Preservation Society
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The Scottish Railway
Preservation Society |
SRPS DEVELOPMENT PLANS Towards the Scottish Railway Museum Development PlansThe Society has achieved Full Registration under the Museums & Galleries Commission registration scheme for museums, which sets standards for collection care, public services and museum management.We have exciting plans for developing our collection, its care and display, and also for new buildings and railways at Bo'ness. However many aspects of collection care rather depend on the new buildings and facilities. We already have approximately 43,000 sq.ft of covered accommodation, including display and storage space, and a temporary workshop for steam locomotive repairs. To achieve the potential of our nationally significant collection of Scottish railway locomotives, carriages, wagons and smaller artefacts, and to present them to the public, we need more buildings and more capacity to deliver. Major Projects
Recently, there have been two major projects under way at Bo'ness which have achieved funding by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The first of these is a new storage and display building, now open as part of the Scottish Railway Exhibition, which provides a sanctuary for vehicles from our collection, and also a new major display for our visitors to enjoy.
The second project will see the complete restoration of our Diesel Multiple Unit, built under the BR Modernisation Plan in the 1950s and now a unique survivor of the Inter-City design. This work is progressing in the workshop of the Scottish Railway Exhibition building. The most recent building project provides a Modern Motive Power Depot which provides a workshop for the care of the extensive collection of diesel locomotives. This was built entirely with SRPS funds, made possible by the efforts of our Diesel Group volunteers. Scottish Railway Exhibition Project
This project is unique in British railway preservation. Not just a store for historic rolling stock, the Scottish Railway Exhibition welcomes visitors to exciting hands-on displays. It tells the story of Scotland's railways from the early 19th century until the present day. The building is very large providing 500 metre (1,650 ft) of indoor display tracks. It includes a demonstration workshop, where visitors can see conservation work in progress.
The most recent phase of the Exhibition building was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley, Falkirk Council, the Scottish Railway Preservation Society and by the Scottish Museums Council. 
Class 126 Inter-City Diesel Multiple Unit ProjectWe exist to care for our collection, and the Swindon DMU Project is an example of what we can achieve with outside support, in this case a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. We are undertaking the restoration and conservation of four vehicles - DMBS Sc51043, DMS Sc51017, TCL Sc59404 and TBF Sc79443. These are the only surviving Inter-City design DMU vehicles from the 1950s BR Modernisation Plan, and will be restored to a high standard.Details of the project are on the Scottish Class 126 Heritage Diesel Appeal pages. 
Modern Motive Power DepotCompleted in 2005, the Modern Motive Power Depot at Bo'ness is arguably the finest UK facility for the restoration and maintenance of heritage diesel locomotives. The building is capable of accommodating up to four locomotives and is equipped with a 22 metre (72 ft) inspection pit. This splendid building will safeguard the future of the extensive fleet of diesel locomotive locomotives.Gresley Buffet Car No 644 RestorationGresley Buffet Car No 644 was built at York Works in 1937. It is the subject of a major restoration project by SRPS volunteers. This is a wooden bodied vehicle, teak panelled, and major repairs have been necessary. The job is now (hopefully) entering its latter stages, and work is being carried out in memory of our late and sadly missed Ticket Inspector, Eric Viles. The project needs contributions of volunteer time and of money for necessary materials.Extension of the RailwayOur passengers tell us that a longer line is their most sought-after upgrade.The railway is 5½ miles long from Bo'ness Station to the junction with the Edinburgh & Glasgow main line at Bo’ness Junction. At present branch passenger trains operate only over the 3½ miles from Bo'ness to Birkhill Station (adjacent to Birkhill Fireclay Mine). The section between Birkhill and the main line is used by the empty carriages of our railtour trains. We are now working to bring this section up to passenger standards and to extend the branch service up to the main line junction. 
It’s a truly exciting route, from the quiet woods of Birkhill, over the magnificent five-arch Avon Viaduct and on through open countryside to a rounding loop close by Bo’ness Junction. This is a major job – we need to repair two under bridges, upgrade the track, modify the layout and replace existing turnouts. Work goes on most week-days. We welcome support from volunteer civil engineers, construction workers and happy labourers. Even so, we expect to have to spend £100,000 in 2007-2008 on this work, and so we welcome donations too. Please support the Extension and get our passengers a longer railway.
And, so that two trains can operate on the railway at one time, we intend to upgrade Birkhill Station to provide two platforms and to install signalling there so that trains can pass in the station loop. Full signalling at Bo'ness already helps us to operate more trains on busy days. Work is underway to upgrade the line between Birkhill and Manuel to passenger standard. The SRPS has launched the Manuel Appeal to help raise the funds for this project. 
Future DevelopmentThe collection of locomotives, carriages, wagons and smaller items, built up over 40 years of change, represents railways in Scotland from the 1830s up to the present day. It is a unique resource, and has the potential to tell the story of the development of railways.Our vision is to take the story to new audiences and to future generations. The means to do that are set out in our booklet Making Connections. Our site at Bo’ness, in central Scotland, already connects with 65,000 visitors every year. We have approximately 350 volunteers, who maintain the collection and the railway, operate the trains and present the collection to visitors. Our next challenge is to find resources to develop the management of the collections, to provide more buildings for collection storage, conservation and restoration, and to transform access to help more visitors to connect with the history of railways in Scotland. There are tremendous opportunities for development as the national centre for the study of railways in Scotland. |
| For further information phone :
01506 825855 or write to The Scottish Railway Preservation Society Bo'ness Station, Union Street, Bo'ness, West Lothian EH51 9AQ or Email Museum |
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