Highland Survivor: The Story of the Far North Line

Highland Survivor: The Story of the Far North Line by David Spaven.

The 168 mile Far North Line, from Inverness to Wick and Thurso, is one of Britain’s most scenic and remarkable rail survivors. Completed in 1874, it played a major strategic role in the country’s World War One effort, but faced extinction in 1963 when Dr Beeching published his infamous report ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’.

Over forty years ago, David Spaven began on the Far North Line what would become a working life spent in and around the rail industry. In this book he relates the fascinating social, political and business story of Britain’s longest rural railway: its origins, early years, Edwardian heyday, escape from the Beeching axe and subsequent chequered history.