Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Places People Visit

Somewhat late entering this challenge but it gives me an excuse to use some of the images I took whilst on Holiday in the summer. In the UK we have lots of Preserved Railways and these are popular tourist attractions. On a very grey day we made our way from Auchterarder over to Bo’ness on the River Forth for a visit to the Bo’ness and Kinniel Railway. This is also the home of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society’s museum, so it’s well worth a visit 🙂 I had great fun demonstrating to a young lady how to pull a signal lever – Epi watched on with a sympathetic smile 😉 The star of the show on the day was Hunslet designed 0-6-0 saddle tank 68007. She’s wearing a false identity because although she is the same as a number of similar locomotives bought by the LNER that subsequently saw service with British Railways, she was bought by the War department and after the war went to work in the Ayrshire collieries of the National Coal Board as number 7. Bo’ness was the terminus of the Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway which was absorbed into the North British Railway and subsequently the LNER. The line retains much of the unique character of the period of its construction and operation. The other end of the preserved line is Manuel Junction at which there was an accident in 1874 when a freight train was allowed to shunt across the path of an express bound for Perth – 16 people were killed – it was a typical railway accident of the period and ironically would not have happened if block signalling equipment being installed at the time had been in service. Finally, our train crew for the day deserves a second glance – in war torn Britain some Women drove trains but I’m not sure that hair would have been accepted back then 😉 Here’s the photos 🙂

Catch up with Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge Here.