Good morning.
Morning!
Colin's excited!
TRAAAAAAAIIN! Colin's going on a TRAAAAAAAIIN!
[Laughs]
It's weird because I love trains, but we don't often actually do vlogs about trains do we?
No we don't.
In fact I don't think we've ever done one like on a train have we before?
No.
Urgghhhh ha ha ha uh urghh!
Calm down, calm down, calm down.
Right.
[Laughs]
We are at, if you haven't seen by the sign behind us already, at Dunrobin Station.
Is it 'Dun-Robin' or 'Dun-Rowbin?
Well we used to call it 'Dun-Rowbin' for ages, but
we've heard a lot of the locals call it 'Dun-Robin' so we call it 'Dun-Robin' now,
because we want to integrate now don't we?
[Laughs]
Not pomegranate, I get pomegranate and integrate mixed up, I don't know why.
So we're at Dunrobin Station, although it's now known as Dunrobin Castle,
do you know why?
Because it's at Dunrobin Castle.
Because it's literally from here, it's literally like a five minute walk,
just down the drive
[Shaun] It's across the road.
[Colin] straight down to Dunrobin Castle.
So the station sits on the beautiful far north line,
if you've not heard of it it is beautiful
it stretches
It's a lovely journey.
from Inverness, which is the most northerly city in the UK
and it goes up the northeast coast, mostly,
up towards Thurso,
which is on the north coast
and to Wick, which is kind of on the northeast.
Now like I said, we don't normally do videos about railways.
TRAAAAIIN!
TRAAAAIIN [Laughs]
But when I was doing the vlog about Ben Bhraggie and the wee Mannie last week,
I saw the story of this place and it was really fascinating
and last year it was its 150th birthday.
[Colin] Nearly as old as me! [Shaun] Nearly as old as you!
[Laughing]
It actually isn't it.
so I thought, I've got to tell you it.
Now the line here, nearly wasn't here.
Really?? Where was it?
Well, when they set off building it from Inverness, they got as far as Golspie,
which is about a couple of miles west of here and they ran out of money,
so they didn't have any money to continue the line on
and that disappointed the Third Duke of Sutherland.
Now don't confuse the third Duke with the first one.
[Shaun] no no!
[Colin] The first one's the one that not many people really like.
But the third one wasn't that bad
and he saw the social value in the railway.
So he decided to pay out of his own pocket £72,000
WOW!
which in today's money is about 8 million quid
WOW!
and he paid for the line to be extended from Golspie,
17 and a half miles,
through here,
to Brora
where the Duke had only just reopened
the northernmost coal mine in the UK
and it was the only British producer of jurassic coal,
sounds like a movie doesn't it?
Anyway,
by opening the railway it meant he could move the coal out by train.
Not only that he could supply the local brickworks and power it with the coal,
so they could make more bricks and tiles and pipes,
which could also be shipped out by train.
Brilliant stuff.
from Brora, the line continues on
to Helmsdale,
where those communities that had been set up since the highland clearances,
were catching loads of fish,
the harbour was doing really well
and the railway meant that the fish could be taken out of Helmsdale,
down to the coastal villages
and towards Inverness.
Speaking of which,
I need to be back at Dunrobin,
when's the next train?
If you're spending 72 grand or 8 million quid on a railway,
it's not that wrong is it to treat yourself?
I wouldn't have thought so.
So the Duke built himself this lovely little railway station,
just for his own private use
It is nice as well.
and he built himself a nice little private carriage
Did he?
and a little steam engine
and some little like goods wagons
and he used to keep him just in that little branch, just at the side of the station there.
It's not there anymore but you can still see it.
[Shaun] It's a lawn now.
[Colin] Yep.
They gave him permission to drive his little steam engine up and down his little bit of track
That's awesome.
and then he used to actually drive it down to Inverness, with his own little carriage,
Now that is posh!
It is
and even better than that,
when he got to inverness he'd put his little steam engine somewhere safe
In a locker?
In a locker,
[Laughs]
disconnect his carriage and then he could attach his carriage to other trains
and get pulled off further south.
[Laughing]
What?
[Laughsing]
you could do.
In fact, I don't need to remember, a few weeks ago
we showed you a watercolor painting by Queen Victoria of Loch Brora,
do you remember that? We did, yes I do.
Now when she came up to Dunrobin in 18, I don't know 72 i think it was,
it was actually the Duke that went to pick her up from Inverness station.
The station looks a little bit different now than it did back in the 1870's,
They were in colour. . .
now.
The Fourth Duke of Sutherland
changed that building,
knocked down the original one and he built this one which is quite unusual
design wise for the Highlands of Scotland,
because it's like an English arts and crafts typey build design isn't it?
and it is quite unusual.
Under the canopy there's this lovely woodwork
and the supports are basically tree trunks
that have been tidied up a little bit and painted.
the trellis is sort of like branches,
Yeah.
tree branches.
It's not used as a ticket office and waiting room anymore,
inside is this brilliant museum
and it's got all sorts of, are you ready, big word of the week,
[Shaun] What's that?
Artifacts
[Laughs] I thought you were going to say something else then.
from highland railway history.
[Music playing]
the far north line's just over 168 miles long
between Inverness, Wick and Thurso.
Today we're just going to travel the 17 and a half miles
that the Duke had built from here at Dunrobin
up to Helmsdale
and we're going to show you exactly why we love this stretch of railway so much.
[Music playing]
When the duke was having the railway built he used local men to do all the work
and this included building 19 quite substantial bridges,
this one at Brora is the longest at 60 feet long
and it carries the railway 45 feet over the River Brora
and two roads at each side.
[Music playing]
Things haven't changed much around here
since the station was built back in the late 1800's,
although the trains look a bit different now.
[Music playing]
[Train horn] [Music playing]
[Music playing]
Between Dunrobin and Helmsdale,
the railway winds its way along the coastline,
literally metres from the sea
and really close to the side of the A9,
which is the main NC500 route along the northeast coast.
[Music playing]
Do you recognise this stretch of sand?
It's Crakaig Beach officially Scotland's most northerly naturist beach,
one of my favorite places, I'd better not zoom in too much here.
[Music playing]
there used to be a railway station here at Loth,
it closed in 1960,
but from the air you can still see the original station building,
which is now a lovely private house
and there's also a small good yard here.
[Music playing]
as we approach Helmsdale Station, the railway turns inland
and that's because the coast after here is very hilly,
I remember when I cycled Land's End to John O'Groats just how steep it is after Helmsdale.
So the railway follows the Strath of Kildonan,
it goes alongside the Helmsdale River
and it's much flatter, but not for us,
Helmsdale Station is approaching and that's where we're getting off.
[Music playing]
I think that was our first proper TRAAAAAIIN vlog,
It was.
And it's given me an idea.
Uff!
Well if the Duke can build his own railway,
Uff!
Why can't we?
We could have like a garden railway couldn't we, around the garden.
Is it big enough?
But I don't know because, it might be yeah.
we were talking about Brora bricks, do you remember?
because there was a brickworks in Brora
and we've got some of them in our shed haven't we,
[Shaun] We have.
[Colin] that say Brora brick on them.
[Shaun] They do.
[Colin] In our train, or soon to be Train Barn,
well it was, I was going to build a model railway in there
in the train barn and call it Train Barn,
but now, now I've kind of got the idea of building a garden railway.
Best buy a digger.
[Laughs]
Let's see how that one goes shall we.
If you want to visit Dunrobin,
the station is only open from the 1st of April to the 15th of October,
which is coincidentally,
the same dates that the castle's opened to visitors.
You wouldn't have thought that would you [Laughs]
And it is a request stop,
the trains won't automatically stop there.
You've got to put your hand out.
Like a bus, you've got to put your arm out and
STOP!
[Laughs]
the driver.
What?
STOP!!!
And they don't run, they don't stop at the station when it's dark either,
because there's no lights there, so they can't see you putting your arm out.
so don't put your arm out,
Which is why it doesn't stop after October.
that wouldn't be funny would it?
I think that's it in it for this week?
I think so.
Ohh I've loved it this week,
before we go though,
errr,
we are starting to ship our calendars in the next few weeks,
probably about three or four weeks we're gonna start sending them out.
So I know some of you have pre-ordered them already,
but we running low on numbers of the pre-orders.
So if you haven't ordered one yet and you've been waiting, now's the time,
because they might run out in the next couple of weeks before we start shipping them out.
So if you want to order a 2023 calendar,
there's a link in the video description
or you can just scan the big qr code that I've slapped right over Shaun's head again.
I can move it you know,
[Laughing]
so get one ordered.
If you want to just support the channel in any other way,
you can join us via Patreon,
or as a YouTube member, there is a link on some devices up above Shaun's head,
if not, it's in the video description.
Are you done?
I'm done.
all that's left to say is, if you're not already,
please subscribe to the channel.
Hit the like button and if you hit the notifications bell,
YouTube will let you know every time we release a new vlog.
Until next week, take care of yourself, bye-bye.
Ta-ra!
Four,
If we don't worry up, the train will be here.
three
TRAAAIIN!
TRAAAAAAAIIN!
I thought it was fascinating, although I'm easily pleased,
especially by shiny things.
[Laughs]
He had fingers in pies and all sorts.
[Laughs]
What?
I'm glad you said pies.
I've got that wrong, gotta do it all again.
We don't normally do videos about trains,
because I know, I think my kind of enthusiasm
would have, would the kind of [Blows raspberry]
Yeah you're getting a bit giddy now.
Grrrr!
I've forgotten, Arrgghh!
oh that was [BLEEEEP] good an all!
I get it now!
A lot different, yeah ya ye ug cla, clo clo,
Clog!
Because I'm thinking of.
Should we do that in English?
Yeah.
Three, two, one.
Thunderbirds are go!
The station looks a little bit different,
[Laughing]
You tell me when you're ready again.
You shouldn't make me laugh.
That building wasn't there originally. . .
it was over in that field.
[Laughs]
Do you get it? Do you get it?
Was
so
Arggghhhh!
See. . .
[BEEEEP!] useless!
You do it!
[Music playing]