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You are in: NAS> About us>News and features> Keeping things moving
Sunday 16 June 2013
 
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Keeping things moving

January invariably brings news of travel disruption due to bad weather. Blockages due to heavy snow have been common in the Highlands and snow ploughs are needed to clear the line. The photograph below shows a snow plough at work the Highland line between Inverness and Perth around the year 1900 (NAS ref BR/HR/4/32/1).

Photograph of snow plough on the Highland line circa 1900

Today helicopters and other modern vehicles can quickly rescue passengers and train crew stranded as a result of snowdrifts. In the past railway workers and local volunteers had to dig to clear the line of snow, as in the case below, from a photograph again taken about 1900 on the Highland line (NAS ref BR/HR/4/32/4).

Photograph showing snow clearing on the Highland line circa 1900

Both images here are among photographs in the records of the Highland Railway Company held in the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and are reproduced here by kind permission of British Railways Board (Residuary) Ltd. For more information about railway company records go to our online catalogue

Local historians and family historians researching the history of railways in Scotland or searching for information about ancestors, who were railway workers, can find advice in our publications: "Tracing Scottish Local History" and "Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors: the Official Guide". For more information see our publications page.

Tracing Your Scottish Ancestors Tracing Scottish Local History

Many of the Highland Railway Company photographs feature in an exhibition of images relating to railways in the Highlands called 'North By Northwest' on the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) website.
  
 
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