Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway

Steam mad I’ve made a small donation, wish it could be more but every little helps! I always try to help the lines that appear to be organised and are forging ahead. It’s bad luck about the landslide but you’ve mobilised quickly with a plan and some imaginative fundraising, so you’re well on the way. Your line’s response is impressive, and in complete contrast to my ‘home’ railway near the Derbys Peak District which is in a sorry mess thanks to the people running it (and that’s me being ultra polite!).

 

We're incredibly grateful to all of those who have donated to our appeal so far - thank you so much. At the time of writing the appeal stands at an amazing £85,500 which is by far a record for the SRPS!

Heartwarming to see some of the fundraising efforts being undertaken by our supporters. One of our young visitors is missing us so much, he wants to play his part. Cameron will be raising funds as he runs around Linlithgow Loch.....TWICE! 5 miles for a 5 year old! You can support his efforts here: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fu...ndraiserPage?userUrl=AlistairWills1&pageUrl=1

Whilst I'm only 23 so should be around (fingers crossed anyway...) for a while yet, it is great to see the railway will be in safe hands in the future!

Thanks again to all of those who have supported us in the past week.
Andrew Fowler
SRPS Trustee.

 

I've no doubt Andrew will post later but all Nat Pres will be pleased to hear that our landslip appeal has raised £110k in a fortnight. Quite remarkable and most gratifying that our little railway is so well thought of.
Martin

 

As a former "Wallace Street Wean" who was at Bo'ness on the day the first spade hit the ground, well done.

 

Update on website on 03/10/20. £126,000 raised to date and progress with appointing a contractor to undertake landslip repair works. Full information here: https://www.bkrailway.co.uk/emergency-landslide-appeal-update-3rd-october/

 

That’s really encouraging, hopefully the weather will be kind this autumn and winter to allow the repairs to go ahead. Nice website by the way.

 

Good news for the 'Steaming Ahead' project announced this morning: the NHLF are extending their support by £234,400 to a total of £975,800. Press Release below!

Exciting Times as Railway is Steaming Ahead to 2021!

The Scottish Railway Preservation Society (SRPS) which manages the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway and Museum of Scottish Railways, has been awarded additional funding of over £234,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund towards its Steaming Ahead project. This brings the total grant for the project to £975,800.

The project involves construction of a new engineering facility, which will be used to care for the steam locomotive collection and other rolling stock, using the space to train volunteers and apprentices. The project will also improve and expand the visitor experience, with a new level walking route to the proposed engineering facility, which will have a viewing gallery, with interpretative material to help people understand what happens in there and on to a new museum entrance. Work will start soon on the build of the engineering facility and the Museum entrance. Other elements of the project will begin in the middle of next year and the work is due to be completed by the autumn of 2021.

The project will also involve two new members of staff to oversee the training, activity and volunteer training elements of the project. Ensuring that the engineering skills needed to care for and operate steam locomotives are passed on to a new generation is one of the main motivations for the project. A training scheme that will benefit many of the Society’s 400 volunteers is one part of this, while an apprenticeship and trainee scheme will deliver other benefits. Four apprentices will train through the Modern Apprenticeship scheme. In association with Falkirk Council we will be looking to provide, over the five years of the project, up to 20 13-week trainee placements for those looking to acquire skills to help them into the workplace.

Lord Faulkner of Worcester, the Society’s President is delighted “This is excellent news. Many congratulations to the Society and the best of luck with the project as it begins to develop. I eagerly look forward to visiting Bo’ness again in 2021.”

SRPS Chairman, Steve Humphreys said “After a very bleak year this really has come as ray of sunshine, and will give us something tangible to celebrate next autumn in our 60th year when we would hope to hold an event formally to open the new engineering facility. In what has been a very difficult year for everyone, we are delighted that we can finally begin this exciting project that will bring lasting benefit to the Society. The new engineering facility and the visitor experience it will bring will tie in nicely with a journey on our steam trains and a visit to Scotland’s largest railway museum, making for a really great day out for everyone. Tourism has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and we have not been able to open to visitors so far this year. Work is ongoing to once again open our award-winning heritage railway and Museum and we look forward to welcoming visitors back again once we are ready to do so safely.”

Caroline Clark, Director Scotland, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “The volunteers at the Bo’ness & Kinneil railway work tirelessly looking after Scotland’s precious fleet of locomotives to the delight of thousands of visitors who get to experience and learn about the heyday of steam travel. However, circumstances have made things incredibly challenging right now and we are grateful that, thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to help.”

 

Contractors are due on site today to start the repair work on the landslide that occurred in August.

 

Repair works started the damage which occurred in August at the start of this week, focusing at first on the main slip near High Bridge. It is hoped that the railway will be handed back to the SRPS in the not too distant future!

Photos courtesy of Iain Anderson

 

In other news from Bo'ness this week, the first of the mainline registered mark one coaches to go through our new fleet overhaul programme arrived back at Bo'ness last week from contractors Assenta Rail. Toilet tanks and Central Door locking to be added in the near-ish future! Note the colour change for the SRPS Railtour fleet from maroon to blood & custard!

Photos by Jim Ormiston.

 

Good to see that started; that's quite a slope where the slip occurred! And the piece of gear at the top is impressive (quite a reach); can't make out from the bit one can see of it in the first photo if it's rail-mounted or tracked (or both)? Still, really good to see some images of the work, I hope we'll get more! I don't see any preparation for piling - will that not be needed?

Noel

 

Is this set of coaches having central door locking and retention toilet tanks fitted going to be used on the A1 S.L.T. 60163 future tours? Cos of the rules of using M.K.1 coaching stock with door bolts handles on the outside of carriage doors and the old flush toilets where effluent drops on the tracks wont be allowed after march 2023 to run on N.R. routes cos of new rules on this type of coaching stock due to O.R.R. changing the rules on M.K. 1 coaches after march 2023?

 

Afraid that I don't know the details of the repair (not an engineer!) and with professional exams next week I'm a little out of the loop at the moment with the exception of getting forwarded picture reports. The long reach excavator is both rail and road as you thought.

By end of play yesterday repairs to the main slip site were nearing completion and our contractors hope to complete the works to the four other (smaller) slips by the end of next week, weather dependent. Pics attached.

Sorry, not sure what you're asking.

 

It is Road rail.
From Readypower fitted with an extended dipper arm to get the reach.

 

Thanks for the pics. Others may be able to confirm an observation: it looks (left-hand side of the first new pic) like there are pilings there? If so, not too surprising: that whole embankment is pretty steep! I wonder if those are from a prior repair, they look pretty new.

Noel

 

That piling marks the spot where a major Ineos (formerly BP) pipeline crosses the branch below ground. BP did some major renewal work 3 or 4 years back which included digging up the track to access the pipeline. The piling went in as part of the restoration work.

I am not an engineer either so I'm afraid that I don't know why one bit has piling but the other doesn't.

 

All i meant is are these coaches for mainline running on the national network once they have been fitted with central locking and toilet tanks by assenta rail?
Davo 56F

 

Hi.

The simple answer would seem to be, yes for mainline running. The message with the pictures of the coach attached says it is one of the mainline registered ones and it is pictured returning from Assenta Rail, with central locking and toilet tanks to be added. It doesn’t say who is going to do the latter work but it seems logical to assume it will be done at Bo’ness. Hope this answers your question!

 

Great news from the B&KR: https://www.falkirkherald.co.uk/new...y-scoops-over-ps150000-essential-work-3122999

It seems the construction of the workshop development is about to begin (finally)! Looking forward to a exciting spring

 

Thanks for drawing attention to this. It is also on the SRPS website if you don't want o click on a newspaper link:
https://www.bkrailway.co.uk/histori...-4V4VD45DvNiujKRtTN5zJdYqv22jOmiBsMlUdjmdD3Eo

I think the newspaper just repeats what is on the website, or pretty close to it.