Ben04uk Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I've seen several photos of cattle wagons in the consist forming the daily freight train between Kyle of Lochalsh and Inverness as late as the early 1970s?. Does anyone know what they would have been used for? I presume transporting cattle by rail, even in the Highlands, had ended by this time. They were used in Cornwall in the early 1960s to transport vegetables to London - were they used for a similar use at Kyle or was it for some other agricultural or just general merchandise use? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I've seen several photos of cattle wagons in the consist forming the daily freight train between Kyle of Lochalsh and Inverness as late as the early 1970s?. Does anyone know what they would have been used for? I presume transporting cattle by rail, even in the Highlands, had ended by this time. They were used in Cornwall in the early 1960s to transport vegetables to London - were they used for a similar use at Kyle or was it for some other agricultural or just general merchandise use? They were still being used for transporting cattle in the Highlands; I think this, and a flow from Holyhead to the North-West (Manchester?) were the last remaining flows. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Rannoch Moor Posted September 9, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 9, 2012 I believe the reason that this traffic survived a bit longer than elsewhere was that the A87 and A890 trunk roads weren't quite up to the standards required for large cattle lorries - a lot of trunk roads in the Highlands were single track even at that late stage. Gus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Portchullin Tatty Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I have not seen any photos of cattle wagons in use beyond the 1960's on the Kyle line. I do run them on Portchullin but I have been told that they would only be condemned stock going off to be broken up by that time. So if you do use them, use them sparsely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben04uk Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 David Larkin took some photos of cattle wagons at Kyle of Lochalsh in August 1970. They appear to be in use rather than in storage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben04uk Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 Does anyone know what type of cattle would have been transported? Would it have been cows or sheep or both? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Does anyone know what type of cattle would have been transported? Would it have been cows or sheep or both? Cattle's cows.... A former colleague once drove from Newcastle to the Western Isles to see his family; apart from the usual impedimenta, he took a goat. We inquired about the smell; he said the goat never complained. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
airighdrishaig Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 This is an interesting discussion. The term cattle can refer to other types of livestock in older literature eg the King James Bible . However in the summer of 69 I travelled to Applecross from Glasgow via the West Highland and MacBraynes ships for a holiday with my crofter aunt and uncle. They kept two cows and the calves were sent to the Dingwall mart at age 6 weeks. Until 1968 they travelled on the Macbrayne small vessel to Kyle and then on "the goods". That year however my uncle had to construct a crate so that the calf could travel in a van I'm not sure was this definitely on the passenger train. The total cost of transport was £16 and given that the maximum amount realized at auction would be about £40 it wasn't long before the Applecross crofters organised road transport to Dingwall. So there was certainly some change in Kyle line cattle transport before 1970 but maybe full grown cattle were conveyed for a while longer. However for anyone modelling Kyle in 1969, small calves should be in crates! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Alder Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Does anyone know what type of cattle would have been transported? Would it have been cows or sheep or both? Certainly on the Far North Line, sheep were carried en masse in cattle vans up to the mid sixties,IIR,, and I would imagine the same thing occurred on the Kyle line. They had to get to the marts somehow! It brings to mind the pre war pic of sheep walking, apparently unattended- at the front at least,along the station platform towards the loading ramp on the pier to take them to the steamer. Copyright forbids etc. .... but I'll see if I can find a link. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Accord Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I'm pretty sure cattle wagons were still in use into the 70s on the Kyle line for the very reason suggested by 'Rannoch Moor' - the road simply wasn't up to it. Hazy memory tells me it was the last cattle traffic in the UK and it was confined between Kyle and Inverness (the livestock market was next to the station). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Alder Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 That rings a bell with me too- wish I'd paid more attention to that neck of the woods back then, but youth and the attached poverty made things like that difficult. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bon Accord Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Here's a photo of cattle wagons at Kyle in 1971: http://www.railbrit.co.uk/imageenlarge/imagecomplete.php?id=31275 Another taken in 1972: http://www.railbrit.co.uk/imageenlarge/imagecomplete.php?id=25842 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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