PUBLISHED in the same year that the line opened, the 1894 Murray’s Handbook for Scotland describes the 100-mile West Highland Line from Craigendoran, near Helensburgh, to Fort William as “itself an object of interest. Its construction, through some of the most desolate and uninhabited parts of Scotland, was no light undertaking; and its deep and difficult cuttings, its numerous lofty viaducts, its artificial foundations over miles of bog, and its innumerable culverts across mountain torrent-beds, all triumphs of engineering skill”.
Work commenced in 1889 and was a financially precarious undertaking, with the crossing of the waterlogged Rannoch Moor proving a major drain on resources. In fact, the line’s eventual completion was only assured by a director of the railway, J H Renton, pledging part of his private fortune – a contribution immortalised by a sculpture of his head created by navvies that stands at Rannoch station. But this did not diminish possibilities for expansion, and in 1897 work commenced on the line’s near 41-mile extension to Mallaig, which was completed in 1901.
Consistently ranked as one of the world’s most scenic railway journeys, the WHL was built in the twilight of Queen Victoria’s reign and in this article, armed with the 1894 Murray’s guide, I will examine a selection of “its numerous lofty viaducts” – viaducts that came to number around 350 in all to carry trains from Glasgow up the mountainous West Coast of the Scottish Highlands.
The 21-arch Glenfinnan viaduct on the Mallaig extension is, of course, the most famous of the line, and arguably of the world too thanks to featuring in the Harry Potter films. Therefore I to admire a selection of structures from the extension as well. With their diversified construction type, these latter structures widened the appeal of the line enormously, and hold in their mass concrete core a key component of the line’s preservation in the current century.
