The theft of £1,000 worth of railway equipment from a north-east railway attraction has been branded a “tragedy”.
Nearly 100 railway chairs were stolen from Maud Railway and Museum earlier this month.
The cast iron pieces hold sections of the track in place and they were to be used to lay an extension at the attraction.
Thieves stole the metal from a pallet at the Aberdeenshire museum which is housed in the former station buildings at Maud Junction.
Police have confirmed they are investigating the theft.
A statement from the museum posted on social media said they had informed officers as well as local scrap dealers.
It said: “We had plans to lay extra track now that the weather is improving and had all the parts ready.
“These vintage chairs are for the rails to sit in.
“The police and scrap dealers are aware, so maybe they’ve been dumped somewhere.”
Des Byrne, chairman of the Friends of Maud Railway, said the items were now quite rare.
He said: “They are not being manufactured anymore, they are historic you might say.
“You can get them second-hand and they are cast iron and weigh about 20lbs each.
“Around 91 are missing and they are far too big to use as paper weights.”
My Byrne believes the pieces may have been stolen to sell as scrap metal because there was no other use for them.
He said the incident comes as the group works on securing full charitable status.
Organisers have just been granted Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation status from the charity regulator.
He said: “We are in the middle of all this work to get ourselves formally constituted and we have this tragedy.
“For just a few yards of track you need 100 chairs, it is quite incredible how many you need.
“Our former chair secured all of the track so it was ready to be laid.”
A police spokeswoman said their inquiries were ongoing.
She added: “The incident happened between April 6 and April 20.
“The items are valued at a low four figure sum.”
