A: The album comes in a gorgeous-looking black and white digipack, including a 16 page booklet, artwork and design by the fabulous Somhairle MacDonald somhairle.co.uk. Also includes vintage photos of the Speyside line and Highland Railway taken by photographers from the 1920s up until the '60s.
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From driver Jimmy Gray, “You’re on about characters on the railways, well we had one driver, a nice wee chap, Jocky Robertson...laughed all day long. Aye' smilin' wi' a wee fag in his mouth! We called him 'The Mole'...I don't know why they called him that...but he was a speedster, you know? No matter where he went he had the throttle wide open! Sometimes I'd be the fireman for Jocky on the Nairn job in the morning...at Broomhill station as you approach it from Aviemore there's a curve going to Forres, quite sharp...I can't remember what speed the bend was, maybe 30 mile an hour, but you know Jocky was always 80 mile an hour...and it was bloody frightening! With the centrifugal force you'd be slammed up against the side of the cab...and there he'd be sitting, smiling away!”
The tracks of the Great North railway and Highland railway used to run side by side from Tullochgorum to Boat of Garten. “We used to have great races. A ‘Tin Charlie’ on the Great North track versus a ‘Black Five’ on the Highland,” Jimmy recalls, “it was a hell of a carry on - all the children would be hanging out the coach windows to shake hands!”
lyrics
Jocky the Mole hit the Broomhill Bend at 60 miles an hour
He’s been racing with the Highland Line from Boat through Tullochgorum Two black fives with wagons in tow he nearly jumped the rails
His hand on the open throttle his eyes wide with the power
Fire and water, smoke and steam
A train is like a living thing Driver, engine, fireman
It takes us three to make her sing It takes us three to make her sing
Jocky the Mole left the station at Blair to cross Drumouchter Pass Shovelled forward and the boiler full pushing up the slope
But the Caley Greyhound wouldn’t run we had to sand the rails
When we got her to Dalwhinnie there was nothing in the glass
Jocky the Mole ran Jellicoe’s racing against time
14 hours and double shifts, pulling sailors, shells and mines Seven days a week supplying the fleet, near sleeping on the plate As we roared through every signal up the Highland line.
credits
from The Railway,
released August 2, 2018
Findlay Napier
Scottish mega piper Ross Ainslie. awesome self-penned tunes, banging arrangements and all-round dynamite production! Ross and I have been collaborating for years on each other's gigs and albums! Hamish Napier
supported by 61 fans who also own “Jocky the Mole”
Just the most fun. Every set is one I want to sit down and learn, and they play with so much ENERGY and STYLE. Crunchy, tangible sound. I'll never get tired of listening to Kinnaris Quintet play. andpersand
Old-fashioned fiddles harmonize with rippling synths on the Scottish singer-songwriter's latest collection of original folk songs. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2022