The Great Glen is a fault-controlled glacial valley that runs in a straight line across the Highlands of Scotland from Fort William on Loch Linnhe in the south west to Inverness on the Moray Firth in the north east.

It opened to sea-going vessels in 1822, but the limited size of the canal sections proved inadequate for general merchant shipping.

[3] Widespread attention was given to the depressed economic conditions in the West Highlands, and in the 1883 parliamentary session the Glasgow and North Western Railway was proposed.

[4] It was a more modest proposal that actually provided the third link to the western coast: the West Highland Railway, which built a line from Craigendoran, opened in 1894 and extended to Banavie, on the Caledonian Canal, the following year.

Major difficulties had arisen with landowners' objections to the Roshven line, and the West Highland Railway contented itself with extending instead to Mallaig from Fort William; that section opened in 1901.

The descent to the Great Glen included the 67 yards (61 m) Oich tunnel, and a four-span Calder Burn viaduct to reach Aberchalder.

[16] On 14 July 1903 Colonel John Wallace Pringle inspected the railway on behalf of the Board of Trade and declared it open for traffic.

[2][6][18] The formal ceremony was performed at Spean Bridge by Mrs Eliza Stewart Ellice, of Invergarry, who had cut the first turf in 1897.

[19] A large party of invited guests travelled by train to Fort Augustus where they were entertained by William Whitelaw, chairman of the Highland Railway Company, to luncheon at the Lovat Arms Hotel.

[20] The company appointed Hugh Fraser as stationmaster at Fort Augustus, James Morrison at Invergarry and Donald Macdonald to Gairlochy.

[23]The line was heavily loss-making, due to the sparse population and the availability of a direct alternative in the steamers on the parallel Caledonian Canal.

The Highland Railway decided to cut its losses: confident that its supremacy at Inverness was no longer at risk, it withdrew its trains from 1 May 1907.

Fort-Augustus is a small town of very inconsiderable importance except as a tourist centre, and none of the other villages tapped by the line is large or busy.

[24]The North British Railway (NBR) took over on 1 May 1907;[25] there was a three-year agreement to work the line for 60% of gross receipts, with a minimum take of £2,000.

The North British Railway proposed to close the line down from 31 January 1911,[26] but the wealthy sponsors of the I&FAR persuaded them to persevere for one more summer, which they did.

[28][note 2][2][10][6] The line was now closed, and for the time being it avoided the operating costs that led to the huge losses, while the company contented itself with taking in small sums of non-railway income.

A huge movement of public opinion now took place urging retention of the line, notwithstanding the extremely low usage of it when it was operating.

[10] In 1912 the NBR offered to purchase the line for £22,500 (equivalent to £2,810,000 in 2023)[14] but the Invergarry and Fort Augustus Railway Company refused the sale.

At the end of January, floods caused a landslide resulting in around 1,000 tons of debris blocking several hundred yards of line just east of Invergarry station.

[34] On 2 August 1924, another cloudburst caused a landslide a mile north of Invergarry and a train from Fort Augustus ran into the debris on the line and derailed.

9663, which runs out and home light from Fort William, and makes up its train at Spean Bridge; the latter usually consists of twelve to sixteen wagons and a brake...

Leaving Spean Bridge I travelled in the brake, having, in addition to the guard, a bicycle, two passengers, some newspapers, three or four bags of coal and a large consignment of cakes, as companions.

A stationmaster-clerk is in charge here and a similar arrangement obtains at Fort Augustus... A short distance ahead a tunnel is passed, and speed rose to 35 or 40 m.p.h...

¾ mile further on a swing-bridge over the Caledonian Canal and a viaduct still remain, together with a few hundred yards of track, but when the Glasgow-Inverness road was reconstructed in 1934-1936 part of an embankment of the pier extension was removed completely and the rails are thus severed.

The two-road engine shed is derelict, but the turntable is still in use by the engineer’s Department Ro Railer, which comes up from Fort William occasionally... About 12.15 p.m. the train commences its return journey, which has no stops, save one, at Gairlochy, to pick up the guard's dinner, and Spean Bridge is reached about 1.30 p.m. Gairlochy, Invergarry, and Fort Augustus stations have recently been repainted and numbers of men were at work renovating several bridges: a sleeping van was stationed at Aberchalder for them.

The Invergarry Station Preservation Society plan to create a static museum, with a short length of track and several freight wagons.