The round-house and other archive photos of Inverness Station

An undated, possibly 1950s, photograph of the Inverness rail centre showing the true extent of the large railway operation there. Image: DC Thomson

When the Highland Railway Company opened Inverness Station in 1855, no expense was spared in bringing rail travel into the heart of the town.

The modest, but elegant station was a source of great pride for the company, which based its headquarters there.

Early 1920s: The railway sheds and turntable in Inverness. Image: Submitted/Richard Wood

Inverness has long been the capital and crossroads of the Highlands, with its station connecting the city to Perth, Aberdeen, Wick, and Kyle of Lochalsh.

When Inverness Station opened on November 5 1855, it was said “half the population” of the town gathered to witness a red letter day for the Highlands.

Opening of Inverness Station was the first time many people had seen a train

Shops, warehouses and businesses closed to watch the first train leave for its journey to Nairn on the newly-completed Inverness & Nairn Railway.

1931: The ‘baggage army on parade’ at Inverness Station. Image: DC Thomson

The train was made up of 30 carriages, many were ordinary goods wagons fitted with benches, to cram in 800 passengers.

The plain wagons were decorated with flags, garlands and flowers, while the locomotive at the front was described as “a mysterious stranger”.

1932: A derailed train at Inverness railway station in 1932. Image: DC Thomson

For many townsfolk it was the first train they had ever seen.

A second engine took up its position at the head of the train as one was not enough to haul such heavy cargo.

Both engines, too, were decorated with a dozen flags of various sizes and colours.

1932: An engine driver and his fireman observe a two minutes’ silence on the footplate at Inverness Station on November 11 1932. Image: DC Thomson

‘Monster train’ glided from station to a chorus of cheers

Inverness’ Lord Provost, magistrates and railway directors – including Mr Mackintosh of Raigmore and Mr Fraser-Tytler of Aldourie – took their seats near the front.

The names Raigmore and Aldourie were then bestowed on the locomotives, which were built for the Highland Railway in Leith.

1932: This fantastic archive photo shows porters at Inverness Station having a go at mastering the yo-yo. Image: DC Thomson

A newspaper report of the occasion said: “It was obvious something extraordinary was in hand.”

Just after noon, a couple of small guns fired, a row of flags were raised, and the “monster train took motion, and amid the enthusiastic ‘huzzas’ of many a spectator, it glided from the station”.

1934: Not your normal sight on Academy Street… These elephants stopped for a drink at the fountain at the cab stand outside Inverness Railway Station in this unusual photo. The fountain and cobbles have long gone. Image: DC Thomson

For a full two miles along the route, eager groups of onlookers awaited and gave hearty cheers as the excursion train passed by.

‘People gazed and gawped at passing prodigy’

Meanwhile the hill at Hut ‘o Health, better known as the Cameron Barracks nowadays, was “crowded from base to summit” as Invernessians clamoured to catch a glimpse of the train.

1935: This incredible image shows a striking aerial view of the eastern approach to Inverness showing the large number of sidings needed for traffic. The distinctive roundhouse engine shed is particularly impressive from above. Image: DC Thomson

The report added: “It was if all of Inverness had emptied itself to witness the event.

“At every farmyard and point of rendezvous a group of wondering people had assembled, who gazed and gaped at the passing prodigy.

“Even the dumb cattle felt the spell.”

1936: A rare photograph inside the ‘engine hospital’ at Inverness Station. Image: DC Thomson

Cows and horses along the line “fled in alarm, kicking violently” as the train thundered by.

Inverness-Nairn line opened for public use on November 7 1855

The first stop was Dalcross where more passengers boarded, the next was Fort George Station near Ardersier.

The journey to Nairn took around 45 minutes, including stoppages, where there was a “most hearty” welcome on arrival.

1939: There was a surprise for this ticket collector in the left luggage when a cairn terrier gave birth to a litter of puppies. Image: DC Thomson

The train stopped there for nearly two hours while passengers enjoyed, refreshments, amusements, and crowded out local inns and bakeries.

On the return journey, the “outside passengers” were rather more merry and sang songs in loud chorus all the way home.

1940s: The date of this photograph at Inverness Railway Station is unknown, but likely 1947 – if you look closely at the GNR noticeboard it appears to read ‘Transport Act 1947’. The noticeboards for LMS, GNR and LNER railways certainly suggest this was prior to the nationalisation of the railways to establish British Railways in 1948. Image: DC Thomson

Drawing into Inverness Station, the train was greeted with as large a crowd as had seen it off.

The following day a similar excursion took place, before the line opened for passenger traffic on November 7.

1950: The famous steam engine Dunrobin, the private locomotive for the 4th Duke of Sutherland, attracts attention at Inverness Station before being shipped to Canada where it ran for many years. In 2010, the open-air heritage museum at Beamish bought back the locomotive where it is currently under restoration. Image: DC Thomson

Inverness suffered during rampant removal of railway architecture in 20th Century

Sadly, little remains of the original Victorian facade of Inverness Station, which was redesigned in the 1960s.

In the mid-20th Century many buildings were deemed incompatible with a modern rail network.

1950s? Another undated photograph of the Inverness rail centre showing the true extent of the large railway operation there. On the right you can see Inverness Auction Mart, while the railway building in the foreground is the goods shed (now occupied by the Eastgate Centre), the station is bottom left. The photo must pre-date 1963, because that’s when the roundhouse shed was demolished, a closer look at Millburn Road shows older models of cars suggesting the photo could be from the 1950s, but perhaps a reader will know better? Image: DC Thomson

Happily the Lochgorm Works remain, built in 1860, it is now a B-listed building.

But one building lost was the striking round-house engine shed – its demolition came in the 1960s, a time of rampant removal of railway architecture across the UK.

1957: A long-gone Sunday morning scene, but a regular one back in the 1950s, as the Sunday papers were unloaded at Inverness Railway Station. The only difference to the norm in this photo was that the Royal Coaches were attached, taking the Queen Mother North. Image: DC Thomson

SAVE Britain’s Heritage, the charity which campaigns for historic buildings, held an exhibition in 1977 called ‘Off the Rails: Saving Railway Architecture’.

In SAVE’s exhibition companion book of the same name, writer Simon Jenkins said: “Britain invented the railway, pioneered its application to passenger travel and built the most extensive network of lines and stations anywhere in the world.

1957: The entrance to the station reads ‘British Railways Inverness’ in this busy photograph outside Inverness Station on September 20 1957. Image: DC Thomson

“We also did so earlier than anyone else.

“As a result, Britain’s railways constitute an architectural achievement without parallel.”

SAVE highlighted the swift loss of railway buildings at a time when demolition was preferred over preservation.

1960: A general view looking across the sidings at Inverness Station on a January day. In the background is the Longman with all its factories, also the old airfield hangar and the waters of the Ness estuary. Image: DC Thomson

While the trend nowadays would be to seek alternative uses for station buildings, this was not so in the ’70s.

Simon added: “No group of British architects have had their work less cared for than railway architects.

1961: The 1961 timetable showing the four fast diesel trains which ran daily between Aberdeen and Inverness. It took less time than the same journey takes today, although it stopped at fewer stations. Image: Submitted/Ron Smith

“No aspect of British craftsmanship has been less conserved than that of our railway engineers.”

Inverness’ round-house shed was striking landmark for decades

The round-house was built in 1863 around the turntable, creating a semi-circular shed entered via a triumphal arch, known as the Marble Arch.

1961: No, not the Coliseum, but looking down on the goods yard and roundhouse engine shed at British Railways Inverness. The Longman and Black Isle hills are in the background. Image: DC Thomson

Not only an attractive flourish, the arch concealed a water tower for the steam engines.

Inverness had the only round-house station in the northern division and it was extended in 1875 creating a C-shaped shed.

1965: The 74-year-old Jones engine No. 103 leaves Inverness Station to close another chapter in the life of the railways in the North of Scotland. It was the last time an engine of the steam type will left the Highland capital as a regular service engine. Image: DC Thomson

Engines accessed their stalls via the large turntable, which was later replaced in 1926 with a 19.29 metre, vacuum-powered turntable to cope with larger and heavier 130-tonne engines.

But by the 1950s, steam was beginning to be phased out in favour of diesel.

1972: Eggs and other supplies for motorists stranded at Drumochter during a storm are carried aboard the relief train at Inverness by Inverness rail guard Hugh Fraser of Canal Road. Image: DC Thomson

Victorian engine shed was under threat by 1961

British Railways was keen to reduce the use of steam in the Highlands due to the cost of hauling coal to depots.

Diesel locos also had the advantage of being able to be driven from either end and did not need turntables.

John Baxter was estate surveyor for the Scottish region of British Railways in 1961.

1979: BBC Radio Highland announcer Rob Smith with a sign he spotted lying on Inverness Station platform in 1979 after it was declared a ‘redundant asset’ following a British Rail re-signing programme. The 8ft-long sign was destined for the living room wall of a house in Beauly. The sign was so heavy Rob had to enlist the help of colleagues Janice Nicolson and Anne Bates. Image: DC Thomson

He gave evidence at an inquiry ordered by the the Secretary of State for Scotland into Inverness Town Council’s development plan.

The council wanted to widen Millburn Road and demolish historic shops and buildings at Eastgate.

1983: Station Square in Inverness during the days of British Rail. The original Victorian station frontage was sadly replaced in the late 1960s. Image: DC Thomson

It would also see many railway buildings and sidings removed to enable livestock markets to stay on Millburn Road rather than moving to the Longman.

1963 saw demolition of round-house and turntable filled in

Mr Baxter told the inquiry there would be changes in railway property in the centre of Inverness “on account of dieselisation, the modernisation of the railways and the rationalisation scheme for the railways”.

1984: Pictured at Inverness station in June 1984 were these members of the Grampian schools expedition to St Kilda. The party were to sail from Kyle of Lochalsh on the Ocean Youth Club ketch Taikoo and spend 10 days aboard while undertaking environmental studies on the Hebridean island. Image: DC Thomson

When asked if the round-house engine shed would become redundant, he replied: “That is anticipated.”

And within two years, the inventive and impressive round-house – a true triumph of Victorian railway architecture – was gone.

The turntable was dismantled and removed, and the pit was infilled with the tools once used to repair steam engines, as well as rubble from the round-house demolition.

1985: This busy July scene at Inverness station was typical of any summer’s day in the Highland capital, as visitors arrived from overseas and from around the UK. The station had recently been modernised in recognition of its popularity and the business done by Highland Rail. Image: DC Thomson

For another 20 years or so, the site was occupied by an extension to the cattle mart – the days of steam locomotives long gone.

The mart also closed in the 1980s, but it was only when the site was redeveloped for building Safeway in 1999 that the turntable was rediscovered.

The ghost of Inverness’ railway past

It was unearthed during an archaeological examination before the carpark was built.

1986: Another view of Inverness Railway Station circa 1986. Image: DC Thomson

Some Invernessians might even remember windows were created in the hoardings along Millburn Road so people could glimpse the railway relic before it was covered up once again.

But although it is gone, this time it’s not forgotten – the turntable was carefully filled in and preserved beneath the surface.

1999: Archeologists work in the old turntable, found under the site for the new Safeway store on Millburn Road, Inverness. Image: DC Thomson

And if you look closely in Morrisons’ car park you’ll see a little sign explaining the site’s significant history.

Granite setts salvaged from the demolition of the mart were also laid out in the car park marking out the vast circumference of the old turntable.

A ghost of the steam age, it’s a subtle reminder of Inverness’ rich railway heritage.

ALL IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT OF DC THOMSON AND THOSE WHO SUBMITTED PHOTOGRAPHS. UNAUTHORISED REPRODUCTION IS NOT PERMITTED.

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