Funding boost for Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway

Historic Environment Scotland (HES) has awarded the Scottish Railway PreservationSociety (SRPS) £158,654 to ensure that essential electrical works can be carried out at the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway.
Stock photo of Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.Stock photo of Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.
Stock photo of Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.

Since 1981, several historic buildings have been obtained and re-erected to provide a traditional railway setting at the site in Bo’ness. One of such is Wormit station building which is their traditional booking office. It was relocated from the south end of the Tay Bridge and is just one of the visitor buildings that will benefit from an electrical upgrade which won’t detract from the nostalgia of a golden age that visitors so enjoy.

In addition to this, the funding will cover enhancements to the interior of their fleet of historic train carriages with perspex screening installed within to aid social distancing for passengers.

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Steve Humphreys, chairman at the Scottish Railway Preservation Society (SRPS), said: “The Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway and Museum have been developed by SRPS volunteers for over 40 years and normally welcome over 60,000 visitors aboard nostalgic steam and heritage diesel trains and through the doors of Scotland’s largest railway museum every year.

"We were unable to open to visitors at all last year. SRPS Railtours LTD, our mainline tour subsidiary, was not able to run tours in its 50th anniversary year. As a result we did not raise the income we would normally get to put back in to our preservation of Scotland’s railway history.

“We are grateful that HES has assisted us at this time of great difficulty. The railway, museum and railtours are operated by volunteers primarily and it is their dedication and enthusiasm that has got us where we are today.

"There are many traditional skills which will be lost if we cannot pass them on to the next generation and the upgrades to our existing infrastructure that this grant will cover will assist us greatly.

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“Our volunteers are already working hard to install screening in our fleet of historic coaches to improve the protection for passengers and social distancing.

"The enhancements we have been able to make due to this funding mean passengers will be able to travel once again behind a mighty steam train at Bo’ness or on a SRPS Railtour around Scotland as soon and we can return safely to running services.”

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