File:1984 Highland Garron (HST 162Y) tracked ATV.jpg

English: Police officer delivering animal feed at Glencoe during bad snow in 1984.

Northern Constabulary covered the Scottish Highlands & Islands, and duties extended far beyond the roads. Being the home of many famous mountains ranges, the force was involved in off-road matters too, in such as the Cuillin Hills (Mountains!), Cairngorm, Torridon, Glencoe and Ben Nevis. I am indebted to 495 for these photographs, and much of the accompanying information.

Possible a bit of history not so well remembered is the involvement of Northern Constabulary in Mountain Rescue, not just in respect of co-ordination, but also in respect of many officers who served in MR Teams. Police dog handlers were called upon, but many officers were also team members. Lochaber MRT has been going since the 1960’s and over the years there have been many police officers who were members. In the 1970s, the police at Fort William had a Snow Trac tracked vehicle en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Trac This vehicle was used in the rescues. When the call came in it was loaded on a trailer, towed by Land Rover to Torlundy, and then headed up the Ben towards the 2200 foot high SMC CIC (Charles Ingles Clark) Hut - usually with a few MRT members on board should the helicopter (Wessex at that time) not be able to get in.

The CIC Hut had an emergency radio which was battery powered, and like all batteries, it needed replacing once a month. Whilst the Snow Trac would take you so far, a police officer then had to lug this heavy duty battery in a special shoulder harness to the hut, fit it, and bring the old one down for recharging. Given that this was a police role, one assumes the placing of the radio in the hut was a police initiative. And it was heavy duty, with emphasis on the heavy!

The Police Snow Trac, ( OST359J ) which was painted bright red, had a VW engine, and was great in the snow, but not so great on the rocky surface in summer. It had a tendency to throw a track, usually on a steep, angled bit of ground. This required a delicate operation to place it back on. The vehicle had to be jacked up, which on a sloping, angled surface, was challenging. You then had to crawl underneath the rear of the unstable vehicle and use a wrench to loosen the tension of the track to enable you to slip it back on the wheel. During this phase your partner would have hold of your ankles, ready to pull you out swiftly if the vehicle started to collapse on top of you. Add to this the fact that you might be doing this in a howling gale with torrential rain, heavy snow, or worse, in a cloud of bloodthirsty midges, and you appreciate the fun that was had.

Another slight problem tended to occur in unseasonably dry weather. It caught fire! The tracks churned up the heather and peat and invariably those combustible materials got into the engine compartment where the heat made it smoulder, requiring using the fire extinguisher to try and douse the said smouldering,

In 1982 the force replaced the Snow Trac with a Garron ( HST 162Y ) – officially ‘Highland Garron’, a tracked ATV formerly marketed by James Jones & sons of Larbert, Stirlingshire – which was bright orange in colour and proudly displayed the recently-introduced Force roundel badge on both sides. www.forestry-memories.org.uk/picture/number1191.asp

This vehicle was also used during bad winters to assist farmers to get feed to their animals. A “Garron” is a highland cross of a Clydesdale horse used in farming, especially in the highlands and isles where a full size Clydesdale would not have been as economical. These horses were valued for their hardiness and ability to work on slopes.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garron