The Wester Pipe Railway is a

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

that runs from Hastigrow on the B876 road to Westerloch on the A99, all within

Caithness Caithness (; ; ) is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Scotland. There are two towns, being Wick, Caithness, Wick, which was the county town, and Thurso. The count ...

. The line is

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

for most of the route and uses

Metre gauge Metre-gauge railways ( US: meter-gauge railways) are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. Metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by several European colonial powers including France, Britain and ...

. It is used to transport pipeline segments to the sea. It is the second northernmost railway in the United Kingdom with the first being the spur to Thurso on the

Far North Line The Far North Line is a rural railway line entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, extending from Inverness to Thurso and Wick. As the name suggests, it is the northernmost railway in the United Kingdom. The line is entirely single-tra ...

Route

The line starts in Hastigrow and runs east south east towards the coast where the depot of

Subsea 7 Subsea 7 S.A. (stylised as Subsea7) is a Luxembourgish multinational services company involved in subsea engineering and construction serving the offshore energy industry. The company is registered in Luxembourg with its headquarters in London. ...

is located.

Operations

The railway is owned and operated by

, who operate the railway and the pipelines around it to their port in Westerloch near Wick. The railway uses ocean-going tugs to operate it. Pipeline segments are combined at a site on the inland end of the railway and then towed to the sea, using the vessels. The individual pipes are often brought to Scotland by train as well. They are transported onto the railway by being taken to Georgemas Junction and then finish their journey to the Subsea 7 site by road. Entire pipelines are transported along the rail, giving it the record for the longest thing ever to be transported by rail: a long pipe, only shorter than the main section of railway itself. Many of the tracks were re-laid in 2014. Four lines exist West of the bridge under the

A99 road The A99 road is entirely within the former county of Caithness in the Highland of Scotland. It runs generally north/northeast from the A9 at Latheron to Wick and to the A836 at John o' Groats. It was part of the A9 until the A9 classification ...

, however the main stem of the railway is just two tracks. This allows the sections to be completed concurrently, then joined together just before the road bridge.

References

{{coord, 58.508, -3.135, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Metre-gauge railways in the United Kingdom Narrow-gauge railways in Scotland Year of establishment missing Buildings and structures in Caithness