Date: 25/04/2017

Few of us need telling that whisky is central to Scotland's exporting economy. What is less well known is that the rail industry has been playing a crucial role in the transport of whisky to foreign markets for more than 50 years.

One of the key positive outcomes of the otherwise infamous Beeching Report of 1963 was the development of a network of container terminals linked by fast, fixed-formation 'Freightliner' trains. Terminals in Glasgow, and later Coatbridge, became central to the whisky supply chain and in 2017 Coatbridge Freightliner still provides those crucial daily links to Britain's big four Deep Sea ports at Felixstowe, Southampton, London Gateway and Liverpool. Indeed, between 20 and 25 per cent of Scottish exports are carried on these trains.

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66097 runs round its train of empty whisky tanks and containers at Elgin Yard on 13th September. The platform side of the former GNoSR passenger station has seen better days, but the main building is still in splendid condition. Condemned OTA timber wagons are returning to nature on the background.
Location: Elgin East
Company: Morayshire Railway
13/09/2013 David Spaven

A typical scene at Elgin freight depot in the late 1970s - a BR lorry waits to offload a container of whisky casks for Central Scotland while a Class 24 draws a rake of conventional and container wagons into place under the depot's gantry crane.
Location: Elgin East
Company: Morayshire Railway
// Frank Spaven Collection (Courtesy David Spaven)

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Tags: x Whisky x Freightliner x David Spaven