Dornoch Light Railway (Scotland)

I was in my local library yesterday skimming through a book called Branch Line Britain which had a couple of pages on a branch which ran from The Mound (where there was an interchange with the Inverness-Wick line) to the small town of Dornoch.

It looks exactly like the sort of line which would've made for a great heritage project - 8 miles long, the potential for a mainline connection, some stunning coastal sections etc. Interestingly the final years of the line were operated by two GWR panniers which were brought in to replace the two Drummond 0-4-4 tanks used until the late '50s.

Anyway my post doesn't have much of a point other than to say that this could still be a wonderful heritage line, all of the trackbed remaining intact as far as I can tell except for the last few hundred yards into Dornoch. This website has lots of photos of the line, hopefully the owner won't mind me posting a few:



The Mound (Dornoch branch on the right)



After having crossed the causeway out of The Mound there was a small viaduct, the line's only such piece of infrastructure

 

Thanks for that, love those Scottish lines. The little loco shed reminds me of the one at Killin. I walked the Killin branch in 2008 and all the concrete sleepers are still piled up beside the trackbed, must have been like that for 45 years!

Dave

 

Are the inhabitants of Dornoch known as dornochers?

 

I love it! There is something so charming about little lines run with very little stock and resources - titfield thunderbolt-esque?

 

I think in the 1980's this line was scheduled for a second life as part of a new line crossing the firth as a short cut to the far north.. but the last conservative government cut back the plan to a road bridge only, and a plan even to close the entire far north line, as the new road would negate the need for it !

 

Found these videos recently;

http://ssa.nls.uk/film/5418