Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway

The National Lottery Heritage Fund have awarded the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, operators of the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway and Museum of Scottish Railways, £741,500 towards the 'Steaming Ahead' project to construct a new steam locomotive workshop, the training of apprentices and redevelopment of the Museum entrance.

The lottery fund's grant brings total grant funding for this project to just under £1,030,000, although with an estimated total project cost in excess of £1,600,000, donations of any size will be welcomed!. Perhaps the most important project we have ever undertaken at Bo'ness to secure a sustainable operational future for our collection.

Read more: https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/new...wBFsu93uEZ6Etj9JEcrQ-iSl9OmdVDJ_jd0HCXt-JqhIM or https://www.bkrailway.co.uk/were-steaming-ahead-thanks-to-the-national-lottery-heritage-fund/

 

For anybody who missed the excellent Caledonian themed Steam Gala in November 2018 here is another chance to ride in the preserved Caley coaches behind 419.

https://www.bkrailway.co.uk/summer-steam-up-2019-17th-18th-august/

 

If it's half as good as the Caley Gala it will be a good event.

 

This splendidly restored G&SWR 6 wheel passenger brake, built in 1901, saw the light of day for the first time in good few years yesterday. Caught as it was being transferred to its new home in the Museum.

 

Lovely, so little Sou'West stuff remains.

Dave

 

There is one other Sou'West coach at Bo'ness - a 1914 Corridor Third. The same team are going to tackle that next.

There's more detail in this link.

https://wonderful.org/appeal/gswrthirdclasscorridorcoachno731-827e40ea

 

More clean up and continous improvements ongoing in B'oness. Most importantly the bridge is back!

 

Due to the fact that the B&KR will be closed till the end of June, I want to share one of the latest videos of the ongoing works on the site. Hopefully the contractors can start to work despite the corona virus.



Cheers

 

That was a nasty incident at about 16:20.

 

Wow! That needs investigating. Without wanting to be a scaremonger, that could have been fatal.

Keith

 

Having watched it, all I can suggest is that the video wants removing as soon as possible. Then again, it is a useful exercise in how not to do these things. I kept waiting for that loose piece of timber on top of the boiler to fall off.

 

Just had an email arrive in my inbox via Andrew and Jonothan. A landslide has occurred on the climb to Birkhill that has been estimated to not be a cheap repair. From the Virgin Funding page found here; https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/ch...nPage.action?charityCampaignUrl=SRPSlandslide :

 

As Paul has said, we've opened up an emergency landslide appeal today following the thunderstorms on Tuesday/Wednesday which have caused landslides at three separate locations. Whilst our drainage system worked as designed, it was simply overwhelmed by the sheer amount of rain which fell in a 24 hour period. The initial estimates to repair the three slip sites is £100,000; but this may rise or fall once contractors have been able to conduct detailed examinations of all sites.

Given that we were due to begin crew refresher training next weekend ahead of a September re-opening this has been particularly devastating for us after a long Covid closure. We've also had the fallout of the D49 overhaul being abandoned which has left us with an additional 6 figure sum to find to complete that overhaul. If anyone can spare a donation it would be greatly appreciated. Some more photos of the main slip attached.

 

Good luck with the landslip appeal, maybe the GWSR could offer some advice/recommend contractors as they have unfortunately had several similar problems.

This seems like a massive change in costs. I know costs of overhauls go up as problems are found during dismantling but presumably Llangollen had quoted a price for the overhaul based on an assessment of the loco as it stood. Has another contractor quoted £100k more than Llangollen based on the same type of assessment?

Keith

 

You've obviously had a huge amount of rain there. I understand that it also caused a breach of the Union Canal not far away?

 

Yup. About 30 Metres of canal embankment right down on to the E&G line just east of Polmont.

 

The E&G will be closed for 'several weeks' according to Scotrail. The damage is between Manuel and Polmont, probably only a mile or so away from the damage on the B&KR.

I live about three miles away and in thirty years haven't seen a rainstorm like the one that happened around 3 a.m. on Wednesday.

 

An incredible start to our appeal with just under £18,000 raised in the first two days of our fundraising campaign - thanks to anyone from National Preservation who may have donated! Thankfully the water which was pouring off the E&G mainline (from the Canal burst) and was building up against our embankment on the approach to Manuel has subsided with no damage noted.

You can make a donation to our 'Emergency Landslide Appeal' online (www.virginmoneygiving.com/fund/SRPSlandslide) or use the PDF attached for bank transfer / cheque donation details.

 

The SRPS made a video covering the damaged parts of the railway.


In this difficult times any kind of donation is highly appreciated.

Cheers

 

Incredible response to our Landslide Appeal so far with the total at £68,831.70 after only five days! On behalf of the SRPS Board of Trustees, I would like to express our sincere thanks to those who have supported the appeal thus far.

There are now more ways to support our landslide appeal! Jayne Wright, one of our volunteer fireman and a talented photographer & artist, is raffling an original pencil drawing of NCB No. 19 on Bo’ness shed entitled ‘Morning’. The image has been professionally mounted (gratuitously) by Toby Watt of Tweed Art, Peebles. The winner can also decide if they would like to have the image framed. The winner will be announced at 6pm on Aug 23rd so you do not have long to enter – a name will be drawn out of a hat…well, a grease-top!

Raffle tickets are £5 and can be purchased here: https://www.vanillamoonphotography.com/fine-artdrawings-steam-locomotives/morning-prep-original-artwork-no19-at-boness-amp-kinneil-raffle-ticket, where you can also view a copy of the image and full terms and conditions. Additionally, Jayne is donating all proceeds from the sale of her ‘Time for a drink’ print which can be purchased here: https://www.vanillamoonphotography.com/fine-artdrawings-steam-locomotives/time-for-a-drink-boness-running-shed-limited-edition-giclee-print.