SRPS Birkhill Group

In fact its been six months or so since the last post! However, that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening at the station. Its just the opposite, several events have taken up a lot of time preparing and reinstating, filming for several days in the summer all slowing down the projects that got under way at the beginning of the year! One sad task that had to be performed was the making good the vandalism that occurred at the station this went on for a few weeks and took as long to rectify an upsetting time for all!

The new drainage system and power cabling ducting has now been installed and backing filling is in progress including the new decking area which should provide needed additional space during events.

The footbridge has also had a real good washing down after the remedial works hand been done. It is still planned to partially open in time for the 10th anniversary of the setting up of the Birkhill Group in October.

Well it was good to see that for once Birkhill came out of the stormy weather mainly unscathed apart from the platform being covered in branches and puddles of water everywhere! All the embankment trees are still standing including the ‘Creeky Tree’ which lost one trunk section a few years ago just missing the Clay Mine Hutch display. Hopefully we may see a spell of calm & warm weather so that much needed pre running season work can get completed.

During the summer months, Birkhill was used as a set to film scenes in the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie’s thriller ‘Murder is Easy’ which was recently screened on the 27th & 28th December. It is still available to watch  on BBC iPlayer;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001tw5s/murder-is-easy

 

The first Black Bun special of the year to arrive at Birkhill was treated to a wintery scene with snow falling as the train pulled into the station!

 

 

We are all experiencing the financial pressures of high energy prices and continuing very high Inflation rates that affect everything we do and as so it is hard to ask many of you once again to support another programme of works at the railway.

So please  can you donate is as much or as little as possible to help complete the development of the 2nd Platform, the ex West Calder Footbridge and the refurbishment of the existing platform and station building.

You can donate through the following link and thank you for your continuing support;

https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/24929#!/DonationDetails

 

A couple of scenic pictures of the station from the first weekend of the Santa Train services to the North Pole South!

Snow arrived at Birkhill and the surrounding area just in time to create a little panic before the first Santa runs of 2023, but as always the society’s volunteers pulled out all the stops and got the show on the tracks, the schedule was a bit behind but hopefully didnt spoil the atmosphere that Santa brings to young and old alike with the added bonus of the white stuff!.

Following on from there article earlier in the year, the Courier has published a second article about the Monifieth Station and the building that was saved and eventually became Birkhill.

 

Here’s why the tale of Monifieth train station is a love story that’s set to run and run

 

Halloween ‘Steam & Scream’ at Birkhill was even more colourful this year, with two trains over the weekend. Even had the group decorator dress up as a skelly!

The final section of the north side has now been repainted. Work will commence on the South Side in 2024 as soon as the weather is right for painting. It is a hard slog trying to paint in good conditions and juggling with the running season and special events but that’s how it goes!