Category: Station News

The fine weather just lures you back to the station – the team did two session during this week, planting up the lobelia and new barrel planters and hanging up the bunting for this weekends Days out with Thomas event.

Making use of the fine weather, the Birkhill Group continued with general garden & station maintenance, the edge of the platform got another lick of white paint, the garden wall prepared for planting of trailing Lobelia (hoping this year the slugs will not find them to tasty).  Some of the footbridge foundation spoil was also put to good use to re landscape the slope to the side of the signalbox foundations which allowed us to relocate the primroses from the other side which will be dug out at some stage.

The civils team made good use of the TRACs Road Rail machine to dig out the foundations for the footbridge. Both East & West side foundation holes were completed. The bridge itself is currently being sand blasted in preparation for a repaint.

 

 

After the excitement of last week’s movements for the various tours it was back to business on keeping the station tidy. The three new half barrel containers have now been positioned and filled ready for planting. The ramp up to the meadow walk has been swept clear again of all the branches and leaves (where do they all come from) and the meadow walk path verge has been grass seeded to help retain the soil from was onto the path itself.

Over the next few weeks it is the intent to get back round to the Clay Mine picnic area to get that tided up especially the flower garden and then review what to do with the Incline…..

What with the movements through the station to support the Great Britain XI and our very own SRPS Forth Circle Railtour’s and the lovely spring weather it made volunteering at Birkhill that little bit extra special this week (see post ’21-22 April traffic movements’ for pictures and videos).

Work commenced on the preparation of the four half barrel planters and the painting of the two picnic tables. Whilst the paint dried it was with great reluctance we started the recovery of the primroses that have spread around the signal-box area.  Excavation work is due to commence soon and many of the primroses that have provided a lovely spring back drop on arrival to Birkhill on the train will be lost. As many as possible have and will be recovered, ones to date have been replanted along the embankment close to the Lamp Hut which has not had much colour over the years. More have been sent down to Bo’ness where they are being planted along the museum path. Remedial work was also started on the black Birkhill platform sign, this is cosmetic work to make it a little tidier when viewed by passangers.

 

As mentioned on the weekly update post this past week has been a very busy week for loco movements, unfortunately 60009 did not make it due to firebox problems but 61264 (via road) and 45690 ‘Leander’ did along with supporting West Coast class 47 47237 did.

61264 + POB Arriving by road Wednesday 18th April it was coaled and watered and left for Edinburgh Waverley early Saturday morning to be part of the Great Britain XI tour. No running pictures of the loco was captured at Birkhill, however, a brief video of it returning from Perth at Dalmeny Junction at 16:50 23rd April 2018 can be seen on the Birkhill Group’s video Gallery.

At a more reasonable time for us Birkhill volunteers we managed to get to the station earlier enough on Saturday to see Leander + POB and 9 SRPS Railtour coaches run through to Manuel in preparation for the SRPS Forth Circle Railtour

 

Sunday was equally as eventful, with the tireless no.19 pulling, Leander, along with its West Coast class 47 support loco, was hooked up to the rear of the 10:45 from Bo’ness were it continued  to Manuel to join the mainline on its way home.

 

Not to be out-done by the big visitors the 12:10 from Bo’ness was double headed by No.19 & No.1 Lord Roberts pulling the normal stock of coaches plus the teak coaches – Thompson TSO and the Gresley Buffet coach which where put on especially for the Fedecrail organisation who where visiting the railway, museum and work shops.

 

 

Work continued on the cleaning up the meadow walk path away from the station and the Clay Mine Picnic area, there are a good few shifts left before it is back to the condition we got to last year. The leaves are a particular challenge due to the wet and snowy weather we have had over the last couple of months, but hopefully the area will okay for when the ramblers and walkers alight the trains in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

 

Due to other commitments the mid week visit to the station was brought forward to today.  Work was focused on the meadow walk path at the Clay Mine Incline Bridge and also on a bank where we had identified a possible mass of bluebells if all the vegetation was cleared, and sure enough we found them and fingers crossed they will all bloom in the next few weeks providing a lovely setting for pictures along the walk.

The path has never been so clean!!

Before

After

 

With aching limbs and muscles the ivy around the fur tree behind the station building has been cleared providing a great planting area for the summer and hopefully 2019 spring flowering, it is the intent to continue the clearance for the whole area behind the building however this time digging out the roots from previous year’s cut backs. Work also started on the path leading away from the station towards the meadow walk.

Before                                                                                After

 

Many of you who regularly visit Birkhill, will have noticed that the wooded framework of the hutch had deteriorated so badly it would just breakaway when touched. So in late 2017 we decided to renovate it and part of that exercise was to clean up the ironwork which one of our regular Station Master’s agreed to take on. This task is now almost complete and the sourcing of the correct size timbers will be the next task, before reassembling and fitting to the hutch itself.  Below are a few pictures of the cleaning up of the ironwork.