the mid-1920s, and cost £3 million. Messrs Meik and Halcrow were the consulting engineers, with Balfour Beatty acting as main contractors. The Lochaber Reduction Works, subsequently known as the Fort William factory, were built by Colin Macandrew. Turbines and generators for the power station were supplied by English Electric and Boving. In order to power the drills, pumps, tunnel lighting and other machinery used in the construction, a temporary power station was built at Monessie Gorge, near . A unlined tunnel was constructed, which fed water into a pipeline, providing of head to the three three-phase generators. Each was rated at 1,500 kW, and around of overhead 11,000 Volt transmission lines distributed the power around the construction site, to be transformed down to 440 Volts where the power was needed. Some of narrow gauge railway were constructed to link the Monessie work sites together. It crossed the River Spean by a pontoon bridge, consisting of 12 pontoons moored in the river. The railway was probably of gauge rather than the gauge used for the later railway. Materials were delivered by stopping a train on the West Highland Railway main line after passenger services had ended for the day, and transferring them to the adjacent narrow gauge line, which was worked by a small steam locomotive. The tracks were probably removed once the power station had been built. Construction A temporary jetty was constructed at the mouth of the River Lochy, where it met Loch Linnhe, to enable materials to be delivered by boat, while a more permanent concrete pier was being constructed. Work on the pier began in 1924, and was finished by the end of 1926. It was about long, and a gauge railway linked it to the site of the aluminium factory, known as 'base camp' in the early stages of the project. Meik and Halcrow had specified that a railway would be required to link all of the working sites along the construction site, and the contract included a bonus payable if the railway and the temporary power station were completed in the first nine months. Good progress was made, and Balfour Beatty received the bonus. The railway linked the base camp to three intermediate shafts, seven adits and the valve shafts close to Loch Treig. Including the tunnel portal near to the factory, this provided 23 faces from which tunnelling was carried out. The railway enabled