The Last Day of the Kerr's Miniature Railway - 11/10/2020

In 1935, a miniature railway opened on the seafront in Arbroath. On Sunday 11th October 2020 it ran its final trains - and myself and some of my colleagues from the Eastleigh Lakeside Railway were there to be a part of it.

Starting the day with the diesels, first with "Ivor" and then a two-train service with BR Class 25 'Rat' Bo-Bo No.25179 "Loch Lee" on one set and HMR D-H 4w No.D48261 "Thunderbolt III" (from Hastings Miniature Railway) on the other, the sets were later combined to form one for when the three steam locomotives came into service.

The steam service started off with SBCR 1000 and 2000-class 'Bullock' 4-6-2 Nos.1002 "The Empress" (from Eastleigh Lakeside Railway) and 2005 "Silver Jubilee" (formally resident "Big Bertha" returning just for the farewell) double-heading on one end of the train with resident 3000-class 'Bullock' 0-6-0 No.3007 "Firefly" on the rear. Unfortunately an issue resulted in "Firefly" being side-lined for the afternoon and "The Empress" was turned to run top-n-tail for the afternoon on the back of the train with "Silver Jubilee" on the front.

In addition to the passenger trains, there was the occasional run by the miniature Fire-Engine along the seafront.

During the afternoon, owner John Kerr gave a very emotional speech about the railway and the reasons behind it were closing, even reduced me to tears I have to confess. Much respect for the man whose spent his whole like with this railway.

The remainder of the afternoon ran with "Silver Jubilee" and "The Empress" top-n-tailing until the very last train where the entire fleet of KMR locos were coupled together to round off the event in style. With 'Petrol' 4-4-2 No.9872 "Auld Reekie" leading followed by "Silver Jubilee" & "Firefly" with the three Class 25s on the front and "Ivor" on the back, the final train made its run just after 6pm. This was later followed by a couple of play runs by the diesels and then the steam just to give them a final run and a passing ScotRail Class 158 exchanged whistles with the little engines - bringing down the curtain on 85 years on miniature railway history.

Cannot thank John Kerr enough for his invite to this event and the hospitality that was given to us. It is not something I will ever forget. What will happen to the collection? That is for him to decide in his own time.

To the Kerr's Miniature Railway (1935 - 2020)...we will remember you.

Thanks also to J. Brace for two extra shots of the final train.