The Splendid Sights Of Scotland's West Highland Railway | World's Most Beautiful Railway

Beneath vast mountains, across open moorland, and alongside shimmering lochs, Scotland's railways travel a landscape like no other. From coastal towns to historic cities, trains bring passengers to some of Britain's most iconic landmarks. For the crews on board the trains... If you do get a couple of minutes, it's good just to have a wee look out. For the engineers safeguarding the track... If you're under no illusion, and you're at the top of this thing, it's scary. And for the volunteers keeping Scotland's steam heritage alive... It's a unique thing. You know, it's not just, you know, press a button and it goes. It's part of the joy of working on the world's most beautiful railway. This time, on the world's most beautiful railway, experience some of Scotland's most stunning scenery on the West Highland Line. We sometimes forget that this is our day-to-day, our 95, our bread and butter. Take a trip down memory lane to explore the sights and sounds... ..of the Strathspey Railway. As the trains were coming in, they would race one another. The two trains head-to-head of two different lines. And in Edinburgh... I love what I do, so I'm looking forward to seeing all the fans for the Spice Train. ..the Spice Train rolls into town. Railways have served Scotland for almost 200 years, connecting people and trade in dramatic and remote landscapes that had previously been inaccessible. In the Highlands, the introduction of rail travel sowed the seeds of early tourism, creating a destination for game hunters and fishermen along the banks of the River Spain. But for those who lived and worked here, the railway became an integral part of daily life. Folk musician Hamish Napier is a son of Speyside whose music celebrates the people and places of the old Speyside Railway. I write a lot of music which is inspired by my local area, all about Strathspey and the Speyside whisky line that runs alongside it. Where we're walking just now, there would have been a single line of track running all the way to Boat of Garton and then eventually on to Aviemore, and that was the Speyside line. The Speyside Railway originally opened in July 1863 in Dufftown and ran through the Spey Valley to Neffie Bridge, incorporating stations that serve local villages and whisky distilleries. It was later extended to Broomhill, Boat of Garton and Aviemore. They shut the railway, they closed the railway and tore up the tracks in 1969. And it now forms this beautiful part of the Speyside Way. It stretches for miles and miles and wanders alongside the river. I grew up in the 80s and that was about 20 years after they tore up the tracks on the Speyside line. And I used to go for family walks. It was always a really strange feeling that you got when you walked along the railway lines because it was like you're stepping back in time. It's like some kind of lost empire. You'd see all these old platforms and old bridges and tunnels. I'm just approaching the Craigelachie Tunnel, which is the only tunnel on the Speyside line. So they had the old steam trains flying through here from the 1860s to the 1960s. So 100 years of trains flying through this tunnel. Not a good place to stand 60 years ago. Before there was the railway line, it would take days or weeks to travel around the Highlands by horse and cart. But when they built the railways, it connected everybody together. It must have been a really exciting time to live here. It's one of my favourite places to go for a walk, definitely. Dawn is braking over Oban, a harbour town on Scotland's west coast at the end of the West Highland line. I'm just going to go out, Sean, and get the train started up and do my safety checks. It's an early rise for the crew taking the 521 train from Oban to Glasgow. See you later, gang. Fresh from conductor training, Sean runs a tight operation on the West Highland line, assisted by driver Angela. Right, everybody ready? Ready to rumble. Not only was Angela the first female train driver on the Oban line, she's Sean's mum. It's been two years this month I've been in the railway. It's not just a job, it's a way of life to us. Sean's dad is also a train driver. It seems railway's running the family. He's heard of us talking about the job for so many years. I mean, he didn't think he would even get a chance because people don't leave the railway. It gives him a lifelong care if he wants it. He absolutely loves it. On Oban, it says 4127, you're receiving, over. So when she gets permission, she'll give me a bell code, which I'll hear through a wee speaker on the train. It'll let me know that she's got permission to proceed, but I do not do anything or assume that I can go until I get the buzzers off my mum. 4127, I'm on my way out. Today's family affair on the West Highland Line is business as usual for mother and son, Angela and Sean. It's all part of the Doherty's family connection with the railways. It was like a running joke, instead of Scotrail, cos they're saying Doherty, it's Dockrail. Just cos there's that many of us always coming in. The Doherty's are a regular fixture on the line which runs 61 miles from Oban in the Highlands, down past Loch Lomond and through the Trossachs National Park, before terminating in Glasgow around three hours later. Although today, Sean and Angela will only be going as far as Ardluie before swapping trains to make the return journey. Sean and Angela's daily route along the West Highland Line has been voted the world's top railway journey, beating off 400 other contenders, including Machu Picchu in Peru and the Trans-Siberian Express. There's always something different. You're always travelling, basically, up one of the most scenic railway routes in the world. You need to go pay just to travel up to Scotland, just to run this route. And we can sometimes forget that this is our day-to-day, our 95, our bread and butter. I should probably go and do my tickets. Come on in there, you've got your ticket. Set against rolling hills... ..crossing rivers... ..and skirting Scotland's coastlines... ..are 2,800km of railway track, which every day carry some 2,300 trains to 359 stations. Much of the network is single track. But at Inverurie in Aberdeenshire, a huge project is underway to add a second line and slash journey times between Aberdeen and Inverness. Like that way, innit? We've got two shifts working here, day shift and a night shift. There's a huge coordinated effort, hundreds of people pulling together to install two sections of double track. To accommodate the extra line, the area that supports the track needs to be built and extended, with over 100,000 tonnes of earth, rock and gravel. There's a huge amount of earthworks here, excavation and material, widening and embankments. And, in fact, the big challenges of a job like this are the earthworks, the sleepers and the ballast are a bit like the icing on the cake. This vast project doesn't just throw up engineering challenges. There's an environmental impact too. And it's the job of ecologists Liz and Sandy to help minimise the effect on wildlife. So there's lots of holes everywhere that could be used by otter. This stretch of the line is close to the River Don and is a popular spot for otters. So Liz and Sandy are looking for clues that the otters haven't been disturbed by the engineering work nearby. This could be otter droppings. From looking at the remnants inside, it looks like there's a couple of fish bones in there and it's quite tarry. As well as otters, Liz and Sandy have also been monitoring badger activity in this area. We have to make sure that when we're constructing the railway that we don't disturb or destroy any badger sets. But they need to find out which sets are active and whether they're at risk of disturbance from the track works. Lots of soft bedding. Yeah, there's a lot of bedding at the bottom there. A bit of animal fur mixed with straw is a clue that this set is indeed in use. This is definitely badger with us because they sleep on that. If there are any badger sets threatened by the earthworks for the new line, then Liz and Sandy will need to check this habitat is still safe for them. If we were to destroy badger sets much closer, it's important that when we destroy them that they've got alternative badger sets to come to. So the team have gone ahead and built artificial sets out of plywood and drainage pipes which they've installed a safe distance from the railway. But it remains to be seen whether the badgers will take to their new homes. Back on the track, engineers are laying concrete sleepers with a beast of their own. We call it a spider because, as you can see, it just lifts them off a train and then it spaces them to a certain spacing, which here is 650, and it puts them on the white line that we've already spread right down that. Once the sleepers are down, the next job is to lay the track on top. When you get stale over that sort of length, you're going to get play in it. It does look like a bit of spaghetti once the machine's moving it into place. You've got high-speed trains coming along. Everything's got to be bang on. And to get it bang on, they use a special tamper train to correctly position and align the track. And what it does, it picks the rail up... ..and it'll compact all the stone underneath to make it nice and level and bring it to the correct height all the way through. While the new track is laid, Liz and Sandy are checking to see if any new residents are bedding in to the artificial badger sets. Badger des res as they may be, but sometimes little encouragement is needed to persuade a badger to move home. We've got many tricks up our sleeve, but we tend to use peanuts and oats with quite a lot of sugar, and we tempt them out with a trail and try and attract them to their new home. We've got a lot of sand coming out that's been pushed out by the badgers. And if we look inside, we can see that there's paw prints there. So that tells me that recently something's been in and or out of it. Yeah, I think this has been used. To check for badger activity, Sandy has set up motion sensor cameras. Hopefully we'll have some footage on there and we'll be able to see exactly what's going on. Back at their base, Liz and Sandy can check to see if their cameras have recorded any sign of new residents moving in to the new badger sets. Ooh! That's brilliant. Oh, found it. That's definitely been used, then. That makes it all worthwhile. Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah. It means we can go on and build the railway, but we're still protecting the badgers as well and giving them somewhere else to live, so that's great that they can build it. Basically, we're giving them a home. Giving the keys to a new home. I think that's an interesting thing. This one piece will make 52 layers. Watch on mobile devices or the big screen. All for free. No subscription required. Edinburgh is served by two historic railway stations. Waverley Station, between the Georgian New Town and the medieval Old Town, sits in the heart of the city. Less central is her older but smaller sister, Haymarket Station, ideally situated for Edinburgh's Murrayfield Stadium. Today, Haymarket will be stretched to the limit as 50,000 fans head to Murrayfield for an eagerly anticipated concert by the Spice Girls. If you want to be my lover... And with girl power taking over... Waverley duty station manager Pat Monaghan has made the five-minute journey to join forces with his Haymarket colleagues, Rab and Laura, to plan how to become one. How you doing? Are you OK? The queuing system's up and running. All the guys that are going to be doing all the queuing systems and everything for out the front and out the side, all seems to be ready to go. The Spice Girls' concert is due to end around 10.45, which means the last trains of the night will be full to capacity. But Pat and Rab are hatching a plan. Definitely get the two specials in. Are they definite? Two. Go and check. The two specials? Yeah, we've got a Zulu going to Dundee, a Zulu going to Queen Street. They're all confirmed? They're confirmed. Zulu is the codename given to unscheduled secret trains. The Murrayfield concert is the only Scottish date on the Spice Girls' tour, so fans have travelled from all over the country. We've got the train in from Glasgow. We're going to see the Spice Girls, aren't we? Just off the train from Ayrshire, we're going to see Spice Girls. We've travelled from Elgin and Dundee to Edinburgh. Spice up your life! And Sheffield and Perth. Spice Girls, all right? Enjoy the concert, guys. Station staff are also getting into the spirit. I've been working for Scorpio for three years and I love what I do, and I just love dealing with customers. So I'm looking forward to seeing all the fans for the Spice Girls. You look beautiful, Spice. You look like baby. Let's go again, let's go again. Oh, the atmosphere has been electric. Everybody coming through, everybody's happy. Everybody is singing Spice Girls music. It's just wonderful. While everyone else is dressing up for the occasion, Waverley duty station manager Pat has dressed down for his role in tonight's crowd control operation at Haymarket station. I'm in Cognito tonight just because I'm here specifically as an overseer managing the situation. And if I was in uniform, I'd get approached by customers all night. Oh, there you are. How are you doing? Not bad. How are you walking about there? Aye. Big numbers coming through? A wee bit more than we anticipated, but especially at this time of night, I thought we'd have a bit of quiet. Big numbers, but it's looking good, Pat. We've got enough people on. Everything fine, then? Aye. Aye. No worries at all? Cheese and chips time? Cheese and chips time, aye. Speyside, the home of Scottish whisky, where, for generations, malt and grain have been transformed into ishqaba, the water of life. This region, along the River Spey, is home to over half of Scotland's whisky distilleries. It's also home for musician Hamish Napier, who is retracing the route of the old Speyside Railway, which played its part in the old whisky tradition. Hamish is arriving into Blacksboat Station, halfway along the line. Hiya, Ian. How you doing? Oh, good morning. Nice to see you again, Hamish. To meet his old friend and real enthusiast, Ian Lamb. Blacksboat Station was operational from 1863 until 1965, serving the village of Ballandallach. This is one of my favourite pictures, actually, of Blacksboat. I just love that picture. It's such a period time. They've got the beautiful old jackets and the railwayman's cap. You get the impression people were obviously really proud of their beautiful railway stations. If it was a toss-up between my engine or station or the wife, you know what one it would have been, you see? Right. So what kind of goods would this train have transported along here, along the Speyside line? The weekly whisky, or Speyside Special, was obviously the main one, bringing coal and grain in from the central belt. Yeah, and you see these long trains full of the barrels just sticking up, just tempting you. I heard there was one local guy near Nethie Bridge. When the train was stopped, you'd get a wee drill and go in from underneath and get a drab that way. I'm sure nobody would really do that. All along the old railway line, there are signs of Speyside's whisky legacy and the sidings that service the old distilleries. So we're just coming into Tam Do distillery just now. So we've got this beautifully old, restored, well-kept station building. Hi. Good afternoon, gents. How you doing? Hello. Very well, thank you. Yourself? Not bad. A fine day for a walk along the old railway. What time's the next train? I'm afraid you're a few years too late. Sandy McIntyre from the Tam Do distillery is in charge of operations today. Why not come up and have a wee look at the signal box? It's not normally open to the public, so it'd be great to let you see all the different levers. I think there's only about ten of these left of this particular style in the UK. I think there was about 150 of them at one time. Right. With three generations of railway men before him, enthusiast Ian has a good working knowledge of life on the tracks. Well, I'm not a signalman, but the red ones were the really, if you like, important ones because they were attached to what was called the home signal. And, of course, they had bells and all sorts of things. Oh, was there? I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Because everything was bell-code. People often say a single line, and you think, oh, my goodness, you know. But you never had any accidents then, you see. I've got this illusion of perhaps a signalman sitting in this wee cosy corner at two o'clock in the morning with a blizzard outside, with his hot stove on, and, let's face it, with hopefully a nice dram in his hand to while away the hours of the evening time. No, he did that for his coffee mixture. What came first, the Speyside line or the whisky distillery? Well, for us here at Tam Do, the railway was certainly here before the distillery was. The railway dates back way into the early 1890s. The station here at Tam Do was actually built in 1899, but the distillery was built in 1897. And where that came about was actually the local community were wanting to have the railway station here. So it's a fantastic story of the railway was an integral part of the community. And you think now Speyside is one of the world-leading places for whisky in the world, and the railway is one of the main reasons for it? Yes, you know, it's an integral part of the whole of the whisky industry is having this lifeblood running right through the whole of the Speyside area. The railway must have absolutely transformed this whole area. It must have helped people make business connections and social connections. It really would have united the communities in the area, so it's a pretty amazing thing, really. You've got this plume of steam running through the highlands between the trees all the time. It must have been a really beautiful sight. Back on the West Highland Line, mother and son Angela and Sean Docherty are today's train crew working the early morning service from Oban. Morning. How are you? I'm good, thank you. Yes, please. It's only Sean's fourth week in the job, but he's a chip off the old block when it comes to life on the tracks. Hiya there. Hello. Thanks very much. Just from growing up, like, it was my norm getting on a train, my dad would be driving it, my mum doing our guard duties and doing tickets and things. I always knew that was something I'd want to be a part of and I'm not really a 95 kind of person. Are you going to go into Oban live then? Yes. I think I'm, like, the only one that isn't going. There you are, pal. Thank you. You're welcome. As well, as you can tell, I talk a lot. So it's good to have different interactions every day with people and hearing people's stories, people from all over the world, especially because we're such a scenic route. Sean's passengers are rarely disappointed by the views across Loch Awe, Scotland's longest freshwater loch. Running 25 miles from end to end, it offers travellers some spectacular views as well as occasional wildlife. I never knew there were so many different types of eagles and all these things. You'll just be sitting in the back cab one day and then you'll just look out and be like, whoa! Keep your eyes peeled so you can see some pretty cool sights. And that's us. Tickets. Morning, pal. Back in the Spey Valley... See, you've got the stern. Do you want me to go down in front of you, Dad? ..local musician Hamish Napier has met up with his dad, Peter... Here we go. ..and taken to the water to unravel the beginnings of the Speyside Line. The inspiration behind his songs. Sometimes it might look quite calm, but then you've got all these overhanging branches and you know about it if you get caught underneath them. We've had a couple of experiences, haven't we, Dad? We're heading down towards Tom O'Crocker and that is where the Speyside Line crossed right over the River Spey. And the bridge is no longer there, but you'll still see the old granite posts and it's just a beautiful sight. It's nice to do a bit of trainspotting by boat. It's just an amazingly beautiful area. You've got mountains, rivers, this beautiful old Speyside Line. It's just a great spot. The main line may be long gone, but the railway and river are linked by history. I lived in Glasgow for 16 years and it was a great place for... a real hub for music in Glasgow. But moving back here to Straths Bay has been a great place to write more music. I usually try and find wee stories and things to sort of inspire bits of music. For instance, one of the... one of the pieces that I wrote for my album The River was about the log floaters. From 1784, log floaters felled and floated trees downstream to Garmouth, the heart of the shipbuilding industry in north-east Scotland for 200 years. They cut down a lot of trees and many of those were floated down the River Spey, much like we're doing just now, on big, big open rafts, 40 miles or so down to Garmouth, and they would transport them to the shipbuilding down there. And then, of course, when the Speyside Line came in, they didn't have to float these logs, they could actually put them on boat trains and transport them down that way, so the railway brought very big changes to the area. So we're just passing between the pillars of the Tom O'Crocker Railway Bridge. This is one of the four bridges that crossed over the River Spey. So the River Spey and the Speyside Line did a wee dance, they weaved in and out and crossed over the river here to get over to Tulloch Gorm. When you think about, you know, steam, locomotives, all the wonderful bridges that they built, I think one would have to be impressed by what the Victorians did. It's kind of a lovely monument to bygone era, this. Beautiful. Back on the West Highland Line, Angela is swapping trains at Ardluie to make the return journey to Oban with her son, Sean, the conductor. That's us arrived at Ardluie, so I'm waiting on the train coming from Glasgow to come in, and we'll be swapping over, driving for that, we'll go on that, and I'll take this one back to Oban. On the outbound journey, Angela and Sean's passengers are mainly early-morning commuters, but on the return leg, the train serves as the school run for Argyll and Bute District Council. So we're just coming up to Dalmally the now, this is kind of where the school kids all start to get on. Fingers crossed, because it's Friday, that they're going to actually be nice and quiet today. On school days, the train transports around 130 pupils between Dalmally and Oban. As well as being cost-effective for the council, it's much faster than using school buses in the remote outlying areas. There aren't many school runs with views like this. We get the train to school every day. It's really pretty. Like, you don't see this much from a road, and, like, you get to see Kilchurn Castle. Kilchurn Castle is on the north-eastern end of Lothal. Built in the mid-15th century by the mighty Campbells of Glenorchy, it was used as a base to extend their territory over the next 150 years, until it was badly damaged by lightning in an almighty storm of 1760, after which it was abandoned. Arguably one of Scotland's most photographed ruins, Clan Campbells Castle has provided the backdrop for many a film location. It's all a bit in ruins, but it's still really nice, and I think they set a bit of brave in it, which is quite cool. Best castle in Scotland, in my opinion. Oh, yeah. I'm just saying that, though, cos I'm a Campbell. So that's us finally coming back into the open. I'm looking forward to my bed, cos I've been up since half three. But that's us made it back in safe and sound. So that's me done for the day. Angela and Sean will be back tomorrow to crew another service on Dock Rail. Back in Edinburgh, the Spice Girls concert has come to an end. Staff at Haymarket Station are now dealing with thousands of fans trying to make their way home. As you'll see, that's crowds well and truly starting to come back from Murrayfield. As the stadium empties and the station fills, Pat needs the Spice fans to stop right now. So that's shut the gates now, then, aye? Aye, the gates are shut, but we just want to make sure everything's safe enough for now, OK? That's us had to put the queue into full system now, and we'll be running the queue now, as opposed to the queues running naturally themselves. You'll see down there, platforms are full and they're at capacity now, so we have to take charge. That makes it all worthwhile, what we've done here today is putting that in place. Hopefully this train that's coming in will clear the platform and we'll be able to open it back up for a flow again. To clear the crowded platforms and get passengers home as quickly as possible, Pat's got a couple of Spice trains up his sleeve. This is one of our secret specials. This is Platform Zero. Seven coaches going to all stops to Queen Street. It's not starting at Waverley, so it's not coming in with passengers already on after a normal Saturday night. It is exclusively to Haymarket customers. Most of them haven't been to the Spice Girls concert. Yeah, it was awesome. But it was amazing, it was so fun. Are we going to miss our train? What we're going to do with this train is actually load it from the front so that any last-minuters can get it on at the back. That's our plan, it's about getting people home, getting people home safe. Can I get everybody to go towards the front of the train, please? Front of the train, please, front of the train. Can I get you to go towards the front of the train, please, folks? And with that, it's Viva Forever to the Spice Girls fans. If we didn't have this, that would have been another 800 to 900 over there joining other services. Total success. With the station despised, the staff can think about getting themselves home after a hectic but colourful Saturday night. Right, Rob, this part, look at it. We've done it! I just can't believe how smoothly this went. I thought I was getting a taxi home, but I'm going to get a train. Are you going to get a train? Sorry, it's cancelled. See you later. See you after. Folk singer and son of Speyside, Hamish Napier, is reaching the next stop along the route of the old railway as he rediscovers the places and people that have inspired his music. So, just walked over the old Spey Bridge in Grantown Spey and we're heading towards Grantown East, a beautiful old railway station which has just recently been renovated. The last train passed through Grantown East on November 2nd, 1968. A moment caught in this footage filmed by a local cine-enthusiast. Sitting on the 350-acre Reevac Highland estate, the station was neglected and fell into disrepair. But in 2003, it was bought by American Karen Blessington. Hey, Hamish, how you doing? Hi, Karen, how you doing? Good to see you again. How are you? How you doing? Good. Good, good, good. You have a cup of coffee? Oh, yes, please. All right, please, come in. From the Heritage Centre and miniature railway to the Mark 1 rail carriages which have been repurposed into a modern-day diner, the two-year and £2.2 million restoration has been a labour of love. Even the bespoke pizza oven is made out of bricks from the old station house. The devil really is in the detail. When was it you opened, Karen? November 2nd, 2018, which was the 50-year anniversary of the closure of the Speyside Line. Oh, wow, so 50 years to the day. To the day. Amazing. And so this carriage is actually on a bit of track which would have been on the Speyside Line. Correct. We're right here. Oh, that's brilliant. They've restored this carriage absolutely beautifully. They've got these lovely old luggage racks and they've got beautiful pictures of the station as it was and the old station master and the trains that came through here. They've got them on the backs of all the chairs. So what better place to stop for a coffee? Hi, Amish. Hey, there we go. Cheers. Uh-huh. There you go. So you've transformed this railway station into this beautiful heritage centre and people love it. They love the tradition. So what is it that attracts them about it? I think it's the magic of the railway. Yeah. Who doesn't love a railway, right? I know, that's it. Yeah, yeah, and when you go on the steam train, it brings you back to a different era. I decided early on that it would be good to use a local labour force. And so everyone that worked on this site was from just up the road. It's just amazing now to see this place as it is and you can see the original clock from the station, the original lamp and everything's restored beautifully. Thank you. It's great. It's kind of right here for people to be able to see it. With a fresh head of steam... Bye! ..there's one final stop for Hamish. And he's saved the best until last. In 1978, a group of like-minded volunteers reinstated the line between Abbeymore, Boat of Garton and Broome Hill and since then have brought this 10-mile section of track back to life. The Strathspey Railway runs three services a day through the heart of the Cairngorms National Park, evoking a bygone era of the golden days of rail travel. It's beautiful, actually. It's a lovely thing to see these old engines. We're just going to jump on an old steam train just now, so I'm quite excited. Oh, look at these lovely old steam carriages, just as they were back in the day. Classic! Hamish is taking a trip down memory lane, joined by his old head teacher and fellow enthusiast, Bill Sadler. Hi, Bill, how you doing? Nice to see you. How's it going? Brilliant. First class. First class. How did you manage this? This is the way to travel. I love being on these old steam engines. Just like stepping back in time, really. What is it that's so magic about the Strathspey Steam Railway? What attracts people to railways like this in general? It's just the magic of trains. The excitement of going places. The whole thing of steam and the mechanics of it and the engineering of it. And the fact that it's so different from any other form of travel. To sit like this, to have good company and to talk and to move. It's a dignified sort of speed through the countryside. But in days of old, things weren't always quite so dignified. Especially when drivers from the Speyside line would try to outrun drivers on the adjacent Highland line. This part of the line we're just coming to between Boat and Broomhill, the two railway companies both ran on that line. That line, they were twin tracks. And on one side was the Highland line, on the other side was the Strathspey line. And as the trains were coming in, they would race one another. And so you got these two trains racing to get to the station. The two trains head-to-head on two different lines. And then you'd actually have kids shaking hands with other kids across the carriages. The reopened line runs from Aviemore to Broomhill, where the locomotive then pulls the train backwards on the return journey. Thanks to the tireless dedication of these volunteers, this part of the Strathspey line is alive and well. And celebrated by 80,000 visitors every year. The trains go into bed, they're cleaning out the smoke box, so we're going to have a wee chat to some of the drivers and the firemen and just have a wee look, a close look at the footplate. For folk that are into trains, this is kind of like the dream. The driver with Hamish's dream job is Steve Robinson. That's the steam brake off. This one's the one that everybody wants to play with. Oh, this is it, this is the train going to bed for the night, so. Into the shed. Just the last bit of steam of the day, eh? So, there you are. Steam brake back on. He's just shutting off the injector now. What we call a clack valve. It's all red hot. I was the last steam train fireman at Doncaster. At the railway town, of course. And I had that privilege. And I met some guys there that I've never met the like since. That's absolutely brilliant. Oh, great. I remember them right up to this day. Most of them are not there, but they were real heroes. It was a privilege actually to work with some of these guys, you know. As a folk musician, I'm really passionate about people preserving old ways of doing things. Whether it's Gaelic song or Highland Games or kilt making or running old engines like this. I just think it's a lovely thing that you're doing. It's a fitting end to a journey that's taken Hamish from the ghost stations of the old Speyside line to the reinstated Straths Bay Railway, where the steam tradition is undergoing a much-loved renaissance. It's been wonderful writing music about the railways. And it's great to come to places like this and see the engines close up for real. To actually take a run on the line, to canoe alongside the railway, to walk under the tunnel. It's been a great adventure to actually go and explore and see all these places that I've written my music about. It's just been a great adventure. I'm going to go home with my two bits of coal that I got from the firemen and I'm going to sit up and have a Speyside dram. There's just no better way for a perfect day than Straths Bay. Next time, a steam ride through Royal Deeside on a journey fit for a queen. We head Doon the Water to visit Scotland's most beautiful station. I'm absolutely blown away. What an incredible station. And Edinburgh Waverley is awash with glitter as people take to the streets to show their pride. Looking for the WI meet?