Strathspey Railway Boat of Garten. XTR 3193-317
The Strathspey Railway (SR from herewith) does not originate from its first terminus in Aviemore. From 1998 onwards, the railway started its services from the south from the Railtrack (now Network Rail) station that was situated a good three hundred yards from the old terminus. The old terminus, was of course known as 'Aviemore Speyside'. Nowadays Aviemore Speyside no longer sees trains stopping at its platforms, though the station has been kept as a fallback in case of problems with Network Rail. From Aviemore, the line passes through the aforementioned station and visitors can see one of the country's most impressive Victorian engine sheds left in regular use. The engine shed at Aviemore was constructed by the Highland Railway in 1898 and possesses four roads. Originally the purpose of the shed was to provide engines for the Speyside line and for the roads to Perth and Inverness (via Carrbridge). It was common for original Highland Railway engines to be allocated to the shed and in LMS days it possessed a competent stud of Stanier Black 5s, Pickersgill Bogies (Caledonian Railway), Caley 439 tanks, Caley 812 classes, and Fairburn tanks. In British Railways days the shed was allocated the shed code '60B'. These days the engines that are in traffic proudly wear the 60B shedplate on their smokebox. Apart from the engine shed there is also a carriage maintenance shed which was erected in 2005 and saw its first coach enter during that year. This shed allows the railways volunteers and staff a safe, warm and well-lit environment to work on the railway's fleet of coaches. The spacious interior allows for most of the necessary work to be done inside. The benefits of this shed will really be felt in the next twenty years. Another building of interest is the former enginemans' hostel called 'Spey Lodge'. This building has now been reverted to its original use for housing locomotive crews, though it also is used by many other volunteers who are not necessarily engaged in w
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Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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