INTRODUCTION

The steam locomotive developed rapidly in the mining areas ofthe North of England and Cornwall. It was a necessarydevelopment of stationary steam power, and could quickly andcheaply move large tonnages of coal in preference to horsehaulage or canal. The technology spread rapidly throughoutthe country as motive power for public railways and industrialpremises alike. As coal mine complexes expanded some verylarge railway systems, known as “internal users”, grew upwhile some lesser concerns made do with just a few sidings.Virtually every system was served by the company’s ownsteam locomotives.

Rail transport would appear to have arrived at PrestongrangeColliery in the 1870s. It was served by a branch line divergingfrom the Edinburgh – Berwick main line, south of PrestonpansStation. It ran northwest over level ground above the Firth ofForth to a point atop an escarpment then turned east down asteep gradient to reach the sea level of the Colliery. It wasapproximately 3/4 of a mile long.

It was worked all its life by steam engines until closure in1962. A total of nine locomotives have been recorded over thisperiod. Of these only one survives – Andrew Barclay built No2219 in 1946. The same builder’s No 224, built in 1881, wasstill at work in 1962 and despite the efforts of an enthusiasticsignalman at Morrisons’ Haven Signal Box that locomotive,along with the rest of Prestongrange Colliery, was despatchedfor scrap. It would surely have been a fitting relic forPrestongrange.

In Scotland at large, steam lasted until 1981 working quietlyaway serving coal mining as it had done since the nineteenthcentury – 13 years after British Railways had itself dispensedwith steam.

The mining complex lives on as The PrestongrangeIndustrial Heritage Museum, where railways and steam are animportant aspect of its presentation. Steam re-appeared onrails in 1975 after a 13 year absence. This Historical Seriesbooklet is proud to recount the tale of how and why the newrailway was built.

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FORMING AND STEAMING

For this author, at least, it began way back in 1963, through aseries of coincidences, of which most people experience at leastone in their lifetime. I have always been interested in railways,watching trains at pre-school age from my parents’ bedroomwindow which overlooked the old station in Peebles. 1963found me wandering cavernous Waverley Station in Edinburghwhen I met Iain, now a lifelong friend. Iain was a railwaysignalman of the old school, shiny levers and continuous cupsof tea, and his place of work was on the East Coast Mainlineto London at Morrison’s Haven, about 15 miles out fromEdinburgh. Morrison’s Haven was the now silted-up andfilled-in harbour for Prestongrange Colliery and the signal boxwas named after it. Its purpose was to control the sidings forthe wagons to-ing and fro-ing from Prestongrange Colliery. Bythe time I was paying my unofficial visits, the Colliery wasclosed but I enjoyed many sunny days, yes they appearedsunny then, observing railways.

Years passed. In 1969, exploring the Edinburgh outskirts inmy faded blue aged Hillman Minx, re-designed at the backafter the bus behind me one day did not stop, I discoveredLady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrange. I did not know theplace existed but here were steam engines shunting this busysite, as they had done for over 60 years. I loved it!

More years passed. In 1976, I heard of a museum projectbeing started at the site of Prestongrange Colliery and as itwas close to home, decided this was the place to be. Iinvestigated in my suave new White 1600E Cortina – no morebeat-up Hillmans. What I found was the cleared site of thecolliery, heaps of bricks and spoil and in the middle theembryo of what was to come. There, proud as punch in agleaming coat of green paint, all on its own in a sea ofdereliction, was the same locomotive I had watched in 1969.To the north, within shouting distance, Morrison’s Havenharbour still lay waiting to be re-discovered and half a mile tothe south, up the tree covered hill and across the NorthBerwick road was Morrison’s Haven Signal Box, the site of myschoolday jaunts in 1963.

The locomotive was the first of many industrial-typerailway artefacts to arrive at Prestongrange in 1975. It wasbeing managed by three or four like-minded people and soon I

was adorned in the traditional boiler suit and getting happilyfilthy. The site at this time was basically managed by a retiredArea Mining Manager whose influence gathered many of theitems made available to Prestongrange, and thus the collectiongrew. Fortunately, so did the number of people willing to becomeinvolved, until at the peak, around 15 were actively involved.Fifteen doesn’t sound much but it was adequate to manage therequirements and, after all, how many societies can claim 100%of active membership; 15 members; 15 active people!

The main group aim was to manage and operate items ofequipment pertinent to the site, but principally the steamlocomotive. All this was done on a somewhat ad-hoc basis,along the lines of – Question: “Who will be here on Sunday?”;Answer forthcoming; “Oh good, then we can do this and/orthat”. This sporadic planning was fine up to a point but lackof continuity could hinder a planned project. One subject thatwas a total commitment was to steam the locomotive on thefirst Sunday of the month from April to September, and theMuseum authorities expected this. Footplate “trips” wereoffered.

Thus in 1980, the members formally formed thePrestongrange Society. Along with the usual office bearers, itwas recognised that groups managing certain disciplines weredesirable and from this the Engineering, Permanent Way(P/way), and Operating Groups were formed, with anominated “person in charge”. Each member selected a groupthey would prefer to be associated with, usually determined bytheir skills. As in most groups, the membership’s occupationsranged over a broad spectrum from engineers, farmers, lawyers,bankers, professional railwaymen, mothers, etc. However, thosein charge were allowed to “poach” from other groups ifmanpower was required. One of the nice advantages in such asmall working group is the ability for everyone to be involvedin all tasks and the flexibility it produces. For example, duringtracklaying, six people working in unison could manhandle a30-foot length of rail with comparative ease.

Written rules was another item which had not beeninvestigated before. Thus a Rules Committee was formed toproduce formal rules for operations which would suit all themembership and embodying what was already being done inpractice, and also to satisfy the Railway Inspectorate. Thiseliminated any discrepancy for people thinking they weredoing the correct thing but misunderstood by someone else.“Did that strange hand signal mean stop?”

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As expected with all groups, Annual General Meetings areheld and minuted. At first, they were held “on site” atPrestongrange in the Beam Engine House. Unfortunately, thishad its drawbacks. Chiefly, as the AGMs are usually held inDecember, the Engine House could be extremely draughty andcold – although this did make for very smart proceedings.However, the lady members declined the comforts and afterone very cold meeting, it was decided to have the meetings atmembers’ houses – why this was not done at first defies logic.The AGMs generated into social evenings going on until thesmall hours, with much food and drink being consumed. Onelady member is renowned for her fresh raspberry and creamsponge and was dared to turn up at meetings without it!Latterly, these flourished into two or three gatherings a yearwith Belhaven beer being very popular.

For a number of years there was an outing, usually toanother railway site, but as the membership had declined thishas not happened for some time.

Time has taken its toll on the size of the membership. Overthe years people have moved, lost interest, had othercommitments and unfortunately died. Despite efforts “lost”members have not been replaced and at this date themembership is down to eleven, not all of whom are as activeas they were some 20 years ago.

The Society now owns one steam and two diesel engines. Itis responsible for the maintenance and operation of theremaining steam and diesel locomotives and although notbelonging to the Society the upkeep and expansion, wherepossible, of the track. All this is now enough to keep the levelof membership fully employed and whereas it used to beinvolved with other museum artefacts, these responsibilitiesare no longer part of the Society’s remit – hence the change ofname in 1995 to “The Prestongrange Railway Society”.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Initially, after Prestongrange Colliery closed in the early1960s, the site was cleared leaving only the Beam Engine, thelarge building which was the colliery generating station, orPower House, and various sundry buildings. The brickworkswere still in operation. Onto the virtual wasteland arrivedlocomotive No 7 in 1975. Acquired from Lady VictoriaColliery, Newtongrange, where it had recently ceased working

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commercially, this locomotive was built in 1914 by GrantRitchie of Kilmarnock, a town which will appear again in thetext. It was protected from curious youngsters, but not theelements, by a vertical steel fenced compound. From thisprojected eastwards around 200 feet of track and on this shortauspicious start the locomotive was steamed up and down,offering footplate rides.

Around this time a self propelled steam crane was acquiredalso from Lady Victoria Colliery. This vertical-boileredapparition is thought to date back to the 1860s. At the time ofarrival, it was in working order. It proved useful for tracklaying, besides being of fun value.

The short section of track however, was not at allconvenient for any steam engine to show a bit of pace, and tobe honest, not very safe if anyone misjudged their stoppingdistance, so positive efforts were made to extend as far aspossible to produce the “running line”. As far as possiblemeant eastward for nearly a quarter of a mile to a point at theend of a small embankment in an area surrounded by trees,strangely dubbed by the membership as “the woods”. To goany further would necessitate falling off the end of theembankment, 20 feet or so, and ending up in a local, longestablished scrap yard.

Up to around 1979, forays were made to various local coalmines that no longer used rail access to tranship coal, or hadclosed completely for business. Fortunately, one of themembers is able to provide road transport, kindly supplied forthe cost of his fuel. Lady Victoria Colliery at Newtongrangeoffered many yards and some pointwork. However, thedrawback here was that much of it was in an area longdisused beside the A7 road and was now so overgrown thatwe were working in a virtual forest, but it added to the interestof the job. If any reader cares to investigate the area today, Iam sure some track will still be there that was not possible toextricate from around trees. Lady Victoria also donated somewooden wagons and weighing in at around 51/2 tons were justwithin the capability of our member’s transport.

On the other side of the old railway to Carlisle from LadyVictoria was Butlerfield, a coal stocking site. Also derelict bynow with no rail access, two of the shunting locomotives weremarooned on a short section of track, one inside a corrugatediron shed. This locomotive interested the Society as, being aproduct of Andrew Barclay of Kilmarnock, it was suppliednew to the Prestongrange Colliery in 1946. A homecoming

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was obvious, and the locomotive was eventually repatriated ina blizzard, to no-one’s pleasure. As it was felt at this time thatallowing passengers trips directly on the steam locomotivefootplate was not acceptable, this new arrival was adapted tocarry a few people and used as a “carriage”.

1979 also saw the Society and the Museum gain the heightsof TV stardom. Scottish Television were producing a series ofprogrammes called “Treasures in Store” and wished to featurePrestongrange. Filming was done over a day of dismal, greycold drizzle in January. The film crew reflected the weather,the director really was a “dearie” and everyone was glad to gohome. However, the final showing on television looked veryprofessional and a nice unexpected surprise was all themembers who attended were paid as extras! I clearlyremember getting for that day what I normally earned in aweek!

Two of the members bought a very small diesel locomotivefrom a distillery in Tomatin. Described as virtually a lorryengine, a cab and flanged railway wheels, it existed in aprevious life shunting loads of material during the constructionof the Tay Road Bridge and is believed to have at one stageended up in the water, rather similar to its more unfortunatebigger brother when the original rail bridge collapsed over acentury ago. It arrived, once again, on our member’s transportand as it was driven on to the trailer at Tomatin, it wasliterally driven off again on to the ground at Prestongrange, itsdiminutive nature allowing it not to sink up to its axles.Facing the wrong way, a couple of ropes were attached to thefront, some of the healthier members attached to the ropesand with some judicious grunting and tugging, the locomotivewas driven and slewed simultaneously to line up with two oldrails laid as a ramp. It was then driven up the ramp and withthe whole exercise taking around half an hour, permanenttrack was found.

Using an old locomotive as a carriage for passengers had itsdrawbacks. The immediate one was capacity. As only threepersons and a Society member acting as “guard” were allowedto travel at a time, the number of out and back journeys wasconsidered excessive if the visitor numbers topped 300 in anafternoon. Something had to be better and the solution wasfound by a member who, at this time was a guard at therailway freight depot at Millerhill, near Edinburgh. He reportedthat an old van had recently been taken out of traffic as adepartmental brake van, the type of vehicle that would

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accompany works trains. It was suitable as it was fitted withbench seating lengthwise along the sides, an open veranda, atone end with a powerful hand brake – admirable for a guard –and best of all, inside, right in the middle of the floor, centralheating in the form of a cast iron stove, wood or coal, for theburning of. A deal was struck, low loader arranged, anddisaster. At Millerhill the van was despatched to a remote areawhere it was convenient to winch up by our now well triedand trusted ramping, onto the low loader. The precedingevening, all was ready, material being deposited on the groundand on the trailer, bits of baulking, rail, etc. Next morning,SNOW and more SNOW hiding all the ground-loadingmaterial. However, after subduing initial panic, replacementswere collected from Prestongrange and delivery eventuallyaccomplished the next day – no snow of course! On site, thenew arrival refused to run off the trailer by gravity so morebrutal methods were adopted. A member – volunteering ofcourse – manned the handbrake and with a bit of persuasionby tractor and rope, the van was set in motion. And motion itwas as it took off at about 15 mph and careered about 80 feetalong our track, this vehicle weighing about 24 tons. However,it was home and dry.

Attention then turned to its décor. Like Henry Ford’s ModelT, it arrived in any colour as long as it was black – blackoutside, dark green inside. But metamorphosis took place overthe winter and maroon exterior and maroon and creaminterior hid the sombre black. Ready for the next season was avehicle in which could be carried up to 16 souls. This greatlyeased the queues at the little temporary platform that had beenerected from redundant sleepers. The practice now was topropel the van in the direction of “the woods” and obviouslypull it back. The van has two windows in the end next to thelocomotive and this went down very well, especially withyoungsters who could now observe the loco crew at closequarters. Was this appreciated by the loco crews now underminute scrutiny? – ask them!

A short “end to end” railway was now fully operational,with a nice wee green engine hauling a freshly painted maroonvan, so thoughts now turned to “What can we do next?”.

To date, everything was kept in the open, with the workingsteam loco, small diesel and the van secured in a high fencedcompound when not in use. But at the north end of the site,behind the Visitor Centre, is the old colliery pit baths, once ascene of much scrubbing and activity as miners cleaned up at

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the end of their shift. Now derelict and home to the proverbialpigeon, one end had been converted by a haulage contractorto house lorries, necessitating a new concrete floor, butproducing a long, wide empty gallery-like covered “shed”.While not ideal – access was difficult, the roof leaked, it wasnot heated and headroom not much more than around 12 feet– at least it was indoors. What the Society did have inabundance was track, so the plan was hatched to build a sortof rough temporary railway to enable rail access to “thebaths”.

FORTUNE SMILES

Fortune smiled on the Society around this time. In 1980another Andrew Barclay built locomotive was acquired. Lastused at Cairnhill Colliery at the end of the 1970s, it wasdumped at a withdrawn machinery store belonging to theNCB (National Coal Board) at Arniston, near Edinburgh.Incidentally, Cairnhill is in the middle of nowhere nearMuirkirk, its solitude defies the fact that a colliery onceoperated here with steam engines and wagons crashing andclanking high up on the moors. This locomotive arrived by theeasier method of low loader and crane; if only all ourmovements could have afforded the luxury of a crane. As thislocomotive was not required to steam, and besides its conditionwas unknown, it was cosmetically restored (i.e. given a lick ofpaint) and put on display. A few years later, it was despatchedto a new museum being established at Lady Victoria Collieryin fact a stone’s throw from where the Society collected it fromat Arniston a few years earlier.

Of even more consequence was the acquisition in 1982 ofyet another Andrew Barclay steam locomotive. This loco wasvirtually the last steam loco to work commercially in Scotland,certainly for the NCB. It was taken out of service a bit wornbut in working order at Bedlay Colliery near Glenboig, simplybecause the colliery had ceased production. Bearing in mindthat the working locomotive at Prestongrange could not workfor ever, this new manna from heaven was an opportunity notto be missed. It arrived unceremoniously on site in Septemberbut it took ten years to actually put it into service. Althoughbasically sound as a locomotive, it was assessed by our boilerinsurers that work was required and that would entail removalof the boiler from the rest of the loco and sending it to

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No 6 in action with wagons. Beam Engine in the background, 26.12.93

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Prestongrange late 1980s

No 7 and van head towards the Platform 1989

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