Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway

First fire in the boiler of BR standard 4 no. 80105 in just under 13 years!

 

Looking forward to seeing it back.

 

A successful weekend with Murder Mystery diners on Friday and Saturday evening, with No. 55189 at the head of trains. Saturday night especially saw some great sunshine, with the light on the North side of the line on the foreshore giving some rarer shots for steam.

Caledonian 439 No. 55189 - Bo'ness Outer Home by Jonathon Gourlay, on Flickr

Caledonian 439 No. 55189 - Avon Viaduct by Jonathon Gourlay, on Flickr

 

A busy yard at Bo'ness this afternoon. Steam gala gets under way in about half an hour.

 

KEEP OUR CALEY STEAMING!

The air pump on locomotive CR419 (55189) suffered serious frost damage several decades ago and was weld repaired at the time. The pump’s condition has now deteriorated to the extent it now requires replacement.

We have located a complete Westinghouse pump of the correct type in good condition, together with a substantial amount of spare parts, in America. We need your help to cover the purchase and related shipping costs of approx £6,000.

Please donate to keep the last Caley Tank steaming for generations to come! https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/22888#!/DonationDetails

 

A bit of festive steam viewing.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tw5s

Episode one BBC One at 21.00 on 27th December.

Cannot guarantee that the entire episode is on the B&KR but at least some of it is

 

Have you ever wanted to run a railway?

 

I have copied these two posts across from the "Rolling Stock For Sale" thread.

Something does not smell right.


"From Facebook:

FOR SALE: TSOs 4215 & 4844 and BSK 35405
Mk1s 4844, 4215 and 35405 are surplus to SRPS requirements and accordingly are being disposed of by tender. All vehicles are to be sold as seen:

• TSO 4215 built 1956, BR1 Bogies, Steam Heat
• TSO 4844 built 1959, BR1 Bogies, Steam & Electric Heat
• BSK 35405 built 1962, Commonwealth Bogies, Steam Heat, Currently fitted with first class seating

A full tender pack is being prepared and should be available w/c Monday 19th February, with vehicles available to view (by prior arrangement only) w/c Monday 24th February. Closing dates for bids will be confirmed in the tender pack.

A recent review of our collection, which contains around 60 coaches alone, has identified these vehicles as surplus to requirements both operationally and in terms of museum display. While we would like to maximise any financial outcome from this tender process, these disposals are not driven by financial need, and we would rather see the vehicles well looked after elsewhere rather than to deteriorate at Bo'ness.

If you are interested in receiving the tender pack when available, please email andrew.fowler@srps.org.uk with the subject ‘MK1 Coach Disposals’.
(No connection to me - I just saw it and cross-posted it here).

Tom"


"Selling a Brake seems to me to be a bit short sighted, particularly if the money is not urgently required.

Last summer the B&KR had to hire a Brake in from the Severn Valley to keep the Branch service running.

If the plan is to restore the SRPS Mark Is to the mainline and to continue running the Branch service surely the absolute minimum requirement is a Brake for each plus a reserve that can cover either duty. A prudent organisation might have one more Brake undergoing maintenance for the day when Sod's Law applies itself."

 

The decision to dispose of these vehicles was made in June 2022 when I was still a SRPS director. The Board then (and evidently still now) had come to the realisation that we cannot afford to – financially or with our limited physical resource – maintain everything, and the need to hire in a brake coach last year when none of our own were serviceable was perhaps the wakeup call required.

We currently have four mk1 passenger brakes (excluding the two used for other purposes):

• BSK 35185 – dual brake, dual heat, significant work recently completed on bodywork
• BCK 21241 - dual brake, dual heat, significant work recently completed on bodywork
• BSO 9237 – dual brake, dual heat, requires overhaul
• BSK 35405 – vacuum braked, steam heat, requires overhaul, now for sale.

The ideal ‘branch set’ for the Bo’ness & Kinneil Railway is seen as being a BSO, Accessible TSO, RMB, FK, providing a mix of first-class compartments and standard class open seating with catering facilities for afternoon tea etc. Hopefully in time BSO 9237 will be overhauled to take up its position in the foreseen ‘ideal’ branch formation, along with the RMB. The two mainline registered brake vehicles, both fitted with controlled emission toilets, are 35185 & 21241, so these were not likely candidates for disposal. That left 35405, which is the only vehicle not to be air braked or have electric heating, and before it can re-enter service requires an overhaul.

You are correct that we should probably have a fourth ‘standby’ brake so that, in the event something happened to one of the running brakes (or one is taken out of service for work), we still have a spare vehicle.

However, surely it would be a better use of our resources, after fixing 35185, 21241 and (hopefully in the near to medium future) 9237, to focus our time and money on one of our wonderful heritage brakes? We could overhaul 35405 for it to be used once or twice a year in ‘emergency’ events, which perhaps wouldn’t provide the best return on the physical or financial investment required, or we could put that resource into either the Caledonian, Thompson or Gresley brake, all three of which require tlc before being used again but will look fabulous in a vintage train. In the event we needed a fourth ‘spare’ brake vehicle one of the heritage vehicles could then be used for that purpose.

Andrew

 

I would be delighted to see one of the heritage brakes used on the branch but wonder if that is a realistic proposition. The lion's share of the limited resources available appear to be going towards the Mainline set and the Branch set and heritage vehicles seem to be a low priority.

 

Well yes. The mainline set has had and is still undergoing a mountain of work which would have been done a little faster if the overhaul of Tornado didn't drag on. The branch line set is the mainstay of BKR ops and the vintage carriages inevitably suffer but they're safe and dry which goes a long way when they are called up. I believe the Caledonian pair are undergoing work at the moment.

 

At least we managed to get a Branch Set out for the half term week. By all accounts passenger numbers have been good and I saw that for myself today. You won't see Scotland, February and sunshine in the same sentence too often.

 

A fantastic week for Half Term last week! Most trains full with just under 4,200 passengers carried over 6 operating days, income up 33% on the same event in 2023.

No. 1, the Caley Tank and 37403 all getting to come out to play much to the enjoyment of our visitors.

Hopefully signs of good things to come in 2024. Picture of 1 & 55189 approaching Manuel by Peter Backhouse.

 

Overhaul of std tank 80105 enters the final stages with the boiler and frames reunited at Bo’ness today!

 

I missed the Caley 0-4-4 when she toured the south and I see that she is now turned out in BR black. I realise that some people prefer that, and the same has been chosen for Beachey Head's first period in service, but it seems a shame to change from Caley blue.

 

Areas of the Caley Blue paint required a refresh in early 2023 due to some maintenance work being undertaken, and so the opportunity arose to repaint the engine.

Paint was paid for entirely by donations from photographers, and the engine ended up conducting 6 days of photo charters during 2023 which it wouldn't have done if still in blue.

Likewise, it has two further dates of photo charters at Bo'ness this Spring and 3 in the autumn at Lakeside. That's an additional 11 days of money earned by the engine which it likely would have missed out on otherwise.

It is a pity to see blue go (although, I much prefer the darker shade!), but it's important and encouraging for the society to take an active interest in alternative fundraising measures.

 

Fair enough! At least it isn't purple.

 

Since when is the Caley Tank going to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite? That was news to me!

 

Private event with no public running in November.

 

The Caley Tank is visiting the railway for a private photographers event. No public running is booked.