mallaig now

and I never tire of it.

Even yet it takes my breath away.

SINGING CONTINUES

WHISTLE SOUNDS

When we went to Mallaig,

it was very common to have two or three fish specials a day.

I think the record was 18 special trains in one day from Mallaig.

And, at that time, Mallaig was reckoned to be

the busiest fishing port in Europe. It was just a hive of activity.

There were two steam cranes on the pier, unloading boats,

loading wagons,

and you could be more or less knee deep in herring at that time.

There was herring everywhere and seagulls by the thousand,

trying to steal them.

When we used to go up there, of course, young, starving.

At 16, 17, you could eat anything and the Mallaig kippers were lovely.

We very often got a couple of kippers and put them in a shovel

and cooked them and they would cook in their own juice.

Beautiful.

At that age, we could just about eat all the kippers in Mallaig.

They were delicious.

Well, it was always said that the new road,

if they put a new road to Mallaig, the railway was finished.

It's a big project. In fact, there's people

who think there's something more than just a road to Mallaig.

There's talk of oil on the West Coast

and whether there is any truth in that or not, I don't know.

But some people seem to think

that there's more in it than what meets the eye.

We always feel that more should be invested in the railways.

We feel the Government put too much money into roads.

The railways always seem to come off worst.

And when you see the money that's being invested

in other European countries, we feel a bit jealous.

TRAIN WHISTLE SOUNDS

The future for the Mallaig line was a bit doubtful a few years ago

but I think, because of the steam engine, it's a bit better now

because, every day it runs, about 350 passengers go to Mallaig.

And I think it's bound to have helped the Mallaig line a lot.

I can usually say that I've enjoyed my day's work

because I do enjoy my job. I may be fortunate in that respect.

I like my job. So many people don't.

When I come home, I like to leave the railway behind me

and come home and maybe have a shower and go out fishing in my boat.

- Hello. Did you have a good day? - Aye, not bad.

It's lovely warm now, isn't it?

If it's a nice day and maybe Helen's working,

quite often I go away and I spend the whole day in the boat.

Take a flask with me and go away fishing all day.

The dogs like coming in the boat.

If I don't take them, they're inclined to go in a huff

and they don't have anything to do with me when I come back.

They'll run down to it and they're jumping,

trying get into it. They're ready to go any time.

I think they like fishing! HE LAUGHS

They don't know what to do with them when they catch them

but they like fishing.

Come on.

There's nothing more peaceful than being out in the boat,

maybe five or six miles down the loch.

Nobody could get at you, if they even wanted to.

You're completely on your own.

You're way down there, peaceful and quiet, and beautiful scenery.

I don't think there's anything to beat it.

I think I'll miss the railway when I retire.

I think there's something wrong with anyone

who worked in the railway all their days and didn't miss it.

I probably will look forward to retiring,

because it will give me more time to do the things

that the railway maybe spoilt when we were working there.

But I'll certainly miss the railway and I'll miss the men I work with.

Miss the companionship.

And I'll miss the steam engine.