SRPS Steam Special To Manuel

[JonathonAG]

Well, first I feel inclined to inform people who won't know what is so special about the run I photographed on Saturday to Manuel. Well.....At The Bo'ness And Kinneil Railway, the total length of the route from Bo'ness To Manuel Junction ( where there is a current mainline connection ) is around 5 mile long. That may not sound like much, but the route has some of the most challenging you'll find on a heritage railway. However, the current situation has always been that since this length of route has been avaliable, only the 3 1/2 miles route from Bo'ness to Birkhill has seen regular passenger services. Well, hopefully this will change next year during the summer as it is planned to open the rest of the route up to passengers. So far we've only used it for mainline visiting stock/locos and movements of the SRPS railtour set.
However, there are the odd exemptions to this. And the 17.00 service on Saturday 16th of June was one of those. As the last train of the day on one of two gala days, it was a members only special to Manuel....top and tailed by "Morayshire" and No. 80105. It was a spectacular run from Birkhill to Manuel ( the only part I witnessed )...and was very special when the train was sitting at the loop with a Piper playing "Scotland The Brave"....and the exchange of whistles and horns from passing trains and the steam engines:

More photos of the run can be seen here : http://jonathonag.fotopic.net/c1306359.html

Hope you enjoy them. Unfortunately lighting and weather was poor so the trip was also used as another experiment. Please feel free to leave any comments.

Thanks

Jonathon