Rails, Every Which Way
Day 16: A Second Easy Day
The travel was starting to get to us, so we took advantage of alternate transportation methods today and took it easy. We rode the Strathspey Railway, then headed to the CairnGorm Mountain Railway (a funicular).
Strathspey Railway
The Strathspey Railway is a restored steam railway using part of the old route from Aviemore to Forres. It now carries passengers between Aviemore, Boat of Garten and the current terminus at Broomhill on the banks of the Spey opposite Nethy Bridge and approximately three and a half miles south of Grantown on Spey.
Up to four trains run each day throughout a long season. There are also enthusiasts' weekends, plus Santa Trains and Mince Pie Specials around Christmas. Trains can also be chartered on a one-off basis.
The Strathspey Railway owes its origins to a group of enthusiasts who came together in 1971 to buy, restore and run the line. In July 1978 the Strathspey Railway officially opened for business between Aviemore and Boat of Garten.
British Rail policy at the time meant that the Strathspey Railway could not use Aviemore's main station, despite it having a spare platform. Instead the service operated from a separate station a little to the north. This changed in 1998, and the Strathspey Railway now operates from the most easterly (i.e. the far side from the town) platform at the main station in Aviemore.
The journey takes you out of Aviemore past the large locomotive shed that is home to Strathspey Railway's engineering works (not normally open to the public), and along the west side of the Spey Valley to Boat of Garten. Since 2000 the route of the line has been closely followed by the southernmost stretch of the long distance Speyside Way.
In Boat of Garten the station lies close to the centre of the village, near the Boat Hotel. Parking is available via a road running past the Boat of Garten Golf and Tennis Club. At Boat of Garten Station you really get the full sense the railway is trying to recreate, of British Rail as it was in the 1950s and 1960s. You can wander around the station or look at trains being worked on in the sidings.
The most recent stretch of the line to open is from Boat of Garten to Broomhill, about half way to Grantown on Spey. This will be known to many fans of the TV series Monarch of the Glen as Glenbogle Station. The intention is to work to extend the line further, though significant civil engineering work will be needed to restore it as far as Grantown on Spey.
Much of the success of the Strathspey Railway is down to its extensive network of Members, both in Scotland and further afield throughout the world. Membership is available on an annual or lifetime basis, and Members undertake much of the work needed to make this one of the best steam railways anywhere. Members can also make use of much reduced rates for travel on the railway, and can use the low cost hostel designed to house volunteers from outwith the area working on the railway.
Cairngorm Mountain Railway
Eight miles south east of Aviemore and high on the northern flank of Cairn Gorm lies the CairnGorm Mountain Railway. This funicular railway runs for two kilometers through the Cairngorm ski area. In doing so it climbs 460m to the Ptarmigan top station, 150m below the summit of the mountain.
The Cairngorm plateau, mostly above 4,000ft in height, is one of the most rare and fragile environments in Scotland. However, Cairn Gorm's northern corries of Coire Cas and Coire na Ciste have been the location for extensive ski-related development since the opening of the White Lady chairlift here on 23 December 1961.
Until 2001, visitors made use of a chairlift operating all year round that carried them in two stages up to the Ptarmigan Restaurant. As a result the area benefitted from the year-round business that went with being a major ski centre as well as a summer attraction; but the mountain suffered from the high levels of pedestrian traffic resulting from such easy access.
In Summer 1999 work started on the construction of the CairnGorm Mountain Railway and this opened for business on 23 December 2001, 40 years to the day after the opening of the original chair lift.
The railway is operated very differently in winter and summer. In winter the priority is to get skiers up the hill, so the train takes just five minutes to cover the 2km between the two stations, and each train can carry up to 120 skiers. An important feature is the train's ability to operate in winds of up to 75mph. This is a vast improvement on the 25-30mph wind speed limits of the old chair lifts, which meant that they had to stop running on up to 40% of winter days.
In summer the journey is part of the experience and the train takes up to 60 passengers to the top station at a lower speed to give you a chance to enjoy the views, especially to the north. This is helped by the airy feel to the large carriages, each of which measures 10.5m long and 3.2m wide, and by the panoramic windows on the sides and the roof of the trains.
If the operation of the trains is different in winter and summer, the function and operation of the Ptarmigan top station is even more so. In winter this is the upper focus for many of the ski runs, and somewhere to replace all those lost calories. In summer the Ptarmigan itself is the destination. In order to prevent damage to the mountain and danger to the visitors, you can only ascend on the CairnGorm Mountain Railway in summer on the basis that exit from the top station building housing the exhibition, shop, restaurant, viewing terrace etc. to the surrounding mountain is not allowed. The only exception to this is as part of one of the small guided groups which began operating in 2010.
The Ptarmigan is made up of five main areas. The first is the top station for the funicular itself. This looks down into the tunnel in which the train hides from view for the top 250m of its run. Visitors move from there into the large and extremely impressive Mountain Exhibition, an effective and informative evocation of the mountain environment, even for those of us with short attention spans. On the floor above is a large shop which provides an interesting and certainly very different alternative to Aviemore's shops.
The core of the Ptarmigan is the large split-level restaurant complete with bar and stunning panoramic views. Here you can have lunch while admiring those views. You can even get married here. The best views, and perhaps the best reason to use the CairnGorm Mountain Railway, is the large viewing terrace placed across the north side of the Ptarmigan. This gives wide views to the north, and allows a real feel for the mountain without having any impact on it.