Strathspey Railway, Heritage railway in Highland, Scotland
The Strathspey Railway runs for ten miles from Aviemore to Broomhill, passing through Cairngorms National Park with a stop at Boat of Garten station. The route follows the original track bed through pine forests and moorland alongside the River Spey, with views of surrounding mountains throughout the journey.
Originally opened in 1863 as part of the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway, the line connected the Scottish Highlands to the south. British Railways closed the route in 1965, and preservationists reopened it as a heritage operation in 1978, reaching Broomhill only in 2002.
Broomhill station appeared as a filming location for the BBC television series Monarch of the Glen, standing in for the fictional Glenbogle station. Visitors often recognize the buildings and platforms that featured in several series and remain unchanged from their on-screen appearance.
Trains operate on selected days from spring through autumn, with steam locomotives more common on weekends and diesel services running midweek. Reservations for dining train experiences should be made in advance, while regular train journeys typically accommodate same-day travelers except during special events.
A mechanical semaphore signaling system controls train movements along the entire route, preserving operational methods used by British Railways during the steam era. Signalmen operate the levers in signal boxes by hand, exactly as railway workers did decades ago.
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