THURSDAY 19 JULY Continued.
A smooth trip on the ferry across to Mallaig. From here we moved on toward Fort William. We knew that a steam train, The Jacobite, ran from Fort William to Mallaig and return during the day. We headed straight for Glenfinnan Viaduct hoping to get a pic of the The Jacobite crossing this world famous viaduct.
From Wikipedia: The 21-arch single track viaduct was one of the largest engineering undertakings using concrete without reinforcing when it was built by Sir Robert McAlpine.[1]
Glenfinnan Viaduct forms part of the Mallaig extension of the West Highland Railway which was constructed between 1897 and 1901.
Built entirely of concrete, the viaduct consists of 21 arches, each spanning 15m and has a maximum height of 30m offering spectacular views down Lochaber’s Loch Shiel.
The viaduct was brought to fame by being featured in Harry Potter movies.
We were in time and got this pic which unfortunately does not show the whole viaduct.
Here are two postcard photos that might give a better impression of the viaduct.
At Fort William we took a walk up alongside Neptunes Staircase:
From Wikipedia: Neptune’s Staircase at Banavie, near Fort William just north of Loch Linnhe is kept by British Waterways. It is the longest staircase lock in Britain lifting boats 64 feet (20 m).[1] It consists of eight locks, each 180 feet (55 m) by 40 feet (12 m) and it takes about 90 minutes to pass through the system.[1][2][3]
The current lock gates weigh 22 tons each, and require a team of three lock-keepers (at minimum) to run the staircase. It is usual for them to operate on an 'efficiency basis', that is the keepers try to either fill each cut with boats on the lift or drop, or to allow for passing, i.e. a dropping craft to pass a rising craft on the same fill/empty cycle.
Prior to mechanisation, the locks were operated by capstans, each with four poles, which had to make seven full revolutions to open or close a gate. Each gate leaf had two capstans, one to open it and another to close it. There were 36 capstans on the flight, and 126 revolutions were required for a boat to travel up or down the complete flight. With the advent of hydraulic rams and push-button control, transit times through the flight have been reduced from just over half a day to 90 minutes.[4] The base plinths of the original capstans can still be seen, although the capstans themselves have been removed.
A postcard picture of Neptunes Stairway.
FRIDAY 20 JULY 2007.
Today we chased The Jacobite all the way back to Mallaig. We were going to ride on the train but decided as the scenery was so beautiful that we would rather chase it and try get some nice photos and videos. It was quite a hair raising experience trying to keep up with the train along that narrow windy road to Mallaig.
The railway swing bridge just outside Fort William. It is at the bottom of Neptunes Staircase. The top of the bridge can just be seen in the bottom of the postcard picture above. When a boat travels the locks this bridge swings out to the left. It can also be seen that the road bridge is also a swing bridge.
On reaching Mallaig we did a U-turn and took a smooth and sedate ride back to Fort William. I wanted to chase the train back but Joan put her foot down and was not having any of it.
We moved on to our next overnight B&B at Killin.
The light at 11pm is absolutely stunning. Beautiful colours. 
