STRATHSPEY RAILWAY ASSOCIATION
ASSOCIATION NEWS

Severn Valley Railway’s Autumn Gala. Volunteers NEEDED

One of the highlights of 2011 for the Strathspey Railway (SR) was the phenomenal success of Caledonian Railway locomotive 828 visit to the Severn Valley Railway’s (SVR) Autumn Gala. There are plans for the locomotive to be present for the SVR’s Spring Gala.

The Association has made arrangements to share a stand with the Caledonian Railway Association (CRA) at Kidderminster Town station at the Gala. The dates for the Gala are the 23rd to 25 March 2012.  For members living in the Midlands, the SRV Spring Gala is an ideal opportunity to promote the Railway without having to travel far. Opportunities like this do not come along too often, and they should be grabbed with both hands. If you can help, even just for a couple of hours, we would love to hear from you. The gala will be and Ideal opportunity to promote the Grantown extension, issue 2012 timetables and have CRA books and SR items for sale.

The contact for this is Graham Ward. He can be contacted, (evenings and weekends only please) on 01299 400204.

There is also the possibility that the locomotive will attend the Llangollen Railway’s Steel, Steam & Stars III Gala that runs between the 21st and 29th of April 2012. Nothing has been finalised and would depend on how much support members are prepared to give. Again, if you can help, please contact Graham Ward using the details above.

 

MAY 2011

STRATHSPEY RAILWAY CALENDAR FOR 2011 - (SOLD OUT)

Featuring views of locos in the beautiful surroundings that is Strathspey. Every month has its own page with a photo corresponding to the season. Size is A4. Price £4 95.

Available in all the railway's shops and by mail order - £1 00 extra each calender.

Available from Richard Walker, 18 Spens Crescent, Perth. PH1 1PE.








 

OCTOBER 2010

Permanent Way Squad visit to SRPS Bo'ness

The Strathspey Railway Permanent Way Squad arranged a special visit to the Scottish Railway Preservation Society at Bo’ness. Members travelled from as far as Inverness and were met at Perth Station to be driven to our destination.

On the day, the weather turned out to be dry with faint sunshine. We were warmly greeted by the station staff and proceeded to have a welcome beverage in the cafeteria. This was followed by a conducted tour by Neil Clark of the locomotive department. He showed us the station yard and then on to the Bo’ness TMD diesel shed where we saw various diesel locomotives going through overhaul and restoration.

Neil then showed us the interior of the Romney Hut and the surrounds before being treated to the Museum with all its splendid contents. There were some really well restored items and this left a lasting impression on us.

The party then took the train up to Manuel hauled by none other than No 17 “Braeriach” just back in action after a repair made to a stem pipe flange. All appeared to be well. By this time it had started to rain so we found it best to be in a railway carriage rather than being outside. The train was busy so it had plenty of atmospheres.

Once returned to Bo’ness, the party travelled to a suitable pub near Kincardine Bridge, where we were treated to an excellent high tea. Having suitably nourished ourselves, all concerned made for Perth to catch the “Highland Chieftain” back to Aviemore and Inverness.”

DIAGEO DONATE TRACK

The Railway recently were donated some useful track items by the Distillers Group, DIAGEO. In addition to the rails shown other items including a buffer stop were uplifted from the now disused track bed that lead to Burghead Maltings & previously onto Hopeman.

The Burghead branch still connects to the Roseisle Maltings site where a major new Distillery has just been completed by DIAGEO.

DIAGEO cleared the site just south of the former station at Burghead for community use & uplifted the track materials & transported them, at no cost to the Railway,  to Boat of Garten where George MacNair off loaded them. 

The Railway is extremely grateful to DIAGEO for this donation & especially to their Project Manager Ken Reid for his help.

FEBRUARY 2010

IRST BOARD MEETING OF 2010

The first meeting in 2010 of the Board of Directors of the SRA was held on Saturday 20 February 2010.

A very good response to the 2009 raffle was reported, with around £4,000 being raised to be put towards the overhaul of the railway's coaching stock.  SRA support towards the costs of setting up a white metalling facility in the Engine Shed at Aviemore were also discussed and agreed, as this would bring a substantial benefit to the overhaul and maintenance of the railway's locomotives.

Excellent progress on the overhaul of Ivatt Class 2MT No 46512 was reported, with this project running ahead of the planned schedule.  It was agreed that a sum of £10k from the Locomotive Restoration fund would be released to the SRC to allow the next stages of the overhaul to commence.

As can be seen in a previous news item, the SRA attended Model Rail Scotland at the SECC in Glasgow the weekend following the board meeting.  The meeting also discussed other model rail shows, the SRA will be attending at the Inverness, Glenrothes, Dundee and Perth during 2010.  Anyone interested in helping out on the SRA stand at these shows is asked to contact Richard Walker.

The SRA AGM has been set for Saturday 6 November 2010, and will be held in the Function Suite at the Cairngorm Hotel.  More details will be circulated nearer the time.  The guest speaker at the AGM will be Mike Cooper, who gave a very well received talk at the 2009 AGM.  The annual raffle will be drawn at the AGM, this year in aid of re-tyring "Number 9".

The SRA Board meet next as a joint meeting with the SRC on Saturday 17 April.

FEBRUARY 2010

Model Rail Scotland

The last weekend of the month found SRA members Richard Walker, Timon Rose, Mike Tough and John Henderson in Glasgow to man the railway’s stand at Model Rail Scotland at the SEEC. The response was very positive, with news of the Trust being sought by large amounts of the public.

At the show Pete Waterman was approached and agreed to be a patron of the SRT. He took away materials on the extension to read later and he will try and get up to visit the railway in the summer.

Six new new members joined,  the DVD sold well and the timetable for this season was promoted with several enquires about the dining trains.

Thanks also go to Ron Black, Gordon Roger, Morrison Dorward, Ian and Alison Doig for their help at the event.