Cleethorpes duo add Scarborough to rail portfolio
JOHN Kerr, who ran the closed Kerr's Miniature Railway in Arbroath, has now added a new line to his portfolio.
John, who together with Peter Bryant bought the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway in 2014, has purchased Scarborough's North Bay Railway from retiring owner David Humphreys, founder of newbuild experts North Bay Railway Engineering Services (NBRES) in Darlington. The new owners took possession as from March 1.
Opened on May 31, 1931, the 20in gauge line which runs for three-quarters-of-a-mile between Peasholm Park and Scalby Mills was for many years run by Scarborough Borough Council until David bought it in 2007, successfully adding new rolling stock, station buildings and lakeside attractions.
John said: “The railway in Scarborough is an extremely important asset to the town and wider region. Before his retirement, David has done a fantastic job of revitalising this much loved attraction and we are looking forward to working with his dedicated team to further this.
“We can't wait to take the railway to its centenary and beyond.”
The railway and other attractions plan to reopen on April 12.
John's grandfather Matthew originally built a line at his father's dairy farm in Dundee in 1934, but moved it to Arbroath the following year, laying it alongside the Aberdeen-Dundee main line, and installed a wider gauge in 1937.
Experience
His family ran Kerr's Miniature Railway for three generations before it closed on October 11 (issue 273). He had been in talks with Angus Council about bringing back the 10¼in gauge line on a new site elsewhere in the town's West Links Park, where a £200,000 nine-hole crazy golf course had been pencilled in, and had offered to invest his own money to make it happen, while operating miniature buses and fire engines from the same location.
However, John said that in February, he was contacted by the council and told that it had now been decided to increase the crazy golf from nine to 18 holes and that the miniature railway would not be included in the scheme. “We would have liked to have seen the railway in Arbroath survive because it has been in the town for 85 years, but the council is not showing any interest,” said John.
The purchase of a second line in England and the scope to develop its attractions has, however, opened new horizons.
John added: “We are now running the major attraction in Cleethorpes which has been a massive success and now have the fourth largest attraction in Scarborough. I don't think that's bad going by the age of 25.
“We are now hoping for a bumper summer season. Everyone will take a holiday in Britain this year, and Scarborough is one of the country's biggest resorts.”
Development
The North Bay Railway's four Hudswell Clarke steam outline diesels – Neptune, Triton, Poseidon and Robin Hood – have been in service since the early 1930s. Two of them used to operate on the now-defunct railway at Golden Acre Park in Leeds and were later used at Woburn Safari Park.
Under David's ownership, newbuild Bagnall Sipat 0-4-0ST Georgina was built and added to the fleet, and the move led to the formation of NBRES.