Category: Station News

Over the last couple of weeks work has continued on the interior of the main station rooms, focusing on the toilet room, primer has been applied to the woodwork and a second coat of white matt emulsion applied to the walls and ceiling.

On the days attending the station the weather has been to wet to do any ground maintenance so work has commenced on renovating the benches sanding down the many layers of paint and varnished previously applied back to the bear wood.

Firstly Happy New Year to everyone!! Looking forward to the new running season already!

As you can see from this picture the weather was that bad even the Birkhill Group did not fancy venturing out into the torrential rain and wind so we made a start on the interior of the station building and kept dry for most of the day.

We decided to clear out and prepare the toilet room / area  of the main section of the station and start prep work for completely repainting the room once cleared we started on the undercoating of the wood work its looking like a couple of undercoats will be needed!

We also brought forward the task of repainting the waiting room floor we tend to leave this job to close to the start of the running season so we will see how things go and if it needs another coat it will not take long to do!

 

Direct Rail Services provided the guest loco for this years winter diesel gala along with the home fleet provided a great day for diesel fans. More pictures can be found on the Gallery Page, below is the DRS Class 66 66426 on its way down from the main line link at Manuel with SRPS class 47 47643 tailing the stock of SRPS coaches on the first run of the day;

Limited work could be undertaken during the December Santa Specials but we did manage to achieve the cutting down of the East Embankment overgrowth which had become a bit of an eyesore to say the least!

Back to the Santa Specials, we continued to add to the station decorations especially inside the waiting room which provided a cosy feel to the damp and cold conditions outside. Plans are being drawn up for Christmas 2020 to develop the display outside along the west platform which will include the recently installed footbridge.

What a miserable day weather wise!!  but that did not stop the Autumn / winter tidy up of the garden & embankment. While the Steam Gala was providing a welcome distraction, the back to full strength Birkhill Group was busy felling several saplings and over hanging branches the effect once done was exactly what we was hoping for and now the embankment around the Lamp Hut is a lot more open which we are hoping will encourage next years spring and summer plants to blossom!

On a lovely but cold day, the ex West Calder footbridge was finally lifted into place and what a transformation to the station it has made!

The footbridge has finally arrived up from Bo’ness ready for this coming week’s big lift, what a transformation this will make to Birkhill once erected!

Back to station duties and as British Summer Time comes to an end and the long cold nights draw in, work continues up at Birkhill. After clearing the latest fallen leaf’s  from the platform, paint touching up continued to the North British coach embankment side, leaving a couple of modifications to the door and frame and a lick of paint to do next weekend and hopefully that will be it until next summer and allowing work to commence in earnest on the gardens which need a good clean up now that the cold nights have taken there toll.

Next weekend is the Steam Gala which officially brings to the end of the running season until the Santa specials start so plenty of prep to do over the next few weeks!

https://www.bkrailway.co.uk/news-autumn-steam-gala/

Well doesn’t the weather change a lot these days!!  Expecting rain the plan was to just work on the platform embankment cutting back the vegetation, but within 5 minutes of arriving at the station the rain stopped so the plans for the day changed for the good.  Firstly, the leaf blower came out and within 15 minutes 3/4 of the platform was cleared of leaves. What a labour / time saving tool that is going to be!

The next job was to matt varnish the Caledonian Map, nervously applying a little at a time to see how it would react with the printing ink but didn’t need to worry as the ink was okay and it actually gave it some age!

Next it was priming the newly installed bolster to the front left of the station roof and also to the remaining untreated timbers on the grounded coach. Whilst this was drying the recently acquired Japanese Handsaw came out of the tool bag and we commenced cutting down some of the many overhanging saplings near to the lamp hut, this will help in getting light to the plants in the wall garden as they had started to block out the sun which is short at the south end of the platform.

Taking advantage of the first sunny day for a while, we focused on the  finishing touches to the front of the grounded North British coach before moving to the  rear were we stitched down the roof membrane and applied the first full coat of gloss paint. With just a couple of trims down the corner ends and around the door, we can safely say we are almost done finally!

The Caledonian Railway Notice boards were also spruced up with a coat of blackboard paint once dried one of them was treated to a new poster of a 1910 era Railway Map. The wallpaper paste hadn’t fully dried so will be trimmed and over coated with varnish next weekend which it is hoped will protect it from the damp elements at Birkhill.

 

On arrival to the station, we where greeted with the first signs of the arrival of Autumn, however once the misty fog cleared the sun did its part in the final painting tasks for the platform side timbers of the grounded coach. With just the finishing touches left to do before the coach is fully watertight and looking presentable we looked back at the years work and how much time has been spent on this project, but hopefully at least the main original timbers of the 1890’s coach will be protected for a few years to come and hopefully one day it will be its turn to be reunited with its wheels down at Bo’ness.