The Wick and Lybster Light Railway was a

light railway A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow ...

opened in 1903, with the intention of opening up the fishing port of

Lybster Lybster (, gd, Liabost) is a village on the east coast of Caithness in northern Scotland. It was once a big herring fishing port. The Waterlines heritage museum is located in Lybster Harbour and provides information on the history and geology o ...

, in Caithness, Scotland, to the railway network at Wick. Its construction was heavily supported financially by local government and the Treasury. It was worked by the Highland Railway. The line was never heavily used and the anticipated expansion of the fishing trade did not take place. When a modern road to the south was built in the 1930s, transits from Lybster were considerably shorter and quicker by that means, and the railway closed completely in 1944.

History

Callander, Muirkirk, Partick, Stobcross & Wick RJD 114

The fishing village of Lybster lies to the south of Wick, and up to the end of the nineteenth century was relatively inaccessible on land. As early as 1864 a railway from Wick through Lybster to Dunbeath had been proposed, but nothing came of the idea at that time. The government passed the

Light Railways Act 1896 The Light Railways Act 1896 (59 & 60 Vict. c.48) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. History Before the Act each new railway line built in the country required a specific Act of Parliament to be ob ...

with the intention of encouraging the construction of low-cost railways to serve such localities. When a new light railway was proposed connecting Lybster to the main line railway network at Wick, considerable support was expressed locally. Wick was one of the northern termini of the

Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-trac ...

from Inverness, owned and operated at the time by the

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller United Kingdom, British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Base ...

. An application was made for a Light Railway Order, Caithness County Council taking the lead in submitting it on 5 March 1896.David Ross, ''The Highland Railway'', Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2005, The order was granted on 27 November 1899. The capital of the railway company was £30,000, but the anticipated construction cost was considerably more; grants were anticipated from the County Council and the Treasury. In the event the

Duke of Portland Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

, a substantial landowner in the district, subscribed £15,000, and the Highland Railway £1,000. Caithness County Council "advanced" £15,000, the Corporation of Wick £15,000 and the Corporation of Pultenytown (later absorbed into Wick) £1,000. The Treasury made a grant of £25,000.These figures from the contemporary report in the Railway Magazine; Ross says Wick subscribed £1,500, and Pulteneytown £1,500, and the Treasury grant was a loan.Anonymous author in ''Railway Magazine'', August 1903 In fact £8,000 of shares remained unsubscribed at 28 March 1900. The fees of the Board of Trade in granting the Order were £1,311. A contract was let to William Kennedy of

Partick, Glasgow Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...

, for the actual construction. The Highland Railway agreed to take charge of the construction, but they were clearly unwilling to let any shortfall in funding fall to them.

William Whitelaw William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as ''de fac ...

, the vice chairman of the Highland Railway visited Wick and stated that he required personal guarantees from the local directors; those directors were reluctant to accept the commitment, but after reflection they gave the required undertakings. However negotiation was successful in persuading the Treasury to increase its loan by £5,000 in 1900. A working agreement with the Highland Railway was finalised on 27 February 1901. The wrangle had cost a year in the construction timescale. Construction started on 1 April 1901 to the plans by William Roberts, engineer-in-chief to the Highland Railway. The line was subject to an interim inspection by Major Druitt on 20 August 1902 when he surveyed the first of the line in a fish-wagon propelled by one of the light engines. After an inspection by Major Druitt, the Board of Trade Inspector, the line opened on 1 July 1903. On the opening day, the first train left Wick at 11.00am. The engine, christened ''Lybster'', was decorated with bunting, and flags were displayed throughout the town. Mrs. Miller, wife of the Chairman signalled the departure of the first train. She was presented with a gold whistle as a memento of the occasion. The inaugural train ran non-stop to Lybster in around 30 minutes. Three trains ran each way every weekday, the journey occupying 40 minutes. The maximum permitted speed was . The financial performance of the line was always poor, with the dividend never exceeding 1.5%. When the burgh of Wick voted to prohibit the sale of alcohol, some passenger traffic was generated by drinkers who travelled to Lybster to do so. The Wick and Lybster Light Railway Company was simply a financial shell, receiving the working charge from the Highland Railway. The

Railways Act 1921 The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

was passed with the aim of grouping the railways of Great Britain; the Highland Railway was a constituent of the new

London Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

(LMS) but the W&LLR was simply absorbed; the LMS exchanged £100 ordinary shares in the W&LLR for £12 10s cash; the company was valued at £42,515. In 1903 an 0-4-4 tank locomotive that had been working on the Strathpeffer branch was transferred to work the Wick and Lybster Light Railway. It had been built in 1890 by David Jones as a saddle tank; it was given a second-hand boiler, and in 1901 it had been altered to a side-tank configuration.

Topography

The line was in length, and was single; there were no passing places. A new bay platform for the branch trains was provided at Wick station, on the north side of the line. (The main Highland Railway line approaches from the west.) The Lybster line started at a junction just outside the station and curved to the south; it then ran south or so inland, then curving west with the coast and converging with it at the terminus, Lybster. Intermediate stations were at Thrumster, Ulbster, Mid Clyth and Occumster. The terrain is rocky and hilly, and gradients on the line were stiff. From Wick the line rose almost continuously, with a ruling gradient of 1 in 50, to a summit above sea level just before the 7 milepost (i.e. 11 km). Undulations followed with equally severe gradients, and the final mile descended into Lybster station, which was at a higher elevation () than Wick (). The station was located at the north end of the main street and was some distance from the harbour. There were numerous

level crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, Trail, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an Overpass#Railway, overpass ...

s on the line.

Closure

The construction of a modern road over the

Ord of Caithness The Ord of Caithness is a granite mass on the east coast of the Highland council area of Scotland, on the boundary of the counties Sutherland and Caithness. It is north-east of Helmsdale. It forms a headland high, known as Ord Point. The A9 road ...

in the 1930s was a boost to the area but it spelt the end of the railway; the distance from Lybster to Helmsdale by rail via Wick was , but by the new road it was just over . The line closed completely after the last train on 1 April 1944.H A Vallance, C R Clinker, Anthony J Lambert, ''The Highland Railway'', David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1985, John Skene who drove the first train on the opening day of the railway in 1903 started the engine for the last trip on 1 April 1944. A large party of people gathered at Lybster station for the last train which was decked with flags for the occasion. By September the Ministry of Transport had begun the process of dismantling the line.

Notes

References

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