Speyside line's last driver dies

THE last train driver to work the Speyside railway line has passed away aged 94.

Jimmy Gray, of Birch View, Kinakyle, died peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of Friday at Ian Charles Hospital in Grantown.

Whisky and coal played a big part in Mr Gray's life, as well as the railway.

Mr Gray delivered coal to the distilleries and picked up their drams in return on the scenic line between Aviemore and Forres before the route was axed as part of the Beeching cuts in the mid 1960s.

He made an emotional return to one of the line's stations two years ago. It was the first time in nearly half a century that Mr Gray had visited the Grantown East station.

He visited to see at first hand the start of the re-development of the station into £1.5 million visitor attraction promoting the Highlands' rich cultural heritage.

Revack Lodge Estate owner Karen Blessington and her partner Dave Garman are behind the project to the town's derelict former station to its former glory.

It is more than 50 years since the railway station building was last used, but Mr Gray said at the time he remembered it well.

"It was the first time in nearly half a century I have been back," he told the Strathy. "There's trees growing between the platforms. It was a shock seeing it in such a state.

"I was really disorientated by how it is... It will be very nice to see it restored and good for the area."

Mr Gray was the train driver on the Speyside line for the last three years of its life. In 1965 it closed to passengers but a freight service for the whisky traffic operated for three more years.

"It was great – every station had a distillery and some had two. I was based in Aviemore and delivered coal to the distilleries and collected the whisky – coal down, whisky back.

"They should have never have closed the line. It was quite lucrative, as you can imagine with the whisky."

Mr Gray started his working railway life in 1941 as a 16-year-old fireman on steam trains.

After 20 years he became a driver and the trains changed to diesel power.

He spent most of his working life going to places like Keith, Elgin, Perth and Inverness.

But during World War II Mr Gray drove freight to Helmsdale in Sutherland, which was en route to Wick in Caithness, with the crew having to cook their own meals and stay there overnight before the return journey.

The son of a railwayman, Mr Gray's home at Kinakyle, just south of Aviemore, was hand built from old railway sleepers by his father and it was here he lived all of his life.

His wife was the late Helen and the couple had one son, Robert, who lives in the Aberdeen area.

The funeral arrangements are to remain private at the family's request.