Memories of the Black Isle Railway (4 of 16)

The Black Isle Railway was originally a branch of the Highland Railway network. It carried passengers from 1894 until 1951 (freight until 1960) and ran from Muir of Ord to Fortrose with intermediary stations at Redcastle, Allangrange, Munlochy and Avoch. <br /> <br /> In this audio extract from the 1980s, a former Black Isle Railway porter recalls the heavily loaded freight trains.<br /> <br /> 'Many times the goods trains themselves were so heavy with potatoes, grain, maybe cattle going to the marts in Inverness and Dingwall, by the time they came to Munlochy Station the train had its full load. It would take maybe some of the traffic from Munlochy Station but on the incline, just beside Drumore Farm between Munlochy and Allangrange, it would shed half its load. It would then carry on to Allangrange, put its load into its siding there, come back to Munlochy, empty, pick up the rest, take it to Allangrange, pick up the full train, take it to Muir of Ord. Very often this happened. I've seen several times during dry weather, that there was so much pressure, shall we say, put on the coal engines that the steam, the smoke and the sparks were coming out of the train and setting fire to the woodlands, especially on the Allangrange Estate. Many times we had to put out fires on the Allangrange Estate and advise Major Cameron that the railwayside was on fire'