Inverted World

The Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway held their third (?) Steam, Steel, Road & Rail gala after successful events in 2024 (which I attended) and 2025 (which I missed). Mainline steam locomotive 60163 Tornado joined the roster of B&KR locomotives for a full weekend of running with top and tail trains running all day Friday to Sunday.

I headed along on Sunday, getting to Bo'ness in good time to see the first service of the day returning from Manuel. This was led by NCB No. 1 "Lord Roberts" running backwards and 37025 "Inverness TMD", fresh from a recent televised restoration, looking resplendent on the rear as the train traversed the curves to the east of Kinneil halt.

The day had started chilly but the sun shining out over the Forth was soon warming me up and I was hopeful of some good autumn light through the day.

I made my way along to Bo'ness station where various shunting operations were ongoing to prepare the next train. Somewhat perplexingly (at least to those of us on the footbridge) this was to consist of No. 1 leading Tornado with No. 419 (55189) (currently in LMS red livery) on the rear.

Seeing Tornado move around was as impressive as ever and the light winds meant that the steam and smoke mingled and hung around over the platform giving plenty of atmospheric views as drivers and embarking passengers were glimpsed through the mists.

I watched the 11:00 service depart through billowing clouds of steam and then, whilst waiting for its return, I had a wander around the railway's maintenance shed (which has a publicly accessible viewing gallery) and then the Museum of Scottish Railways which I last visited in 2019 and which has a nice collection of locomotives and rolling stock including an original car from the Glasgow Subway and a Class 91 in LNER livery.

Back at the station the timetabled DMU departure didn't seem to have happened so there was a bit of a wait for the 11:00 service to return from Manuel. I caught it a little way out of the station before taking a look around the assembly of classic cars in the car park, including a strong showing from a Jaguar owners club.

A few minutes later the DMU departed leaving Tornado alone on the platform ready to haul away the 13:15 departure with 15189 bringing up the rear.

I took a brief detour out to the end of one of the quays that form part of Bo'ness harbour. The waters of the Forth were remarkably still and dappled sunlight played across the landscape. The distant mountains of the Trossachs looked imposing, dark against an increasingly cloud sky, and sitting out on one of the channel markers was a solitary Cormorant.

I headed back along the foreshore to try and get Tornado coming along under speed. There were now plenty of people out awaiting this first run of Tornado leading a train.

I watched the DMU return from its run up to Birkhill before then finding a spot to watch Tornado from. This time I had my tripod with me so used my phone to capture a video of the pass.

I had a sit down on one of the nearby benches and read my book for a while, waiting for the train to return down from Manuel. The sun came and went but it stayed on the chilly side. Eventually the distant tooting of whistles and tell-tale rising smoke drew me back to the railway where I found a spot on the curve near the Corbie Inn. 15189 came down the track with Tornado now on the rear.

There was a flurry of reports and pings from aurora activity apps as sunset approached on Saturday evening. The aurora watch app seemed to be showing reports of the Northern Lights from all across the country but I remained a little sceptical as it wasn't even full twilight outside yet.

Cob and I went for a walk out around the field as darkness fully fell. This was likely when the display was at its peak, but unfortunately we had quite a cloudy sky at this point and it seemed like a lot of the activity was low in the north. Still, there was some distinct colour in the sky and the hint of rays at times.

After returning home it was apparent from the garden that the skies had cleared to the north and that the aurora was growing more active again. We got the proper camera gear and headed back up to the field. Unfortunately it seemed like this second outburst was shorter lived as by the time I was firing off longer exposures with the dSLR it had faded to a more indistinct wash of colour without any real definition or rays. It was much harder to see by eye, even as we grew accustomed to the darkness.

Still it was nice to see starry skies and as we watched, the Pleiades rose from behind the hills - a clear sign of winter being near.

Jude Kriwald started off the winter talk season at the Royal Scottish Geographic Society in Stirling with an interesting two parter.

The first part focused on his first adventure which saw him cycling from London to India as a teenager more than a decade ago, whilst the second was a 20-minute video of his more recent cycle/push through the Gola Rainforest National Park in Liberia, completed as part of a longer ride through West Africa.

Jude's talk focused on the challenges of living with a neurodivergent mind and how getting out of his comfort zone and experiencing novel, interesting, challenging and urgent problems led to him riding halfway across the world and finding satisfaction in learning about geography, language, people and history. He recounted fascinating stories of adventures on and off the bike in places like Afghanistan and the high Tibetan plateau where he had to sneak past Chinese checkpoints in the dead of the night.

His film (which can be seen on Youtube) talked about mental health struggles following his first adventure and what led to his eventual decision to get back on the bike and experience something exciting and different in West Africa. It charts his struggles to get through the thick rainforest with a heavy bike and limited supplies as well as the unique experience of camping alone deep in the jungle.

Jude's plans going forward are to go on more expeditions as well as help others find a pursuit or passion that works well for their way of thinking and learning.

What better way to spend a rainy October morning than at the Central Scotland Model Rail Show in Dunblane. The show held at the Victoria Hall featured a good selection of layouts focused on modern image railways.

The most impressive layout was Dalziel North which was being exhibited by the 57 Study Group. This modern image slice of the West Coast Mainline south of Glasgow featured plenty of freight movements as well as regular passing Avanti West Coast services that took advantage of the long running length. The whole layout demonstrated strong attention to detail with trackwork, signalling and lineside features giving plenty to look at.

Edzell Woods is a late 80s terminus station with a huge amount of detail put into the vehicles, figures and dioramas on a busy layout. They seeemed to be having a few teething troubles with DCC locomotives but there was an interesting mixture of rolling stock and the feel of a bustling 20th century railway.

Croft Bridge (by the Pentland Model Railway Group) is another example of doing a lot in O Gauge in a relatively small space. The larger gauge meant that there were lots of delightful details, especially around the signal box (complete with signal dog) and locomotive refuelling point. The only disadvantage was that the tight space made it difficult to get anything other than overhead photos.

The back room had a couple of fun vignette style Scottish layouts, one (Misty Munro Distillery) combining a small Highland station with a fictional distillery, and the other being a two-sided roundy-roundy that featured the iconic bridge over the head of Loch Awe on one side and the Loch nan Uamh Viaduct on the other.

I enjoyed a tasty breakfast roll and coffee from the excellent wee cafe and then headed off, pleased to catch a northbound Inter7City pausing briefly in Dunblane.

The full list of layouts on display:

• Cartom South Sidings -OO - Tom Gault
• Edzell Woods - OO 1980’s Scotland new layout from Bill Lindsay
• St Adrian - Switzerland - Z - East Neuk Model Railway Club
• Port Kembla - HO - Australian by Craig Watson
• Croft Bridge - O Gauge - Pentland Model Railway Club
• Ashton Steel - OO - Bruce Duncan (Bonnybridge club)
• Dalziel North - OO - 57 Study Group
• Loch Nan Umah/Loch Awe - N Gauge Mark Davies
• Misty Munro Distillery - OO gauge Mark Davies

Whilst staying near Achnashellach on the west coast for a week I took advantage of there being several hills reachable right from the doorstep of our cottage and revisited the Munro of Beinn Liath Mhor which I last climbed on a spectacular winter day back in February 2010. The weather this time was less favourable and sadly a forecast brightening around midday never materialised. Nevertheless this Munro offers a dramatic ridge walk, even in mist, and being in the vastness of Coire Lair once more was brilliant.

See my route here and read the full report on The Mountain's Silhouette.