I thought he looked good up there, welcoming allcomers to the village of Acharacle, deep in Ardnamurchan wild country. But tonight I see he's gone, and I've no idea where. But Scotland's big absentee landlords are a NIMBYish lot who want their playgrounds without any thought for community sentiment. Gordon, in a very short time, proved to be popular with children and families in our area and the thought that he has been kidnapped is distressing.
© All Rights Reserved
All winter we waited to hear if the Jacobite "Harry Potter Express" would operate from Fort William to Mallaig. "Greatest train journey in the world" they call it. But it isn't. Certainly, not at the moment.
The company that operates the Jacobite and benefits hugely from J.K. Rowlings novels, West Coast Railways is in dispute with the safety authority, the ORR (Office of Rail and Roads). The ORR have found fault with WCR on numerous occasions, most seriously when they were fined £200,000 with £ 64,000 costs when the driver turned off a safety system and nearly caused a head on collision with a high speed passenger train. The driver was even sentenced to four months in prison, with sentence suspended for 18 months, it was that serious an offence.
All train carriage doors used on main lines must have a central door locking (CDL) system. West Coast Railways have been given an exemption from this each year for the last 30 years. But in light of other safety breaches the ORR refused to offer one more. All other heritage railways using old rolling stock have been compliant with the ORR, except West Coast Railways, who say they cannot afford the £ 7 million bill to update their carriages with central door locking. This seems hard to believe given that this service is amongst the most profitable anywhere, and what is to stop WCR getting newer carriages with CDL and painting them up in vintage colours? It seems to have become a battle of wills, and the victims are tourists, train enthusiasts and the local communities. I went to see the situation for myself yesterday.
Hundreds of people had arrived before me, a full hour before the train was due on the Glenfinnan viaduct. The National Trust car park was already conned off, full. The Glenfinnan Community car park was almost full, with one car being allowed in at a time. There was a trail of people walking up the riverside path towards the viaduct. Where they went left up the hillside to the most popular viewing point I went right, across the bridge and up the opposite side of the valley to give me a longer view up Loch Shiel towards my home. Perched on a dry rock, there, I scanned the opposite hillside and spotted an estimated 500 train spotters, stood expectantly for the Harry Potter experience.
Normally, you can hear the clatter on the rails from miles away, and the train slows to issue a shrill whistle to announce its arrival to the waiting crowds. I almost didn't notice its arrival in the drizzle as a dark, pig-like snout pushed past the trackside vegetation into my field of view. Bugger! No steam train. No Harry Potter train. Just a dirty great Class 37 diesel, which belched black smoke every time it opened the throttle. As it trundled past I counted 7 carriages, it's normal number, I was pleased to see. But peering through the windows, rather than seeing hundreds of happy faces and hands smiling and waving out at us, almost all were completely empty.
What's going on? I had heard rumours, almost unbelievable rumours. The Black 5 steam engine had broken down on the first day, blocking the track for the usual Scotrail train to and from Mallaig. But WCR normally position three identical Black 5 steam engines in Fort William to cater for the second service of the day, and one to cover breakdowns. The diesel was always there to take over if there was a risk of embers from the steam train setting fire to the hillsides in dry weather. Why no steam engine yesterday? And why only one or two carriages of passengers, or were they not passengers at all, but crew being trained as another rumour made out?
As the diesel disappeared under a black cloud on the far side of the valley, the hillside viewers broke up and walked down hill to their cars again, disappointment written all over their faces in the silent procession back to their cars. They paid a minimum £ 5 to park too, up from £ 3 last year. Not that I begrudge a highland community trying to make money from their own endeavours.
WCR say the area will lose £ 55 million because of the ORR decision to issue them an exemption to safety requirements. The ORR say they have had 30 years to get their carriages updated, or get ones that comply. But still WCR would rather operate the trains empty so that no other operator can use their slots on the single main line
The people I feel sorry for are the tourists and train enthusiasts. I've heard of visitors from places like Australia and Canada planning trips to Scotland based around going on the Jacobite. And thousands of Harry Potter fans and Instagrammers from all over the world who are left disappointed and upset that there is no Harry Potter steam train. But most of all I feel sorry for the small fishing village of Mallaig at the end of the line who were used to a thousand or so train passengers coming off the Jacobite for an hour or two as it turned round to go back to Fort William. They streamed into the town to buy Fish and Chips, and enjoy fresh seafood in the restaurants, take short boat trips and cruises to see seals and other wildlife, even visit the Haggard Alley Harry Potter shop, and take in harbour views of the Small Isles out towards Skye. I feel sorry for them losing all that business while WCR use the community's loss as a weapon to bully the ORR into giving them one more exemption. In Mallaig, WCR really have reached the end of the line.
I went on the Jacobite steam train, once, First Class. In my opinion, it wasn't worth it. Trackside vegetation blocks your views most of the way, even if the steamed up, soot streaked windows don't. The road journey, which mostly takes the same route is more enjoyable, but if you must go over the Glenfinnan viaduct, go on the Scotrail train at a fraction of the Jacobite price. It's exactly the same route
Many would say, for what West Coast Railways have done, they don't deserve to operate this service. A lot of anger is forming towards them. Let a new, more caring and responsible operator come in and create a better experience for tourists, train enthusiasts and local communities alike.
© All Rights Reserved
Go up the sealoch of Loch Linnhe to Fort William and turn left and the body of water becomes Loch Eil, stretching almost all the way to Glenfinnan.
© All Rights Reserved
I love ponies and horses. But I'm pretty timid around them. So when I saw this lovely Highland lass, that shed and that tree I knew I had to be brave to get in there. I spoke to her kindly and asked her to pose near the tree but she was determined to stalk me, round and round, behind me, where I was sure she would lunge with her teeth or paste me into the ground with her hooves. But I didn't get bitten or mashed into paste, and I just love this sort of shot, if I can overcome my fear.
© All Rights Reserved
I remember if I pulled a face my mother would say, " If the wind changes, you'll stay like that!"
I half believed her!
The Jacob sheep takes its name from the story told in the Old Testament Book of Genesis of how Jacob became a selective breeder of pied sheep.
The Bible story tells how Jacob, the second son of Isaac and Rebecca, had so infuriated his older brother Esau that he was sent away to stay with his uncle Laban who lived over 1000 kilometres from Jacob’s home. While he was there, Jacob fell in love with his beautiful cousin Rachel, but had to work as an unpaid shepherd for his uncle Laban for fourteen years before permission was given for them to marry.
After Jacob and Rachel’s son Joseph was born, Jacob wished to return to his own country. To retain Jacob’s services as a shepherd, Laban promised to allow Jacob to establish his own flock by taking all the spotted and speckled sheep and black lambs from Laban’s flock. Laban agreed to this, but then gave his sons all the black lambs promised to Jacob.
Old Testament Jacob
“I will go aboute all thy shepe this daye, and separate fro all the shepe that are spotted and of dyverse colours, and all blacke shepe among the lambes and the partie and spotted among the kyddes: And then such will be my reward.” ‘The fryst book of Moses, called Genesis’, William Tyndale, 1530.
Jacob took all the spotted and pied sheep that were left, used them to establish a large flock and grew exceedingly wealthy. God then came to Jacob in a dream and told him that he should return to the land of his birth, so Jacob fled with his wives and children and flocks and returned to Canaan and also home to his father Isaac.
During the flight, Jacob’s son Joseph was sold by his brothers to a caravan of traders carrying gum, balm and myrrh. Joseph eventually settled in Egypt where he became governor. At a time of famine the brothers, not knowing that Joseph was governor, came to Egypt to buy corn. Joseph recognised them and ordered that they be imprisoned. He later released them and told them to return to his father Jacob and ask him to come to Egypt with his children, his children’s children, his flocks of pied sheep, and all that he had.
Jacob’s pied sheep thus travelled from Palestine to Egypt. Over the following thousands of years, so it is said, the descendants of Jacob’s sheep travelled to Spain via the coast of North Africa and Morocco. In the 17th and 18th Century, Jacob Sheep were imported from Spain by the British landed gentry. The oldest known flock which were imported in the 1750s still graze at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire (below). The Jacob breed with its splendid horns and distinct spotted fleeces made it an ideal ornamental sheep to graze with deer in parklands surrounding castles and stately homes. By the end of the First World War, many of these flocks had disappeared and by the mid part of the century there were very few Jacob sheep. A small number of dedicated breeders and enthusiasts were determined to preserve the breed, and in 1969 the Jacob Sheep Society was formed with 96 members and 2,700 registered sheep.
© All Rights Reserved