Lochaber Narrow Gauge Railway

Aluminium is found in a clay-like mineral called bauxite, whose properties were first understood in 1821. This can be refined to produce alumina by the Bayer process, which is then reduced to the metal aluminium by the Hall–Héroult process. This requires large amounts of electricity to perform the electrolysis, and the first factory in the United Kingdom where this was carried out was opened at Foyers, on the shores of Loch Ness, in 1896. It was owned by the British Aluminium Company, and as world demand for the metal rose rapidly, a second factory was opened at Kinlochleven in 1908, using water power provided by the Blackwater Reservoir. With demand continuing to rise, plans were drawn up…

A temporary jetty was constructed at the mouth of the River Lochy, where it met Loch Linnhe, to enable materials to be delivered by boat, while a more permanent concrete pier was being constructed. Work on the pier began in 1924, and was finished by the end of 1926. It was about 0.5 mi long, and a gauge railway linked it to the site of the aluminium factory, known as 'base camp' in the early stages of the project. Meik and Halcrow had specified that a railway would be required to link all of the working sites along the 17 mi construction site, and the contract included a bonus payable if the railway and the temporary power station were completed in the first nine months. Good progress was…

The principal location on the railway was the factory area (or 'Base Camp' prior to its opening), where there were various facilities such as a locomotive and speeder shed. Some of the sidings here were of mixed gauge ( narrow gauge and ). The railway as a whole comprised a network of lines as follows: