Strathaven railway goes to wall with ‘oldest’ claim
THE Strathaven Miniature Railway has literally gone to the wall with its claim of being Scotland's oldest miniature railway.
A colourful mural has been painted on the line's station at Strathaven Park in the South Lanarkshire town by local artist Artianne, aka Anne Anderson. The mural depicts the line's original locomotive, 2-6-0 Margaret, track and a heron, and carrying the tag line `Scotland's Oldest Miniature Railway'.
The mural and branding is the brainchild of secretary Ian Samson, who said: “I realised that when Kerr's Miniature Railway at Arbroath closed last year after 82 years, we had to be the country's oldest line, having opened in 1949. I checked that out by writing to the 10 other miniature railways in Scotland today, and, yes, our claim checks out.
Successful season
“We've been running for 72 years, and Margaret our mogul is still very much with us. That's something to really celebrate, so we went for the mural, funded by the Scotland Loves Local Fund, and are carrying the `oldest' tag on all our publicity material.”
Despite a late start to operations in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the SMR carried a creditable 12,000 passengers during the season, implementing full carriage cleaning, PPE and social distancing regulations as necessary. Ticket sales were replaced by a bucket for donations to avoid cash handling, and Ian said that this brought in more cash than ticket sales normally would.
With the prospect of the line carrying its 750,000th passenger in May 2022, the Strathaven Model Society Ltd is looking to the future and is determined not just to survive but thrive.
“We are fortunate to have 30 active club members,” said Ian. “But 70% of us are over 70, and the few members we have in their 20s will simply not be enough to keep us running in the future.
“That's why we took the decision to launch a junior section and, after gaining insurance cover for this, we are going to run groups for six to eight year-olds and for nine to 11s, one night per week, after school.
New recruits
“Each child will be accompanied by his or her parent, and we hope the parents may become interested and also join us in running the line, while we'd like the youngsters to stay involved for many years. A successful taster session in October attracted 10 children in the older group and we had a total of 25 enquiries from parents, many of who are keen to join with their children next year.”