I was lucky to be on the first (Saturday morning) visit of the weekend which comprised of four charters, over two consecutive days, each for 12 participants and all fully booked. We were met on P1 by our own stewards and the Bo'ness staff for a safety briefing and to explain what could be achieved on the day. More importantly this was to keep us safe, especially with an extremely rare move into the good shed with very limited clearance. For the long serving guard on the Sat afternoon tour, it was his first time in there on a train.

Our traction for the day was somewhat of a mixed bag with mainline loco 26038 fresh from a repaint in BR Blue and named 'Tom Clift 1954-2012', looking splendid in the spring sunshine. Also used for our charter around the yard at Bo'ness were two rare birds for passenger haulage: P6687, an 0-4-0DE Built by Ruston 312984 in 1951, and another Ruston, numbered 802 an 0-4-0DH 457299 of 1962 painted blue.

The tour covered several lines at Bo'ness, including the station run round loop to the buffers, the coal line to buffers (we reached quite a few buffers) and signal box headshunt. The highlight was not only a traversal up to the buffers on the turntable road behind the signal box but also a very rare move into the goods shed. This is unlikely to be repeated as it is used for carriage works and normally the line is blocked. Inside the building was a scaffold frame, so the train crept to the very far end with minimum clearance at less than walking pace, the whole train, when it stopped, was totally encased in scaffolding.



Our return to the station saw us deviate through the running shed to the buffer stops on the Coal Road, with the Rustons putting in a good shift for our charter. All four tours covered the same lines.

The final highlight was a run to Manuel behind the Class 26 in a large LMS brakevan. At Birkhill, we traversed the loop on the way out and the bidirectional platform road on the return. Passenger services on the branch to Bo'ness were withdrawn from 7 May 1956 (the only intermediate station on the branch at Kinniel (sic) - spelt Kinneil locally) - had closed from 30 Sep 1930. After coal traffic finished from Kinneil Colliery, the branch closed from Bo'ness Low Jn (a direct curve facing Glasgow) from 17 Jul 1979.









East of Kinneil Colliery to Bridgeness, Pier Yard had closed from 19 Jul 1965. The Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway (Scottish Railway Preservation Society) first opened on a similar alignment from Bo'ness to Low's Crossing on 27 Jun 1981, extending west to Avon Place (the site of the original Bo'ness passenger station) by 2 Jul 1983. Avon Place to Kinneil reopened 29 Mar 1986 and Kinneil to Birkhill 25 Mar 1989.

The end of the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway is just west of Boundary Road and their present Bo'ness station is on the site of the Timber Basin (well east of the former North British Railway passenger station).

Finally, Birkhill to Manuel, Bo'ness Jn opened on 27 Mar 2010. With no leaves on the trees, the embankment of the line that dived under the Edinburgh & Glasgow line and continued south could be clearly seen. At Manuel, our brakevan was propelled to the west end headshunt on the run round loop and also the very short siding at the NR boundary. On our return there was a photo stop at Kinneil Halt.

I am sure some members think that these things are easy to arrange but this could not be further from the truth - there was an eight page document of detailed instructions to make the charter a success, all in explicit detail. All 48 places advertised were sold, which resulted in a hefty donation of £1,500 directly to the Scottish Railway Preservation Society. Our Fixtures Secretary Kev Adlam is a member and has local knowledge. Also of note were Kev's stoving skills, which kept us warm throughout the morning as some opted to sit inside. Kev had been collecting wood from his estate in the early hours so we could all keep warm during the weekend. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and successful charter and hopefully there are many more to come. I am looking forward to visiting John o' Groats on our BWC 3 tour next month.

With thanks to our member Howard Harrison, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CuI7-_H-18 is an excellent 39½ minute video of one of the trips for those unable to attend or who would like to relive it.