Firemen's farewell for West Coast ' Jacobite' driver Bobby Duncan
TRIBUTES have been paid to popular WestCoastRailways steam driver Bobby Duncan who has died at the age of 77, shortly before he was due to retire.
Robert Alexander Duncan and his twin brother Charles were born in Linnhe Road, Fort William, on December 16, 1942.
Bobby attended school at Fort William and earned a prize for technical drawing. His interest in trains was ignited when his father Charlie had a spell working on the railways.
After leaving school, he worked as hotel porter before starting a railway career asa steam cleaner m, aking his way up through the links to become a fireman by the Sixties H. isf irst firing duties for BR were on the West Highland Line running through his home town.
He moved to Stirling in 1964, and when an opportunity to become a second man on diesel locomotives arose he moved back to Fort William to take it. However, h e longed to becomea fully fledged driver in his own right and finally achieved his ambition in 1986 when he qualified as a steam driver in Fort William and drove locomotives on the West Highland Line, over which steam had returned in 1984.
His driving career then took him to Inverness T. here, h e became a train driving instructor with Scot Raial nd was the first driver for the North of Scotland line to drive the then new Sprinter trains in 1989.
A committee member of Fort William Railway Socia Club, he worked with ScotRail until he retired, and then joined West Coast as a steam driver in 2006, driving the~ Jacobite' during the summer season and undertaking snowplough duties in the winter. He had planned to retire permanently after the 2020 summer season when he reached 78.
Bobby died peacefully on April 22 following a short illness. He was surrounded by family at his home in Inverness.
At his funeral on April 30, firemen's shovels were raised high in a poignant guard of honour, and flowers were thrown by friends and colleagues as the cortege passed lnverlochy depot
Bobby was laid to rest alongside, Moira, his second wife, and his twin brother who had passed away in 1982 aged only 40.