Extreme trainspotting on Britain's highest (and windiest) railway

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https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/04/geeks_guide_cairngorm_mountain_railway/

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An extra wide gauge helps the Cairngorm Mountain Railway's trains stand up to powerful windy blasts. Photo by David Spooner


Stones and plants were delicately repositioned during the £20m construction. Photo courtesy of Natural Retreat



Traversing some of Britain's most extreme terrain and weather. Photo by David Spooner


The world's highest railway is the Xining-Golmud-Lhasa railway at 5,068m (16,627ft) above sea level and running 815km (506 miles). As much a political piece as a transport corridor, the line was designed to fuse China with Tibet – the country the People's Republic invaded and annexed in 1950.

Britain's highest railway is nowhere near as controversial, nor as high or long. It's the 2km (1.2 miles) Cairngorm Mountain Railway, a funicular operating at up to 1,097m (3,599ft) above sea level – the highest station – on Britain's sixth highest mountain.

Passengers are winter-sports enthusiasts and hill lovers as this line has been serving the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort, a few miles to the east of Aviemore, since 2001.

That might sound tame, but the conditions in which Britain's tallest railway line operates are far from it.


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