Thurso
Station 88
Rudy arrived at 13:02 on a train from Wick and stayed overnight at the Station Hotel.
Thurso Station
Thurso is the farthest north on the Far North Line – the most northerly station in Scotland and in the UK.
Opened in July 1874 as a branch terminus of the Far North Line the station building at Thurso is almost identical to the one at Wick. The station was surprisingly built at the south of the town with no attempt ever to connect to the important harbour of Scrabster just two miles further.
The earliest plan for a railway here was formed in 1866 just to connect Thurso and Wick but the funding target was never reached – the line as built has them both as terminus stations. Until the late 1990s trains would split at nearby Georgemas Junction with one part going to Wick and the other terminating here at Thurso. This meant for 135 years after the original plan there were no direct passenger trains between the two stations!
Thurso
Thurso was an important Norse port in late medieval times and retained a reputation for good linen for centuries. The 1950s brought the Dounrey Nuclear Plant and a huge influx of workers and increase in population.
While in Thurso Rudy took a walk to the beach where he explored the rocky pools, got a selfie with Thurso Castle and saw all the way to the Orkney Islands!
Thurso is served by train running between Inverness and Wick and all trains reverse direction here before continuing their onward journey. This peculiarity means in times of disruption the stop at Thurso can be skipped to avoid increasing delays on the main single line section of the Far North Line.