The True Line

TTL 154

Cattle Trains on the Scottish Central Railway	Letters from the Perthshire Advertiser in 1850.
Perth to Inverness by Pickersgill 4-4-0s	George Russell recalls a trip to Inverness behind two Caley locomotives.
The Angus Railtour 1961	George Russell recounts this tour which visited the Dundee & Newtyle and Dundee & Forfar lines.
CR/CPR Combination Helped Deliver Shinty Championships	Iain Cameron uncovers a tale of two men who helped a Shinty team to victory.
Carron Iron Works Traffic	John Young tells how a place name can lead to unwelcome deliveries.
What Became of the Caledonian Wooden Viaducts in the North East	Jim Summers relates how Thomas Barr set about upgrading structures over which he shed a tear or two.
The Strathmore Line in 2021	John Yellowlees illustrates some remaining artefacts of this line.
James Rowan - Stationmaster	Jessie MacKenzie describes the railway career of her father.
8-Coupled Engine Operation in Scotland	Donald Peddie looks at the Gresley P2 2-8-2 locomotives operated by the LNER in the period 1934 to 1944, before being rebuilt as 4-6-2 engines by Gresley’s successor Edward Thompson.
Station Spotlight: Merchiston	John Paton looks at this Edinburgh inner-suburban station.

In addition each issue contains Association and Membership news, an update on activity at our on-line Forum, news of developments on the remaining Caledonian network, letters and details of forthcoming meetings.

The Journal of the CRA

The True Line, the Journal of the Association, is published 4 times per year and is free to members. It is produced as an A4 format glossy magazine, now in full colour (colour covers and inserts up to TTL 149)) and illustrated with a wide range of photographs, a number of which are being published for the first time.

In addition to articles of historical interest, the Journal provides news for the membership and a forum for the request and exchange of information in the section titled 'The Down Mail'. Many of the letters received add considerably to the information set out in the original article.

An Index of all issues of The True Line to Number 126 and the five earlier Journals is currently available as a three part download covering Stations, Locomotives, and the General Subjects. The listings are set out in the format aa.xx; bb.xx. The digits before the decimal point indicate The True Line issue number and those after the point give the page number, additional page references are separated by commas. Please note that the pages were not numbered until issue 28. A star * indicates an illustrated item and J indicates the item is in an issue of the early Journal.

As with all publications it can only be as good as the contributions submitted and the Editor is always grateful for material, words and pictures. If you have a Caledonian related story needing to be told the Editor will be pleased to hear from you.

The True Line Digital Archive

The quarterly Caledonian Railway Association Journal from Issue 1 to Issue 120 has been digitised as a searchable pdf and is available as a CD. Full Details available here.