The Scottish Railway Preservation Society offers heritage trips at its headquarters in Bo'ness, West Lothian. Almost five miles of track connect the Victorian-style station to a junction with the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line. Great attention is paid to period detail and the project is staffed by volunteers. The society publishes a quarterly magazine and I have been a subscriber for many years. Two complimentary tickets are provided as part of the package and I took my dad along for a day out at the trains.
Services are steam-hauled but special heritage diesel days are also scheduled. To have a vivid memory of mainline steam, you would have to be over 70 years old. Later generations experienced the diesel juggernauts which are now regarded as classic traction. We had been to the Bo'ness railway a handful of times before but this would be the first occasion with Dad as a wheelchair user. One coach was equipped with a ramp and a widened internal door. We entered without any problems. The carriages are of vintage design and therefore not built with disabilities in mind. Kudos to the organisation for making modifications to ensure access for all. Before boarding the train, we had ordered a bacon roll in the café and then browsed the shop. These buildings are new but the railside interface involves a step back in time. All is not quite as it seems, however. As you stroll along the platform, it's natural to assume the society has done a grand job restoring Bo'ness Station to its former glory. In reality, the original terminus was torn down and buried under a car-park and roundabout, a few hundred yards to the west. Everything you see today has been assembled since 1979 on a new site, using dismantled parts of railway infrastructure from around the country. The late-Victorian station building comprising the ticket office and waiting room came from Wormit in the north of Fife, where services hadn't stopped since 1969. The train shed (originally erected in 1840) with its fluted cast-iron columns was shipped in from Haymarket, Edinburgh. The signal box dates from 1899 and formerly belonged to the Caledonian Railway, guarding a junction in Garnqueen, Lanarkshire. The lattice girder footbridge came from Murthly Station in Perthshire - closed in 1965, although the line is still active. A goods office was sourced from Dunfermline Upper Station (closed 1968 and demolished 1990) and the water tank was donated by Grangemouth Docks. Together, the complex is Grade-A listed and began operation in 1981. The site occupies old docklands and was once criss-crossed by railway sidings. Commercial activities at Bo'ness Harbour ceased in 1959.
We settled into our seats and the whistle tooted as the five-mile journey commenced. Despite the fact we were travelling on a dreich Tuesday, the passenger numbers were healthy due to the local school holidays. The line runs along the shore to Kinneil before taking a turn inland. Nobody boarded or left the train here today, but in the summer months it's a popular starting point for a coastal walk. The first Bo'ness Station was the final stop on a line that ran from Airdrie via Slamannan (birthplace of my gran), crossing the main Edinburgh to Glasgow corridor en route. Planned as a freight link between the Lanarkshire Coalfield, Union Canal and North Sea, the route also carried passenger traffic, although the post-war Ordnance Survey maps show the tracks pared back from the western end as far as the goods depot at Avonbridge. Bo'ness Station closed in 1956 but freight transport continued for a further decade. The line was then cut back to Kinneil Colliery and this arrangement lasted until 1978. The rails were gone by the time the SRPS acquired the land and new metal was laid on roughly the same alignment, the main difference being the diversion under the A904 just outside the town. This was more practical than the old low bridge above the road that excluded certain vehicles. Services initially ran to Kinneil Halt on the shore but an extension to Birkhill was completed in 1989. Three and half miles of track were now in use and the elegant timber station building at Birkhill has an interesting history. Erected at Monifieth in 1898, the SRPS rescued the structure from potential demolition in 1988, by which time Monifieth Station was unmanned. A timely intervention, as the offices on the opposite platform had already been gutted by an arson attack. The smaller eastbound shelter was carefully dismantled and transported to Glasgow, where it featured in a railway display at the city's famous one-off Garden Festival. Re-christened Heart of Scotland for the event, the old station building was flanked by a steam locomotive from 1876. Staged over four months, the festival took place on former industrial land by the River Clyde and its huge success was instrumental in securing European City of Culture status for Glasgow in 1990. Heart of Scotland moved across country to become Birkhill Station, the third halt on the heritage route. There wasn't a stop here originally but sidings served the local fireclay mine. Industrial activity ceased in 1981 but the local council opened the mine as a tourist attraction and it was marketed in conjunction with the railway. I visited with my folks over a decade ago but the operation closed permanently in 2013.
The final extension to Manuel Junction was established in 1990 but this was purely to facilitate a physical connection with the main line. It wasn't until 2010 that passenger access was permitted. The final section of the steam railway crosses the River Avon on a high viaduct. The locomotive runs around the train at Manuel and guests can alight to watch this process from the platform and raised viewing area, while express trains hurtle by on the other side of the fence. I got off to stretch my legs but Dad remained on board as the stony platform surface isn't suitable terrain for a wheelchair. Once the loco was hooked up at the other end, we chuntered back down the slope to the Bo'ness terminus. Heritage lines are usually restricted to a maximum speed of 25 mph. The vintage waiting room has display panels relating the history of local railway and canal corridors. Train services reached Bo'ness in 1851 and various industries developed along the shore. Central Scotland was once covered in a dense network of railways and they aren't coming back, but it's nice to be able to traverse a piece of the old patchwork and learn about the inextricable link to social history. The SRPS also runs an excellent museum located across the footbridge from Bo'ness station but we didn't have time for that today. A combination ticket can be bought for a train trip and museum visit and it really is worth a look around. Between the two facilities are the sidings and sheds where the working rolling stock is quartered. Occasionally a steam superstar - such as Flying Scotsman or Tornado - is stabled at Bo'ness while on Scottish tour duties. I have seen both these iconic iron horses on public display here. No doubt a nice revenue earner for the society. A major source of income for heritage railways up and down the land are the Christmas Specials which attract large numbers of families. Steam may have been withdrawn from the regular network more than half a century ago, but its appeal is timeless.
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