LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREENER PAST Iain Ferguson A new exhibition on the building of the Mallaig extension to the West Highland Railway hopes to demonstrate not only the facts of it being an amazing engineering feat, but just how ‘green’ the process was. Based on a recently published book ‘Building the Mallaig Railway - a photographer’s story, by Hege Hernaes, the exhibition features many of the images taken at the time to record the progress and means of construction along its entire length. One of the aspects revealed by the photographic essay is the ‘green’ methods employed by the workforce, which can also be taken as a lesson from the past, as the present and future world becomes more aware of using available resources more carefully. At the time the railway and the supporting infrastructure was being built, there was little alternative but to use the materials which could be used from the immediate surrounding, or use and reuse those which had to be transported into the area. Set up at Glenfinnan Station in a railway carriage, the
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exhibition features a number of enlargements of pictures in the book, with explanations of what is happening, where - and when possible - who is featured in them. Previously terminating at Banavie where an impressive station sat just below the Caledonian canal, the West
Highland line collected passengers from the steamer from the north and delivered them to First William, where they could connect with other services. An act was passed in July 1894 which sanctioned the
extension to Mallaig, mainly to allow speedier access from the then important and very prosperous fish landings in the village to their main markets across Britain and further afield. While the line was only 40 miles long, it faced tremendous engineering challenges due to the terrain, the solutions to which resulted in what were the cutting edge technological methods of the day. At least one of the engineering ‘miracles’, the Glenfinnan viaduct, the largest poured concrete structure in existence, was destined to become a world renowned icon and not just for its ingenious method of construction. A total of 11 tunnels and six viaducts were to be built in conquering the land
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Lochaber Life November 2021.indd 24
12/10/2021 11:13:22
