The Scottish Railway Preservation Society own five miles of track from Bo'ness on the Firth of Forth to a junction with the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line further inland at Manuel. Heritage steam and diesel trains operate from the middle of March until the Santa Specials at the end of the year. Most of the action takes place at weekends but midweek running days are added during the warmer months and school holidays. As a lifelong fan of preserved railways, I visit at least once a year to support the project.
You don't even need to board a train in order to appreciate the historic ambience of the set-up. The station buildings are suitably retro and were in fact previously sited at Wormit in north Fife. A traditional café provides hearty nourishment and the souvenir shop stocks a good range of railway literature and gifts. Further down the platform, a coach has been converted into an emporium crammed with a huge selection of second-hand books and magazines, as well as other memorabilia. I should state at this point that the Museum of Scottish Railways is just a short walk away and well worth a visit. A combined ticket can be bought for the heritage line and museum, saving a couple of pounds in the process. Having seen the exhibits many times previously, I decided not to place the museum on my itinerary for today. I arrived just in time for the first scheduled departure and the sun was blazing. A German couple were buying tickets ahead of me. As I walked along the platform, I noticed a couple of dining coaches and another carriage reserved for an Outlander party. Clearly the railway attracts a broad spectrum of customers.
The train chuntered out of Bo'ness and halted at Kinneil. I was planning to alight here on the return leg and walk along the foreshore. The route then swings inland and the next stop is Birkhill. This was formerly the terminus of the heritage line and tours of an old fire clay mine were available here. The clay was a raw material for brick production but the mine has now closed to the public. A fine viaduct carries the train over the River Avon and we carried on as far as the junction with the Edinburgh to Glasgow line. Forging this connection with the national network enables legendary working steam locomotives such as Flying Scotsman and Tornado to visit Bo'ness. In fact they are often stabled here overnight in preparation for Scottish tours. A raised viewing platform at Manuel Junction provides an outlook across the rolling landscape while trains thunder by on the express route behind. Railway buffs can watch the engine running around the train in readiness for the return trip. The Outlander group appeared to be from Spain, once again proving the international appeal of the TV series and it's valuable contribution to Scotland's economy.
I hopped off at Kinneil on the way back (the only person to do so) and hooked up with the local walking paths. A colliery was formerly sited right on the banks of the Forth and it closed in 1982 - a turbulent decade for the mining industry to say the very least. The scarred landscape has now been reclaimed and formed into a nature reserve with circular trails. Although I would do part of this network on the walk back to Bo'ness, I first wanted to push further up the coast towards the oil refinery at Grangemouth. What seems to be an abandoned access road takes you as far as the lagoons close to the mouth of the River Avon (the traditional boundary between West Lothian and Stirlingshire). I spotted lapwings and oyster catchers among the ubiquitous gulls. It was a scorcher of a day and I rounded the headland of the nature reserve on the return trek. There is a small tidal island here. I've always enjoyed a visit to Bo'ness. It has retained several traditional shops which are sadly missing in many modern town centres. The jewel in the crown is the fully restored Hippodrome Cinema which originally opened as far back as 1912 and is Scotland's oldest surviving purpose-built picture house. Collecting my car at the station, I watched the next train arrive and a suited and booted party spilled out of the dining saloon. Great to see the line appealing way beyond trainspotter types like yours truly!
The plan was to combine a railway outing with additional heritage stops and I sought out the Bridgeness Slab - a replica of a Roman distance marker. The Antonine Wall ran through this area and the original stone is in the care of the National Museum of Scotland. I then drove along to Grangemouth to have a look at the spitfire memorial. On the way I passed the main entrance to the refinery and was struck by the sheer size of the complex. All of Scotland's petrol is produced here so I guess it's an almighty operation. I located the aircraft display, already aware of the fact that fighter pilots were trained here during the war. However, I was to discover a transportation fact completely new to me. Apparently a national airport was slated to be built in Grangemouth towards the end of the 30s to cater for the ever-expanding aviation industry. The central location with links to rail and shipping channels were the driving forces behind the project. The outbreak of hostilities put the scheme on ice and it never came to fruition. Glasgow and Edinburgh both developed their own airports yet even to this day there are occasional calls to merge the two into some sort of super gateway to Scotland, ideally within a stone's throw of the motorway and rail networks. It's not really a new idea after all then!
There were interesting display boards positioned around the exhibit and I learned that Polish pilots had greatly assisted the British war effort. Poles contributing positively to our society is actually a decades-old occurrence. My final stopping point for the day was the Queen Elizabeth II Canal which runs from the Kelpies to the sea lock on the Firth of Forth. This half-mile waterway was the final piece of the jigsaw in restoring a seamless passage across central Scotland from the Clyde estuary to the Forth. The original canal entered the River Carron at the point where the Kelpies currently stand. Navigating a safe route beneath the bridges over the river had long been an issue for vessels. The purpose of the new stretch of water is to provide easy access to the mouth of the Carron a little further downstream. A towpath stroll can be undertaken from the Kelpies by means of a tunnel under the M9. The steel horse sculptures attract visitors from all over and have been a great asset to an area more associated with industry than tourism. It's a pleasant wander along the brand new waterway and around a dozen information boards relay the industrial importance of Grangemouth.
The walk is marketed as the Charlotte Dundas Heritage Trail, in recognition of the world's first practical steamship launched on these very shores. Designed at the turn of the 19th century by William Symington, the Charlotte Dundas successfully negotiated the canal but fears of damage to the banks curtailed the boat's deployment. Probably a case of an engineer being ahead of his time. Symington also developed steam engines for use in mines and mills but was deeply in debt by the end of his life following an unsuccessful venture. For every inventor who hit serious paydirt, there were no doubt many who vacillated on a knife edge throughout their careers. I am a great believer in paying homage to those who may not have become household names but otherwise made vital contributions. It's also good for local people to get an insight into what has emerged from their homeland. A peculiar trait of the Scot is to denigrate one's own place of upbringing, yet fantastic achievements can be found almost anywhere you care to look. A day of varied activities and one to remember.
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