Historic Photo of the Day: 2023-11-30

Today's historic photo of the day: It's St Andrews Day, so let's do something Scottish. British Rail diesel loco 37417 and its short train, the 1802 to Inverness, head south out of the UK's northernmost railway station, Thurso, Scotland, UK, April 26, 1988. Thurso, on the north coast of Scotland, has a name that reflects the historic influence of Nordic culture in the region, and which translates apparently as "Thor's River". Annoyingly though, my visit was not on a Thursday. I'm disappointed in my younger self for not planning that better. Thurso railway station is the northernmost in the UK, being situated at the end of a 10km branch line from Georgemeas Junction and 250km along the North Highland line from Inverness. In total, that's about 1,160km from London. In 1988, trains on British Rail's North Highland line were run as loco-hauled Mk1 or Mk2 carriages hauled by class 37 locomotives. About three passenger trains would depart Inverness each day for the long journey north. At Georgemas Junction, 240km north of Inverness, the trains would split into two sections and a loco would drop onto the back to haul the rear section to Thurso whilst the front section would continue on to Wick, 22km south-east. On the return run, the Thurso portion of which is what we see here, the two sections would join up at Georgemas Junction and return south to Inverness. The line still operates today, although nowadays the loco hauled trains are long gone. Today's service, run by Scotrail, provides four trains each way each day Mondays to Saturdays and one on Sundays. Trains no longer divide and join at Georgemas, instead they reverse there for the run to Thurso, then immediately backtrack and run through to Wick. Return services nowadays start at Wick then run to Thurso before returning to Georgemas then heading South. The Sunday train is however, at certain times of the year, combined with a Kyle of Lochalsh train for the first 33 minutes out of Inverness as far as Dingwall.