PICTURES and VIDEO: Class 37 vintage train and carriages draw huge crowds at Wick railway station
Hundreds of people travelled from far and wide to see a vintage diesel train and carriages visit Wick at weekend.
The 1960s locomotives pulled carriages from the same era as part of a three-day charity fundraising trip organised by the Branch Line Society (BLS) and carried 270 passengers in its luxurious coaches, along with 35 train crew.
Jerry Dickinson is a senior incident controller based in York and was part of the team of volunteers helping out during the trip. “What we have here are two Class 37 locos built in the UK in 1964, and they’re hauling Mark 1 coaches which are a similar vintage being built in the early 60s,” he said.
“It’s very much British engineering that has been maintained and restored by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society (SRPS), who are based at Bo’ness.”
Jerry said that it was a three-day trip that started from Bo’ness. On Friday, it journeyed to Inverness via Leven and Boat of Garten. Then on Saturday, it visited Wick and Thurso with the final leg on Sunday involving a trip back to Bo’ness via Aberdeen and Fife.
“Mostly, people are on the train for the entire weekend, but there are some intermediate stops where some people may choose to take a break. Generally speaking, all our passengers stay with us all day.” He said that there were opportunities to visit some scenic locations or drop into a local pub on the route.”
The train visited a new station at Leven in Fife, which had not had a visit from a vintage train and carriages since formally opening last year.
A large number of people wearing hi-vis orange jackets were witnessed on the platform at Wick railway station as the train prepared to leave around 1.15pm. Jerry explained: “These are combined orange jackets for a variety of reasons. There’s the BLS, who are the promoter of the train, who provide a number of stewards for each vehicle. There’s also the SRPS, whose coaches they are, and they are doing the onboard catering as well as supporting with maintenance and fleet issues with the coaches.
“And there’s GB Railfreight, which is the train operating company which supplies the drivers, the guards and the safety element of delivering the train. They’re a national freight company, but they also run the Royal Scotsman.”
The members-only charter train raised money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital, with some additional funds going to Martin House Children’s Hospice.
John Sharples, one of the passengers, said: “It’s been great to travel in style with like-minded people and have a bit of banter.
“We left around 5.30am and will get back to Inverness around 7.30pm tonight. I’ll be staying at the Station Hotel.”
Ian Budd, convenor of Friends of the Far North Line rail group, said: “The Friends of the Far North Line were delighted that the Branch Line Society included the line in its tour last weekend. It’s not often you can get on a Wick train at Bo’ness.
”The tour was a prodigious feat of planning and went without a hitch, arriving back at the Bo’ness railway the next day at the exact scheduled minute.
“It was wonderful that the train was welcomed to Wick by piper Will Fryer (13) and a Highland dancer Eilidh Budge (12) and it was fine to see Wick station swarming with enthusiastic passengers – it’s great publicity for the railway.”
The BLS specialises in tours which include travel on lines not normally used by the public.
On Friday, the train started at Bo’ness and travelled towards Edinburgh but turned left at Winchburgh to head directly to the Forth Bridge. No normal service trains use this stretch of line at present.
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