Wester Pipe Railway

The Wester Pipe Railway is a narrow gauge railway that mainly runs from Hastigrow on the B876 road to Mybster on the A9, all within Caithness.[1] The line is double track for most of the route and uses Metre Gauge. It is used to transport pipeline segments to the sea which is why it is called the wester pipe railway. It is the second northern-most railway in the United Kingdom with the first being the spur up to Thurso on the Far North Line.

The railway with an Oil Pipeline being carried at the end of the line near Bridge of Wester

Route

The line starts in Hastigrow Runs down crossing with the far north line in Mains of Watten before passing straight through Watten itself. Then it heads west towards the Houstry of Dunn before heading South-West to Mybster, not following the route of the B870. Around Halfway through the route there's a small depot and an area full of many resurfacing pipelines.[1] There is an additional spur from Hastigrow to Bridge of Wester on the coast, by the port of Subsea 7.[2][3]

Operations

The railway is owned and operated by Subsea 7, who operate the railway and the pipelines around it to their port in Westerloch near Wick.[4] The railway uses ocean going tugs to operated. Pipeline segments are combined at a site on the inland end of the railway and then towed to the sea, using the vessels. The individual pipes are often brought to Scotland by trains as well: They are transported onto the railway by being taken to Georgemas Junction and then have the rest of the journey to the Subsea 7-site done by road. Entire Pipelines are transported by the rail making it an unusual railway that also holds the record for the longest thing ever to be transported by rail. A 7.7km long pipe, that's only 100 metres shorter than the main section of railway itself. Many of the tracks were re-laid in 2014.

Publicity

The railway always had been very unknown, even Google Maps doesn't display anything to do with it, it can only be seen on Google Earth.[4] The line wasn't well documented at all until the article of Rogerfarnworth.com was created.[1]

References
  1. rogerfarnworth (2019-05-11). "Caithness Double-Track Narrow Gauge Line". Roger Farnworth. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  2. Limited, Alamy. "Stock Photo - subsea 7 pipeline fabrication site;wester ross;caithness;scotland". Alamy. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  3. Melford, Lucy (2019-07-04). "Lucy Melford: The Long Pipe". Lucy Melford. Retrieved 2021-09-23.
  4. "Subsea 7 · Bridge of Wester, Wick KW1 4UR, United Kingdom". Subsea 7 · Bridge of Wester, Wick KW1 4UR, United Kingdom. Retrieved 2021-09-23.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.