Cruel thieves have stolen food and cash from a vintage rail carriage.
Cupcakes and money were swiped from the canteen coach based at the Royal Deeside Railway at Milton of Crathes over the weekend.
Charity volunteers turned up on Monday to find several items had disappeared and called in the police.
It is the second time criminals have struck at the centre over the past year.
Prince Charles recently donated a significant sum of cash to the charity after vandals caused around £10,000 of damage to a classic carriage and engine marked for restoration last August.
Yesterday David Pearson, vice-chairman of The Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society, said an estate worker had found their empty charity tin in a nearby field.
He said: “My wife had a look in the coach and found that they had taken a full box of cupcakes which had never been opened.
“And they had moved things around and upturned everything.
“My wife had just laundered all the table cloths and they were scattered all over the floor. We found the lid of the charity box this afternoon further up the line.
“We’re trailing through CCTV footage just now.
“It’s virtually 12 months ago since we had the major vandalism when one of our coaches was damaged.
“They’ve caused about £50 worth of damage this time. We’re a charity and don’t have a lot of money and we would just like people to respect that. When people take advantage, it crosses the line.”
Several generations of the Royal family used the picturesque railway route to travel to Balmoral until it was shut down in the mid-1960s.
It was not until around 30 years later that locomotives were seen again in the area when the preservation society started work to reopen a section of track for short trips on classic engines.
But they suffered a major setback last August when about a dozen windows on the Mark II (two) British Rail coach were smashed.
Police confirmed they were investigating the theft, which happened between 5.30pm on Sunday and 2.30pm on Monday.
Constable Russell Masson said: “This is an unusual crime for this area and we are appealing for anyone who may have seen suspicious activity around the times this happened to come forward.”
