British Rail Scotland in the 1980s and early 1990s

Photographs

He gives one flash of his glass-green eyes, And the signal goes "All Clear!"
And we're off at last for the northern part, Of the Northern Hemisphere!

Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat by T S Eliot

The Ost-West Express Train Brussels to Moscow (10 photos)

Freedom of Scotland

The Freedom of Scotland that's what British Rail in the 1980s offered with their rail rover of the same name. An opportunity to both see Scotland and to photograph the railway scene. The railways in Scotland at that time still offered locomotive hauled trains, semaphore signalling and character in its stations. As time has gone by modernisation and rationalisation have continued to sadly remove what made the railways interesting.

Deltic Scotsman Farewell - Edinburgh 1982

Photographs

Selection of 150 from 2,000

The Freedom of Scotland rail rover also allowed rail travel just across the border into England at Carlisle on the West Coast main line and to Berwick-upon-Tweed on the East Coast main line. This selection includes photographs from these areas, but the images are concentrated mainly on rail lines within Scotland, particularly the Central Lowlands, the Highland Line, and the Aberdeen route.

PHOTO Locations

Select a location to see photos.
Photography Equipment

All the photographs were taken with:

  • Canon A-1 film camera
  • Kodachrome 64 slide film
  • Kodak Plus-X (125 ASA) B&W film
  • Kodak Tri-X (400 ASA) B&W film

The images were digitised using:

  • Nikon D7200 camera on a tripod
  • Nikon AF-S DX Micro 40mm f/2.8 G lens
  • Nikon ES-2 Film Digitising Adapter Kit
  • Adobe Lightroom 3.0
Freedom of Scotland Tickets 1980s
Some of my Freedom of Scotland rail rover tickets from the 1980s.

The Freedom of Scotland rail rover, now called Spirit of Scotland, is still offered today by ScotRail in two formats of either four days unlimited travel over eight consecutive days or eight days unlimited travel over fifteen consecutive days.

Newspaper Articles

Photos taken at Stirling and Dundee have been published in the Dundee Courier and Dundee Evening Telegraph.

Sanps of the Tracks - Dundee Evening Telegraph