The Railway Magazine – August 2019

Negotiating the HorseshoeBend,BRStandard

‘5MT’4-6-0 No.73077andLMS‘BlackFive ’4-6-0

No.44975 preparetotackle the 1-in-55 gradient

to County March summit,just shortofTyndrum.

At therear of the train arethe King’s Cross

sleepingcarand fish vans from Mallaig.

DMCHEPBURNESCOTT/RAIL ARCHIVESTEPHENSON

leadingto Ben Nevis itself, Britain’s highest

mountain, looking verydifferent herethan from

the usual viewpoint at Corpach. Dropping at

1-in-67 towards LochTreig, the peaksof Stob

CoireEasain andStob a’ ChoireMheadhoin

dominant across the loch,thedescent eases to

1-in-444tor emain above the rise in waterlevel

following completion of the dam at Fersit in 1931.

To compensate, thecontinuationis at 1-in-59, the

line turning sharply westwardinto Glen Spean

and Tulloch station, followedbyRoy Bridge and

Spean Bridge.

From Spean Bridge the way is briefly uphill

beforedropping to FortWilliam where, in 1975,

the original station wasreplaced byastructureless

congested but moreutilitarian. It was onthis final

section that speeds wereusually highest:

OSNock timedapair of ‘Glens’ at 59mphhere,

while AlastairWood’s two‘BlackFives’ touched

amoremodest47.AsTable 2shows,histrain

was checked beforeSpean Bridge, whereitp assed

No. 44702with the2.10pmFortWilliam-

Glasgow;furth er delaywas incu rred at Mallaig

Junction(now FortWilliam Junction), waiting for

‘K1’ No.62012 to clear withatrain from Mallaig;

and 1½min was spentbyt he loco shed detaching

No. 44956. Soahalf-minuteearly departurefrom

Roy Bridge becamea9½min late arrival at Fort

William, such was the congestednatureoft he

layout there.

How did locos tackle thesouthboundjourney?

Here, theprincipal climbs werefromFortWilliam

to Corrour,the broken ascent from Rannoch

to Gortan, theclimb from BridgeOrchy to the

County March aboveTyndrum, and the sharply

curved 1-in-53/57from south of Arrochar to

Glen Douglas.

Heavily loaded

Table 3summarises tworuns, both heavily

loadedanddouble-headed.The first, timed by the

late GJAstonin 1952, featuresapurely LNER

pairing,of a‘B1’ 4-6-0anda‘K2’Mogul, with

360 tons gross; thesecond,anotherAlastair Wood

offering, depictsajourney on the King’s Cross

sleeper behindaBRClass 5leadinga‘Black Five’

with no less than 415 tons gross.

The first section of the climb to Corrour is

comparatively easy,but containsashortspell at

1-in-59, tackled at 28mph on bothruns. The

brief downhill length to Spean Bridge saw almost

identical maxima, although to that station the pair

of Class 5s, Standardand Stanier,wereslightly

ahead of their Thompson and Gresley competitors.

On the shortcontinuation to Roy Bridge,

however,the difference of 52sec was significant,

as was the 44mph maximum against 35 by the

ex-LNER duo.

With the quartzite-capped Grey Corries

formingaseemingly impenetrable 3,500ft high

barrier to the south, the gradients steepen, while

the sight and sound ofadouble-headed train

thrashing through therockbound Monessie

Gorge never failed to thrill. Both ‘double headers’

attained 26mph on the initial 1-in-80/64, and

times toTulloch werealmost identical.

Here, the railway turns south for the final

10-mile slog to the summit of theline. This time

the ‘B1’and ‘K2’ hadthebetterofi t, attaining

24mph onthe1-in-59 to theLoch Treig dam

and racingupto41mph on the 1-in-444 of the

deviation.Onthe long 1-in-67 above LochTreig,

August2019 •TheRailway Magazine•27

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