We're taking our niece to Scotland next May and we plan to send her off to Glasgow on her own from Fort William or Glenfinnan. We're spending the previous night in Fort Augustus and we're continuing our trip on the Kennecraig ferry at 3:30pm. We've already been to the viaduct and seen the Jacobite. As she's a Harry Potter fan, we're looking at three options (in order of increasing risk):
1) See the Jacobite while it's boarding in Fort William, we drive off, and she'll then board the 11:40am train to Glasgow.
2) We see the Jacobite at Fort Willaim prior to it boarding, then we drive her to Glenfinnan station, where she'll board the 11:02am train (same train as the 11:40am)), the Jacobite will pass while she's still in the station, then she'll get a non-steam experience over the viaduct. We have to abandon her at the station to comfortably make our ferry. Assuming there's no strikes or floods, is that the way the trains interact?
3) We drive her to the Viaduct Visitor center, and head off to Kennecraig. She walks up to the viaduct, sees the Jacobite pass over, the walks to the Glenfinnan station for her 11:02am departure. That seem like a very high risk to make the walk in time to board the train, given that she'll have a carry-on to lug, and the Jacobite is sometimes a little late. Even if we stayed to drive her to the Glenfinnan station, it's still a risk for her AND it jeopardizes our ferry.
I'm thinking 2) is the best choice,
Edit:
I checked my photos from 2022 and the Viaduct "event" was at 10:53am, which definitely breaks option 3).