As all our readers know, 2024 was the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Far North Line to Thurso and Wick on 28 July 1874.

Following on from the 21 June event in Forsinard, the anniversary was to have been marked by a plaque unveiling and pop-up exhibition in Wick Station on 27th July, the day before the actual anniversary. Unfortunately a pay dispute between ScotRail and some of its staff caused this to be postponed indefinitely since services were likely to be too unreliable.

A decision was quickly made and the event was split into two. With hindsight this produced a much more satisfactory result. The photographic exhibition was held for four days in the North Coast Visitor Centre in Thurso in October and proved most successful, with the venue reporting much increased footfall during its duration.

The plaque unveiling took place in Wick Station on 2 November, with our President, Jamie Stone MP, doing the honours. This was an excellent occasion and we're most grateful to Network Rail for supplying the plaque and covering the cost of the delicious buffet lunch provided by The Home Bakery, Wick.

We put the exhibition in place for the day as well, which generated plenty of interest. To round off the year, our exhibition was hosted from 2nd to 7th December by Inverness Library, and the following week by Dingwall Community Library. We're delighted to have managed a presence at all three extremities of the line.

The exhibition was a joint venture and included panels from the Highland Railway Society, the SAPT and the Far North Line Community Rail Partnership. The history of the line and the importance of HITRANS and FoFNL was illustrated in the other panels. The exhibition was rounded off by two panels, each dedicated to one of the two photographers who supply so many of our cover photos - Niall Laybourne from Scotscalder and Peter Moore from Golspie.

In a sign of the times, the 150th celebrations were low-key compared with those for the Centenary and the 125th Anniversary. The Scottish Association for Public Transport (SAPT) had orchestrated a full day of events in 1974, photos of which featured in the exhibition - including a special train and a very large cake! In 1999 ScotRail took the lead when its Managing Director, the late Alastair McPherson, organised a plaque unveiling, the naming of a train and the theatre of telephone calls between the stations of Thurso and Penzance. We were delighted to welcome his widow Sara and her children to our plaque unveiling.

For this anniversary ScotRail was unable to take up our suggestion of naming a Class 158, citing an avalanche of naming requests following the railway being taken into public ownership in 2022 and no special train could be run, presumably due to the current financial constraints.

Reaching the ends of the line:

[Upper left] The exhibition in Wick Station on 2 November.

[Centre left] The North Coast Visitor Centre, Thurso, 16-19 October.

[Centre right] Wick Station.

[Bottom] Inverness Library, 2-7 December.