PUBLISHED in the same year that the line opened, the 1894 Murray’s Handbook for Scotland describes the 100- mile West Highland Line from Craigendoran, near Helensburgh, to Fort William as “itself an object of interest. Its construction, through some of the most desolate and uninhabited parts of Scotland, was no light undertaking; and its deep and difficult cuttings, its numerous lofty viaducts, its artificial foundations over miles of bog, and its innumerable culverts across mountain torrent-beds, all triumphs of engineering skill”.
Work commenced in 1889 and was a financially precarious undertaking, with the crossing of the waterlogged Rannoch Moor proving a major drain on resources. In fact, the line’s eventual completion was only assured by a director of the railway, J H Renton, pledging part of his private fortune – a contribution immortalised by a sculpture of his head created by navvies that stands at Rannoch station. But this did not diminish possibilities for expansion, and in 1897 work commenced on the line’s near 41-mile extension to Mallaig, which was completed in 1901.