With breath held, the members of a railway heritage society looked on as a new steel bridge was carefully craned into place in Aberdeenshire.
The milestone moment will enable the Royal Deeside Railway Preservation Society to stretch its tracks out through the Aberdeenshire countryside – albeit on an altogether different crossing.
The society looks after around one mile of tracks heading west from Milton of Crathes and has for some time offered the public the chance to climb on board a steam train.
Its members have, however, also been working determinedly to extend their line further – to about three miles – and bring the railway towards the Morrisons store in Banchory.
Their biggest challenge
A key challenge has been taking the line across a late 1800’s bridge over the Burn of Bennie that once catered to trains before the original Deeside line was removed.
In order to gain access to the old crossing, the society required to build an alternative bridge across the burn for the pedestrians, horses, cyclists and vehicular traffic that has in recent years been using the old bridge as part of the Deeside Way.
On Tuesday, a crane carefully lowered the new 52 foot, 23-tonne steel structure into place.
The new crossing, built with the capacity to carry eight-wheeled vehicles and a load of 20 tones, was made possible by Shell UK, who donated the society surplus steel from the Brent Abandonment Project.
Its installation will enable the society to continue its work on extending the line for railway heritage lovers of all ages to enjoy and those on foot, bike or horse to make the most of travelling on the adjacent Deeside Way.
Taking the strain
Mike Rasmussen from the society said: “The original railway bridge was being used by the Deeside Way, so to make sure we can push the railway as far as Morrisons we needed to divert the Deeside Way in order that we could use the original granite bridge.
“It’s designed primarily as a footbridge, but because it is on the Leys Estate and they need access as far as Morrisons, where the boundary ends, to manage their woodlands and other things, it has to be able to take a fully-loaded timber truck, as well as fishermen’s cars.
“The most challenging aspect of the design was actually ensuring it can take four trotting horses, which is actually worse than heavy vehicle, as it can create a huge strain on the bridge.
“We are not intending to extend the railway beyond Morrisons, as it keeps it simple and keeps us all on Leys Estate land.
“It will make the line about three miles long in total, which puts us at the average length of a small heritage railway and will really improve the experience for the public.
“Of course we have been heavily-hit – as everyone has – with Covid, and we’ve had to cancel all of our Santa specials this year, but we are still working on plans for the future.”
Mr Rasmussen said the society has launched an online fundraiser to help the group through the financial burdens brought about by the pandemic.
For more information, visit www.deeside-railway.co.uk.
