on THe iron road To THe isles

BY JOHN HUNT AND JAMES SHUTTLEWORTH • silver link puBlisHing

Comprehensive journey along this stunning line.

A few images have been scanned poorly.

PRICE: £45.00 RATING:

For a railway with the scenic charms of the West Highland Line, there have been relatively few attempts to cover it in a comprehensive illustrated album.

John Hunt, a driver for West Coast, former NELPG chairman and lineside photographer(!) and James Shuttleworth, also of West Coast, are well placed to take on the sizeable challenge.

The ‘Road to the Isles’ between Fort William and Mallaig is well known to most because of its enduring association with the daily ‘Jacobite’ steam specials, and it is natural that the 42-mile extension accounts for half the pages.

But that isn’t to decry the nature of the route from Glasgow, which centres on the extraordinary Rannoch Moor, where there have been a number of highly evocative photo-charters since the turn of the millennium. Naturally, these get plenty of coverage from some of steam’s best-known ‘photters’, as well as the authors.

There is also a smattering of archive scenes from W.J.V. Anderson, providing context to the raft of post-preservation images as the reader is taken on an eye-opening journey from Scotland’s second city to the coast.

We end with a number of the great personalities, without whom the country’s second steam renaissance would not have been possible.

A small handful of the pictures have been reproduced with a blotchy effect, which sadly jars with the otherwise crisp quality of the rest of this weighty volume. (NB)