FITTING into FALKIRK
Steam lingered on in southern Scotland, giving enthusiasts time to usher a few more survivors into the ark of preservation, writes PAUL CHANCELLOR.
he demise of Scottish steam was very much a two-phase affair, with much of northern Scotland being an early target for dieselisation. Steam hung on in the south, and particularly in the Kingdom of Fife, almost until the end of steam on BR. The early dieselisation of some areas led to the extinction of a number of traditional Scottish types, particularly pre-Grouping designs, with just a handful of 0-4-4Ts and 0-6-0 tender classes remaining in service into the mid-1960s.
That said, Scotland enjoyed a 1950s British Railways initiative to restore to traffic the Highland Railway ‘Jones Goods’ No. 103, the Caledonian ‘Single’ No. 123, the North British ‘D34’ No. 256 Glen Douglas and Great North of Scotland ‘D40’ No. 49 Gordon Highlander, with these finding regular employment on enthusiast specials.
The retention of steam in southern Scotland did, however, allow time for enthusiasts to start fund-raising to preserve some additional veteran Scottish power under the umbrella of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, which was founded in 1961. The first preservation target for the group was a Caledonian Railway ‘439’ 0-4-4T. While the first withdrawal of the type had taken place in 1948, many were still in traffic at the start of 1960, but by 1962 just three remained in service.
The last to be withdrawn, in December that year, was Carstairs-allocated No. 55189, and this was the engine that was purchased by the SRPS. However, it was not until 1964 that the SRPS had a suitable location in which to house No. 55189, which acquired Caledonian blue livery and its old number of 419 during restoration at Cowlairs Works, before arriving at Falkirk in April 1965.
To replace its small museum at Murrayfield station, the SRPS rented a large goods shed at Springfield in Falkirk and subsequently had to expand into adjacent BR siding space. BR had used the shed to sort iron castings from the various factories in the area for their onward journeys.
Despite the large area available, in due course the lack of space became the driving force to find a new
Tsite for the SRPS. Carriages, wagons and industrial locomotives joined the collection at regular intervals, but it was to be 1966 before the next main line engine took up residence at the Falkirk base, when ‘J36’ 0-6-0 No. 65243 Maude was purchased, again directly from British Railways.
To comply with BR requirements for purchased engines not to carry BR identity, this engine took up its North British number of 673. Both Nos. 419 and 673 later reacquired their BR identities and No. 673 has, from time to time, also worked railtours on the national network.
Another BR engine to take up residence at Falkirk was privately purchased ‘D49’ No. 246 Morayshire, this having been donated to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, which then loaned it to the SRPS.
As mentioned above, such was the number of exhibits that a new home had to be found and, in 1979, a greenfield site at Bo’ness was acquired. Looking at it today, it is hard to imagine that it is not a resurrected railway facility, but all the infrastructure seen there was built from scratch by the SRPS. Bo’ness opened in 1981, but the Falkirk site was retained until 1987. Today, the locomotive fleet at Bo’ness exceeds 50, with many carriages and wagons also on display.