Keith and Dufftown Railway on the internet
In addition to the following News page on this web site you can also keep up with the KDR on YOUTUBE, FLICKR and TWITTER. Use the following links:
YOUTUBE – for latest videos from the KDR
FLICKR – for photos past and present from the KDR
FLICKR Groups – for more photos past and present from the KDR
TWITTER – for the latest tweets from the KDR
NEWS
October November 2011 Bulletin
Autumn Whisky Festival
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This year's Autumn Speyside Whisky Festival, run over the weekend of 30 September to 2 October, has been the best ever for KDRA with our special events being almost fully booked. The popular complimentary tasters of different Speyside malts together with whisky cake or shortbread were, as ever, provided to our railway passengers as they travelled the line between Dufftown and Keith.
Diageo, once more kindly agreed to open Strathmill Distillery in Keith exclusively for a KDRA tour. Our visitors travelled on the train to Keith Town station from where they were escorted to the distillery to be met by Alistair Abbot of Diageo who showed them around. Their visit ended with a dram of 12 year old Strathmill! With the visit to Strathmill over, the group then reformed at Keith Town station to be met by more visitors for the afternoon tour of the famous Strathisla Distillery. This double tour has been a feature KDRA's whisky festival offerings for the past three seasons and has proved to be very popular.
Other events included connoisseur tours to Strathisla for the serious whisky enthusiast. During these three-hour visits the group have the chance of sampling no fewer than six different expressions of Strathisla or Chivas Regal, many of which are only commercially available through specialist outlets.
A unique event during the Speyside whisky festivals are the Whisky Nosing and Tastings where Steve Oliver, a good friend of KDRA, provides the party with tutored tastings of some of his favourite single malts in the train's first class compartment whilst it travels between Dufftown and Keith. After getting off the train on its return to Dufftown following one of these events, one of the visitors at this year's Autumn Festival remarked that he had been to many tutored tastings in his time but none came close to the fantastic experience he had just had.
The Autumn Whisky Festival brings the KDRA operating season to an end and it was great to finish the season with trains full of happy passengers. We hope the visitors to the KDRA season 2011 have enjoyed themselves as much as we have enjoyed your company. We look forward to renewing acquaintances either at our Santa Specials this December or in the new season 2012. Haste ye back.
New Flail Mower
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The railway now has a flail mower which attaches to the Road Rail digger. The mower has been put to use clearing vegetation at the track side and the remains of the platforms at Drummuir and Towiemore. Whilst clearing vegetation just north of Loch Park we believe that we have found the Curlers Platform for Loch Park. The low bank to the left of the guards van in photo 3 is where we believe the Curlers Platform would have been. The platform, situated just at the North East end of Loch Park between the railway and the road that leads to the shore of the loch.
Like Towiermore the Curlers Platform would have been built of sleepers that have long since rotted away. If anyone has information to prove or disprove our claim we would be very interested to hear from you. Perhaps the railway should rebuild the platform and allow curlers the opportunity to take the train to Loch Park to participate in their sport? Certainly the last two winters have provided the right weather conditions with Loch Park frozen for weeks at a time.
Shed Site Clearance
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Early October saw work on going to clear the new site for re erection of the loco shed. The clearance was producing a large amount of spoil which had to be disposed of. The embankment just past Fyve cottage required strengthening after decades of rabbit and other burrowing animals activities. By happy coincidence we had somewhere to dispose of the spoil while strengthening part of our trackbed.
The first photo shows our English Electric Shunter resplendent in its yellow J & B Rare Scotch Whisky livery taking our two loaded Grampus wagons away from the shed site. Second photograph shows the Grampus wagons arriving at Fyve Cottage curve where they were unloaded by the Road Rail digger. The third photo shows the works train stabled in the Strathmill Distillery siding and it is this distillery which produces J & B Rare Scotch Whisky. Last photo shows work continuing at the shed site with both the mini digger and the road rail digger involved.
Keith Town Platform
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The platform at Keith town just North of the building, started moving toward the track and got worse at the end of October. It was decided to act before the threatened collapse became worse.
Saturday 29th October saw a works train with the Kubota digger arrive at Keithtown Station and the coping stones over the affected area were removed. The wall was dismantled down to its footings and the backing infill removed on Sunday 30th October.
Monday was a day off and on Tuesday 1st November re-construction began. A full layer of the larger stone was laid using a lime mortar and with weep holes piped into the stonework which will allow water, the suspected cause of the "Big Bulge", to escape. The wall was protected by tarpaulins overnight.
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On the Wednesday the wall was built up to coping stone height and again secured against frost or rain.
The lime mortar was allowed to cure for two weeks. Then the infill behind the wall was replaced.
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About thirty feet of platform retaining wall and coping stones have been replaced. Saturday 19th November saw the coping stones replaced. The platform surface was then made good.
Hopefully the preventative measures regarding water build up, weep holes in the platform wall will prevent further movement.
Permanent Way
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On 19th November the PW gang took the works train to Keith Town and included in the consist was the dogfish loaded with ballast. The PW gang worked on the bank out of Keith Town replacing some sleepers and broken chairs. At the end of the day as the light began to, fade the works train did a ballast drop from the 1st bridge at Keith Town Station to the next bridge up the bank.
SHED APPEAL
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An appeal was launched last year to move the modern shed then located at Drummuir to Dufftown. As those who have visited the railway will be aware, we lack a loco shed at Dufftown for the repair and maintenance of our rolling stock. The railway now needs to take action and do something about this. Having accumulated sufficient funds in the appeal, the first stage of this project, the dismantling of the shed has been undertaken.
After a successful season, with increases in passenger numbers and charters, the board of KDRA transferred £3,000 to the Shed Appeal Fund on 5th November 2011. The Appeal Fund stood at £16,491.18 as at 18/11/2011. This is an increase of about £4,000 since the total was last reported on 18/10/2011. Thank you to all who have contributed. We are now almost three-quarters of the way to our target and all contributions large or small are most welcome.
For details of the above use Appeals link to the left or click this link: Appeals
DMU CHANGES
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We now have 5 DMU cars, 2 Driver Motor Standard (DMS), 1 Driver Motor Brake Standard (DMBS) and 2 Driver Trailer Cars (DTLC). Originally 4 of these units were formed into 2 car sets, Spirit of Speyside which was composed of a Driver Motor Brake Second (DMBS 53628) car and a Driver Trailer Car(DTLC 56491) car and Spirit of Banffshire which was composed of two Driver Motor Second (DMS 51568 + 52053). With the arrival of the DTLC 56224 (shown in photo 2) further possibilities have opened up.
This will allow us more flexibility, having 2 cars in service and 3 on standby / maintenance. The new Driver Trailer Lavatory Composite (DTLC 56224) entered service in its current Rail Blue livery but it may yet be repainted to BR Green at a future date.
The current service cars are DMBS 53628 from Speyside (the Dufftown end car see photo 1) paired with the DMS 52053 the Keith end car of Banffshire. We have run a hybrid 3 car set consisting of DMBS from Speyside, DMS from Banffshire and the new DTLC.
Details of changes to our operating DMUs will be published on this page as they occur.
Buffer Stop
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The Buffer Stop opened on Friday 22nd of April serving tea, coffee, soup, sandwiches, cakes and scones. There have also been some booked groups. We have enjoyed serving the booked parties, those using our trains or just popping in while passing. All are welcome to enjoy our good food at good prices. The Buffer Stop closed for the season on Sunday 2nd October 2011
Please note the Buffer Stop is entirely staffed by volunteers and its operation is dependent on sufficient volunteers being available to operate it. More volunteers are always welcome see our Volunteers page using Volunteers link to the left or click this link: Volunteers
Tuesday Work Party
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The Tuesday Work Party at Dufftown station has tended to concentrated on “light work” i.e. smaller tasks that tend to appear further down the list of priorities e.g. painting and keeping the environment tidy etc. However, this is not to the exclusion of more major tasks, the Tuesday Work Party was also involved in the installation of the new point, for the Dufftown loop.
Work recently undertaken has included work refurbishing Keith Town Station. The harling on the face of Dufftown Station has been removed to expose the underlying stonework. The stonework will be pointed and the finished stonework will look very attractive. A new photograph to replace the one alongside will be placed on the web when the job is complete. Works trains and training runs on our DMU also take place.
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Another task recently undertaken by the Tuesday Work Party has been the running of a fitted freight. The fitted freight consists of the current DMU plus one of our Grampus wagons with the vacuum brakes connected between the DMU & Grampus. This allows the driver of the DMU to operate the brakes on all vehicles simultaneously.
The fitted freight has been used to pick up timber, old sleepers and other items from alongside the track.
This is another reason why people should not trespass on the line at any time. We do not just run scheduled services as published in our timetable but works trains on any day of the week and at any time of the day. Many people assume that if there are no scheduled services on a day then there will be no trains but this is very wide of the mark. We can and do run works trains, training runs and line inspections on any day of the week and potentially at any time of the day. Please do not trespass on the line at any time.
The Tuesday Work Party were also involved in the work on Keithtown platform (see above for more details of this work).
Anyone interested in taking part in this group is asked to contact Alistair Coull on 01542 831295 or Alan Stuart on 01343 820882. There is always work for any pair of willing hands. Come along, learn something new or share your skills with others!
© 2007, the Keith & Dufftown Railway Association
