Lewis Railways
Posted: Tuesday, 20 March 2007 |
Lewis did have railways, around the turn of the 19th/20th century. There was a railway from the quarry at Bennadrove to Stornoway. Posts related to this track can still be found in the Castle Grounds, opposite the Caberfeidh Hotel.
A trackbed was laid near Garrabost in Point, but a railway was never built. The same fate befell the track, linking Carloway to Stornoway along what is now the Pentland Road. It was a plan conceived by Lord Leverhulme, who also envisaged lines from Stornoway down to Lochs and Tarbert, as well as over to the West Side. None of these ever came to be.
In a recent revision of traffic movements in Stornoway, the Comhairle suggested the institution of a narrow gauge railway from the Waterwheel (off Willowglen) to the YM Bridge and on to Cuddy Point. A branch would lead down Cromwell Street. Carriages would be fully enclosed, and a train would carry 24 people.
The idea is nice and the underlying philosophy laudable. It is a good idea to reduce the number of car journeys into the town centre. The Manor Roundabout in rush hour is (apparently) a bottleneck.
However. I do not see how car drivers can be tempted to veer up Willowglen Road, park up around Ardshellach (a residential area), dive down a very steep muddy track to jump on a wee train. Which can only take 24 people, and how about luggage? I've dubbed it the Castle Grounds Express, but cannot see it taking off.
Comments
Thanks Arnish. As usual, a valuable font of local lore. That picture is not one of those trains that crossed the island, is it? Somehow I never thought Lewis had trains: did Orkney and Shetland have them as well?
mjc from NM,USA
Sanday has (had?) a miniature railway - that's in Orkney. I'm not aware of any other island having a railway, apart from Skye (the Marble Line south from Broadford) until 1912.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
My Grandfather , George , was the driver/engineer on the train around the time of the 1st WW
Willie Mould from Glasgow
There used to be a short railway at Lyness on Hoy for WW2 military purposes. The nice man (possibly ex) of Sanday took up his track and put the house and tearoom on the market. Which is a great pity.
Flying Cat from trying to look knowledgeable
Arnish, you've got it wrong; planes take off trains run on lines. Nonsense aside, there was a very small standard guage set up at Lyness. I don't thionk they had a loco just rolling stock shunted by modified tractors. It was used for transporting naval stores around the shore base. There were quite a significant number of narrow guage construction railways associated with the building of the Churchill barriers. There is a local publication detasiling them. As for Shetland I believe there were one or two quarry railways. I was shown the vestiges of one at Grutness which carried stone from a Quarry on Compass head to the pier. I think the stone was used in lighthouse works but am not certain on that last score.
Hyper-Borean from The roundhouse
Thanks for keeping us on track Arnish. I really like the idea of the Castle Grounds Express.
Annie B from the usual
I am utterly astounded by the amount of determined immersion in local history and lore incomers exhibit: I mean, - for example - who would have remembered that there was no loco - but just regular guys and gals - in Lyness during the flowering of the railroad on the islands. # And trust FC, who knows about restaurants from Scrabster to Montrose and beyond, to moan about the disappearance of the Tetley Bag tearoom in Sanday. If you are in Sanday and need a free bottomless strong cuppa tea, look for the sign "Hermit's Kitchen" - don't bother with commercial tearooms.
mjc from NM,USA
The Castle Grounds Express seems to be a little more serious than I thought. The Council have asked the Pier & Harbour commission to investigate whether the branchline to Cromwell Street could run along the Cromwell Street Quay whilst not interfering with harbour business. My instinct is that it probably would. That quay is not terribly wide, unless you sacrifice the areas for winter hard standing. Anyway, the 8.52 express is now charging its batteries prior to departing for Cuddy Point from platform 2B. Front carriage only.
Arnish Lighthouse from Stornoway
Am curious as to why the castle grounds is a start of point,or is it jest enroute.If picked as the start of point ,is its because its a good a place as any,"because its not",is it because its a steam train and the fuel is timber ,in which case were branching out with a new bio diversal fuel for trains,and why the route chosen is the chosen route,so many questions,so few answers.And the obvious scary bit,running along the pier and the man blows his whistle,is a net mending consciencious fishermen going to take flight and end up in the drink,or end up turning to drink.,who"d want the responsibility of being a whistle blower.
Thevitalspark from Point
There's a couple of other island lines that are described at http://www.railbrit.co.uk/_maps/index.htm - another on Skye and one on Raasay.
IainMacb from England
The line to Carloway from Stornoway predates Leverhulmes railway. It dates from the 1890's. In 1980, I studied a plan in Stornoway Library of a survey for the line to Carloway from Stornoway undertaken by an Alex MacDonald and it is dated 1893. If you look at the 2nd edition of the Ordnance Survey 1" Map Sheet 105, you'll find that the trackbed of the line from Stornoway to Carloway, together with its branch line, are shown. Leverhulme didn't buy the island until 1918. There were two other railways which were built at Stornoway. One was built to a gauge of 3ft by Robert McAlpine & Co just after Leverhulme bought the island. it was used to construct the canning factory and its trackbed (in 1980) could be seen in places running along the road. I was shown around by an old guy who remembered the line working in the early '20's. The railway was operated by two steam locomotives - No 12 Hudswell Clarke 597/1901 0-4-0ST (1920 - 1923 as Plant No 1780 -813) No 34 Hudswell Clarke 1037/1913 0-4-ST (1919-1923 as Plant No 778 - 606) Maybe these are the two locos offered for sale on 31st May 1922 by the Lewis & Harris Welfare & Development Company (Leverhulme's company) ? - however No12 was later at McApline's Great Stanney (Ellesmere Port) Depot for sale in 1929. and No 34 was at the Maentwrog (Trawsfynydd) Reservoir contract in North Wales in 1924. The other line was built by Stornoway Council to a gauge of 2ft from their waterworks to the north of Stornoway to the reservoir dam on the moors (about a mile & a half long). It was operated by a petrol locomotive that had originall served in the trenches during WW1. IT was made by the Motor Rail & Tramcar Company of Bedford and was probably sold as 'Govt Surplus' after WW! as many were. The loco remains (minus its engine & gearbox) were still out on the moors near the dam in 1980 when I visited. The track was then still intact but derelict - the current OS maps mark its route as 'dismantled tramway' . There was also I believe a short line at a brickworks at Garrabost but I didn't have time to explore it.There is an article on the lines in an issue of 'the Narrow Gauge' (journal of the Narrow Gauge Railway Society) around 1981. There are a couple of booklets - Railways of Shetland and Railways of Orkney by Wilfrid Simms written in the 1990's. A 60cm gauge Wickham Trolley went to Orkney from my collection in the late 1990 - I dropped it off on the quay at Invergordon.
Ian Jolly from North Wales
I have been in Lewis since late 2004 and am observing life on this fascinating island from an outsider's perspective. I look out at the lighthouse every day - as it looks out over the island and the sea. 
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