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‘MR Henderson’s Railway’ is the story of a remarkable enterprise undertaken at the end of the 19th century by the British in Spain.
The railway connects Algeciras with Bobadilla through some of the most difficult terrain in the world.
The stretch from Algeciras to Ronda is famous as much for its majestic scenery as for the engineering proficiency of the men who built the line.
Once completed villages previously all but cut off from the outside world found new life and markets.
By the late 19th century Gibraltar was isolated from the rest of Europe. The rough mule tracks that composed the road network in south west Spain did not lend themselves to comfortable travel. Three men proposed a plan to solve the problem by extending the rail network in Spain as far as Gibraltar. The Spanish War Ministry would have none of it saying,
‘Spain will never consent to any line that would connect the enemy territory of Gibraltar with the Spanish rail network.’
Undeterred, Captain Louis Lombard, John Morrison and Sir Alexander Henderson pressed on. They had a strategy in place.
The result was a feat of British engineering unequalled in Spain, a railway line from Algeciras to Ronda through some of the most rugged country in the Iberian peninsula. British steel, British rolling stock, British style countryside stations, even the point levers set in the platforms and the wrought iron canopy brackets were manufactured in Britain. Today the line is known as ‘Mr Henderson’s Railway’.
The book is now available to buy from Amazon
About the author: Nick Nutter
Nick Nutter was born and raised in Lancashire. At the age of seventeen years he joined the Fleet Air Arm as an anti submarine helicopter observer and subsequently became the youngest officer in the Royal Navy to wear ‘wings’. That career was followed by twenty two years in the Lancashire Constabulary, fourteen of which were on detached, village beats. He and his partner, Julie Evans, moved to Spain in the year 2000. Now they are concentrating on a community site, www.visit-andalucia.com, their webdesign business, www.wecandu.com and producing travelogues about Andalucia. Their first eBook, ‘The Sherry Triangle’ was published in November 2015. ‘The Road to Manilva’ was published in February 2016.
