Maid of Loch on Loch Lomond

[cessna152towser]

Cosmetically she looks a lot better now than last time I was on board her. That was on the last day of the summer season train service which met the boats at Balloch Pier which ended in the nineteen eighties. The connecting boat to Inversnaid and Ardlui was a smaller one and we had to walk across the deck of the Maid of the Loch to reach it.
Nowadays the train stops a mile short at Balloch Central but I hear that the narrow gauge railway on the Isle of Mull has closed but is to be dismantled and rebuilt to run between Balloch Central and Balloch Pier. If that comes to pass I'd expect interest in the Loch Lomond sailings would be re-kindled and maybe there could be an economic case for a large vessel like the Maid of the Loch to sail again.

[Jimmy]

Cosmetically she looks a lot better now than last time I was on board her. That was on the last day of the summer season train service which met the boats at Balloch Pier which ended in the nineteen eighties. The connecting boat to Inversnaid and Ardlui was a smaller one and we had to walk across the deck of the Maid of the Loch to reach it.
Nowadays the train stops a mile short at Balloch Central but I hear that the narrow gauge railway on the Isle of Mull has closed but is to be dismantled and rebuilt to run between Balloch Central and Balloch Pier. If that comes to pass I'd expect interest in the Loch Lomond sailings would be re-kindled and maybe there could be an economic case for a large vessel like the Maid of the Loch to sail again.

Hi Alex,
I've heard this too about the Mull Railway perhaps being sited at Loch Lomond Shores, this would be a great bonus to this site, there was also talk about a tram run along the distance of the shopping centre and towards the Maid.
Certainly Loch Lomond Shores needs a major boost as I belief if Jenners pulled out of the shopping centre then the place would be deserted, even so I was in Jenners over the last 2 weekends and it was not busy.
The tower also has been an overpriced white elephant, the area really needs some thinking out of the box, its not enough to have the farmers market there once a month and a little mock train pulling kids round the the park, so perhaps the Mull Railway would be an enhancement, mind you I was on this railway on Mull a couple of years ago and I thought it was self sustaining financially