Imaginary rail routes create lockdown escape
● Fictional map devised to highlight failed schemes to connect Highlands
A fantasy rail network across the Highlands has been conjured up by an author whose forthcoming book chronicles a failed Victorian scheme to build a line to Ullapool.
Andrew Drummond said it would enable would-be travellers to break out of the Covid-19 lockdown for imaginary journeys across the north west.
He has created a Scotrailstyle map on his andydrummond.net website which includes other fictional rail routes to the north west coast settlements of Lochinver, Laxford and Aultbea, with ferry connections to Stornoway.
Virtual passengers are also able to travel over lines extending across Harris and Lewis, and to Dunvegan on Skye.
There is a new link from the existing West Highland Line along the Great Glen to Inverness via Fort Augustus.
On the north coast, an extension from Thurso links the ferry port of Scrabster.
The site features timetables and bookable fares, such as “Prudent Servant” season tickets, while “toffs, swells & nobs” are charged double. Drummond’s book, A Quite Impossible Proposal - How Not to Build a Railway, which is due to be published in October, takes its title from the Scottish Office’s dismissal of the Ullapool scheme in the 1890s against the recommendation of its advisers.
It also features other unbuilt lines on Drummond’s map.
The book follows the author’s 2004 comic fictional account of the construction of the Ullapool line, An Abridged History.
Drummond said of his website: “Should it all be getting too much for you, why not try a gentle - if virtual - railway trip to the north-west coast of Scotland? Or even a railway journey on Skye or Lewis?
“Anything is possible under this Quite Impossible scheme.
“Buy yourself a summer travel pass to use under the sunshine and Atlantic breezes (yes, we can only dream).”
David Spaven, author of The Railway Atlas of Scotland, said: “Andy Drummond’s ingenious flight of fantasy is a reminder no fewer than eight schemes were proposed to branch off the Far North Line, and two from the Kyle line.
“None came to fruition – unsurprisingly in most cases due to sparse population and largely unproductive terrain for railways – but Andy’s forthcoming book demonstrates there was a realistic chance of trains reaching Ullapool.”
Ian Budd, convener of the Friends of the Far North Line, said: “At this time of lockdown, these journeys seem no more fanciful than travelling by train from Inverness to Wick.
“Food for thought here for MSPS and Transport Scotland staff holed up at home - it’s never too late.”