Memories of the Black Isle Railway (5 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 Forestry Commission employee recalls how the railway coped with the timber freight.<br /> <br /> 'I was employed with the - still with the Forestry Commission at that time and then the war started and I was from the Bl-, Culbokie. I was working in Killen - that's Killen's the place - with a sawmill there and another two sawmills at Old Dam from which we sent all our converted wood to Fortrose Station. The lorry drivers had second men with them and all the wood was loaded by hand and packed and that there, and was roped and that by the station staff and was taken away once a day. Usually the station got a lot a' coals in for to deliver all round the place. There was one or two coal merchants in Fortrose and I think there was some of them came from Cromarty to collect the coal and when these wagons were unloaded we used to reload them with wood. But a lot of the wagons used to come in empty for us to load because there wasn't sufficient wagons coming with coals to keep the sawmills clear of sawn wood'