Review
'I think I have sometimes made two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, and that is... perhaps the highest function a man can do for his country.' Charles Forman, civil engineer, evidence in support of the Invergarry & Fort Augustus Railway, 1896.
Product Description
Centred on the West Highland railway, which opened to Fort William in 1894 and to Mallaig in 1901, this book describes the late 19th-century "railway mania" in the Highlands - and the immediate consequences. It addresses the general politics of promotion and the disputes over state assistance for the Fort William-Mallaig line, rather than the heroics and romance of construction and operation. It reviews other schemes, more or less successful. And it examines the expectations bound up with railway development, asking how far these had been achieved, or remained relevant, by 1914.
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