KYLE OF LOCHALSH to INVERNESS scenic rail ride 1964

[@joshwilliams0391]

Your footage of passing through Plockton is incredibly useful to me as I’m building a model of the station at around this time period. Thank you.

[@Timstravels01]

These uploads are absolutely fantastic. Thanks so much for putting them together.

[@tango6nf477]

"Closed in................but reopened in................ is music to my ears its great to see that the short sighted mistakes of 50-60 years ago are being reversed at least in a limited way.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Especially in Scotland, they are, it seems. But the Scotts always were more canny than us English !

[@marc21091]

A brilliant film - perhaps the finest of Alan Snowdon's many colour films (and there are many good ones). I travelled on the Kyle Line in 1964 and it is wonderful to see in colour what I saw. The National Railway Museum must collect and keep the Snowdon films for posterity. The film shows the landscape as it still is, and the perfect stations, so well-kept at the time. The up train crossed the down observation car train at Achanalt - just glimpsed are a good number of people in the ex-Devon Belle car. The BRCW (Class 27) diesel locos and the maroon Mk1 carriages were perfect for the line. I remember the 'putter-putter' sound that the locos made when not accelerating. It is 2024, and fifty years have passed since a Minister of Transport finally announced in 1974 that the Kyle Line would not close. In the early 70s it had received provisional consent to close, but a political and public campaign reversed that decision. What we need in the 2030s on the Kyle line is a new class of three- or four-car diesel multiple-unit train, with large windows all round, views to the front and rear, a baggage, parcels and bicycles section in the middle coach, and low-backed, facing, comfortable seats from which the wonderful landscape can be seen. This would be a marketable train for visitors and local people alike, and should be put in service on all the Highland lines. The existing Class 158 trains are not really good enough for such a fine railway. A task for Transport Scotland and the promised 'Great British Railways'....

[@andrewjditton]

Fascinating! Delighted to have discovered your channel. A lot of wonderful stuff here to enjoy. Thanks for converting and posting for us all to enjoy.

[@prof.hectorholbrook4692]

Very interesting, & nostalgic. Fantastic scenery & motive power.

[@hughrainbird43]

Alan, thanks again for reviving memories of my younger days! We made this beautiful round trip from Achterneed (9:20) to the Kyle in the summer of the same year with a party of other guests when my parents and I were staying at the Hoiiday Fellowship Centre in Strathpeffer. (I can date this accurately, having bought the Rolling Stones' "Five by Five" EP, released that summer, during a visit to Inverness. We youngsters played it regularly on the gramophone in the Centre to the disapproval of some of the older guests! Oh, Helen, schoolmaster's daughter from Sanderstead, where are you now? But I digress...) We crossed by the ferry to Kyleakin and had a coach trip in a Bedford OB bus to parts of Skye before returning on a late afternoon train. I again did the round trip from Inverness in the "BR Blue" era of the late 'eighties behind a Class 37 during a week's holiday using a Scottish "Rail Rover" ticket.

[@brooklynroad8581]

Thanks for making the videos availble. Would love a time machine to travel back and see what we should have never closed.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Indeed, and thanks for your interesting channel too that my viewers will enjoy... kzbin.info/door/97NV1RAHdgJJOtB8f9OGJA ... nice to cross-promote

[@samconduct1356]

Absolutely fantastic.

[@peterfarrell1989]

thanks for uploading, fascinating to look back at these films

[@dulls8475]

Need a time machine. The Queen was on the throne with many years ahead of her. The country was looking so beautiful. It still is but it is not the same country anymore.

[@SteamboatWilley]

A beautiful railway journey. Interesting to see the (fish?) van in the consist. Not something you see these days.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Indeed! My viewers will enjoy your transport / history videos kzbin.infovideos ... good to co-promote.

[@peterkay8073]

Some of the station buildings looked very nice other than the halts. Again it's a interesting video and should be archived for future generations to enjoy.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Well, uploading to KZbin is the only means of archiving I've found so far. Does anyone know of a film/video archive that would be interested in my material, please?

[@TeddyWandererCamera-Bear]

This is amazing !!! We are going to watch all your others now we have discovered your channel. Thank you so much for sharing it must take a long time to edit this old footage :D

[@andrewjditton]

Fancy seeing you here my friend :)

[@TeddyWandererCamera-Bear]

@@andrewjditton Hello Andrew I could say the same ; ) I love to watch Alans videos they are wonderful . I havnt missed one since I discovered his videos. :)

[@justindavies3003]

Excellent films thank you for sharing these now

[@rogergriffith286]

A great record of times past - I was there in 1970 and it looked much the same.

[@Simonize41]

Lovely videos Alan. Thank you for sharing them. :)

[@nthglasScotland]

I think I have seen this video before, with the Lady's commentary. Was the Lady not a daughter of the gentleman who captured these images? VERY evocative of fishing villages, & estates, as I can relate to from my own grandparents.

[@BegudMaximan-zp2tc]

Those were the days!

[@ianburnett7333]

Would you know of whereabouts cine film made by late Peter Scott?

[@FinlayLavery303]

Going to Lochluichart tomorrow for a photoshoot. been there once before and thought wow there is nothing here. But then I see this and there really is NOTHING there. Looks fab thought. Thanks for sharing these.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

I guess it depends on what one regards as "Nothing." As well as a few homes visable from the train, a quick shuftie on Google Earth reveals a scattering of other habitations. A great contrast to suburbia where most of us live! And I'll bet the area abounds in wildlife - free from human disturbance. Looks like you should have good weather for your photoshoot - certainly NOT guaranteed in that area.

[@richardhoyle1138]

Brilliant videos as always. Notice there have been no new postings for a while. Are there any more to look forward to?

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Yes, I do have more - but I need to overcome the breakdown of the specalised video computer I used. The problem is that the old films have been converted to ANALOGUE video and need to be converted to DIGITAL form before they can be uploaded. And it seems that analogue to digital conversion Computer Cards are no longer made. I wonder if anyone out there has any advice on this, please.

[@JA-lx5jo]

@@AlanSnowdonArchive How exactly is the film stored?

[@colinmcgregor4562]

do you have the originals to make a more informative film (more info/longer/less cuts) 🤔

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

Just how was the automatic tablet equipment used.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Although I can't give an exact description: On the train the tablet to be given up would be placed in a small container and attached to a short arm pivoted outwards. This engaged with a trackside device which caught the tablet being surrendered. Simultaneously the tablet for the next single line section, in a similar small container, would be transferred from to lineside apparatus to another arm folded out from the side of the train. Both the lineside equipment and that on the side of the train would normally be retracted well clear when not in use.

[@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819]

Alan Snowdon thanks. I take it that the train crew would load and unload their equipment and do the required checks on the token to confirm that it was the token for the section they were about to enter.

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Yes, Neil, either the 'second man' on a locomotive, or the driver on a multiple unit.

[@darylcheshire1618]

What was the name of the railway authority in Scotland in 1964? Was it BR?

[@AlanSnowdonArchive]

Yes it was, across all the island of England, Scotland & Wales - except for London Transport's "Underground" (most of which was, and still is, ABOVE ground), and several industrial and coal mine lines, et5c.

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@AlanSnowdonArchive Thank you

[@hiworldstephensonultranate290]

At Last a human voice other videos Nothing not even a robot

[@Isochest]

Uneconomic my arse! Look at the goods traffic! Ernest Marples sought to destroy the railways for his own inefficient road haulage interests which continue to be subsidised now. If road haulage paid its costs physical and environmental the overwhelming majority of goods would go by rail.

[@Isochest]

If what you said were true why has Ethiopia built an all electric rail network from scratch? If governments subsidise road then road gets the traffic. Corporate Welfare.

[@borderlands6606]

A road bubble is what we've had, a few decades of private car ownership until the network became overloaded and we've returned to rail again. My wife can rarely get a seat on her daily commute, on a line that ran a skeleton service in the 1970s and was constantly under threat. Most of the network could have been mothballed. The branch lines that were closed were in the very places people now choose to live.

[@exilenm2]

In some cases - but we're talking about the Kyle line, which lost money from the moment it opened

[@127cmore]

The railways are updated. I can fly to London from Inverness in 90 minutes easily , for a quarter of the railway ticket price

[@Ingramdumpkiss]

@@Isochest The answer is distance, land availabilty, land price, lack of good road infrastructure, and availability of cheap labour. You might as well compare Britain with Mars in terms of rail economics.