What do we find at this Abandoned Railway in Scotland? 

EDIT: This was posted to highlight that LMM did have permission to access the site. It is not a statement about the legality of trespass, simply to ensure that this information is visible to anybody who cannot easily see the extended video description. Just to stress the point in the video description, LMM was given access to the site by the custodians of the Alford Valley Railway. There was no trespass carried out, the site is overgrown, but it is in the charge of the Alford Valley Community Railway and is not an abandoned site. If anybody does wish to see the site, the best way is to get in touch with the Alford Valley Community Railway via their website (link in the video description), and become a member. Every contribution of time or funds will help them reach their goal of reopening the railway once more, so anybody who does want to see it, we would urge you to get involved and help make something epic happen!

The Alford Valley Railway is now open to the public and fully working again, thanks to the long hard work of the Alford Valley Community Railway members.

Hi Laurie, many years ago, the Alford Valley Railway had a real steam locomotive in the shape of a Bagnall 0.4.2 by the name of "Saccharin", after it left, the next I'd heard, it was on a heritage site in England somewhere, where it is now, I don't know , anyway, stay safe, all the best from Scotland, Stephen.

Should make a new series " exploring with Lawrie"

I love that shed,its absolutely amazing. Hopefully they can make a go of it.I'm jealous of all the little railways you guys have,here in Canada most of the abandoned lines got turned into bike paths.My grandmother and grandfather had a cottage in Quebec, north of Montreal and I remember as a kid hearing the trains running,now its gone and replaced by bikes.I was however fortunate enough my dad worked for VIA rail and the department he headed was responsible for the restoration of all the silver stainless steel Budd cars that run.

most impresive thing about the opening 2 mins ?? the camera-person walking backwards , keeping Lawrie in shot & not falling over .. nice work Matt

Wow what a great find made by Lawrie. It is certainly every boyhood dream to find an abandoned railway line & engine shed. I would definitely love to see more videos like this one.

Thanks Lawrie (& Matt), always interesting to explore, some good history there. Hope it can reopen! 🙏

Potential new series and restoration project for you Lawrie. But far to travel to daily but still a potential.

The Alford valley railway was a great attraction back in the eighties, so sad to see it in such a poor state.

I enjoyed your video, good to see the AVR highlighted and even better news that Aberdeenshire Council have finally signed the lease with the revival group. I enjoyed your reaction to the tasteless twee appearance of the locos, combined with the lurid emerald green paintwork & the embarrassing names, the AVR could be mistaken as the ‘Brigadoon Railway’. I have been visiting the line on & off since 1980 when the original line ran through the nearby Haughton Park, the platform there still exists minus track. The ‘new’ line from Alford Station to Haughton Park was opened in 1984. By this time the Fowler 0-4-2T ‘Saccarine’ was there, but I believe that it was to big to negotiate the dog leg curves on the line & would only run as far as the first bend at the end of the golf course. I spent a day on the footplate of this loco in August 1988, I’m not really too sure if it was then really safety compliant. To give you some idea of the state of operations back then, the loaded passenger train would depart with it’s very young looking crew, whilst the Fowler would then follow it up the line for a jolly ( yes, another train ‘in section’), returning in time for the service from Haughton Park to return. Both lines did operate together for one or two seasons I believe, there was a link line that ran on from the run round down an incline (with an oak tree as a buffer stop), with a set of points allowing access for locos & stock to the Haughton Park line. Around 1989/90, the old tramcar bodied coach ran away when the loco buffered up to it, being stopped by the oak tree. It should also be pointed out that trains originally ran west from Alford Station past the engine shed, however, a go-cart track was built next to the adjacent motor museum & the tracks cut through this, methinks the go-carts took priority over the railway. Therefore, a new deviation was required to take the railway east & then head past the motor museum to the section next to the golf course. My last trip on the line was at Christmas 2012 when we took our then 5 month old on his first ‘Santa Special’. It was good, I have always felt that this is an excellent little railway for young families & I am looking forward to seeing it return, but minus the kitsch aspects & road trailer couplings. And another thing…. I hope the revivalists realise that a Facebook only policy for publicity is not the best way forward! The end of this rant, I promise, it’s ‘A’ford’, no ‘L’ pronounced, but definitely a rolling ‘R’.

Hi, Really enjoyed your visit to Alford Valley Railway. I travelled on this Railway some years ago.I was told that the old carriage was originally a 19th century horse drawn tram. Very ornate. Such a shame to see it all shut down. I hope they manage to re open it in the near future.

Hey there, this is a great video, reminds me of my trip back in June, where I explored abandoned sections of the White Pass & Yukon Route between Carcross and Whitehorse here in Canada. Which is also a narrow gauge railway. I am involved in the YDHR in Ontario .... and I appreciate the lack of volunteers, especially those with mechanical capabilities - we are trying to keep things running, but its an uphill challenge between the maintenance on equipment and the massive amount of work that the track needs.

Had a small look into the railway after watching this, really shows how much Vegetation can take over so easily

Nicely done LMM, big respect!

Wonderful little Railway, would love to see it back. Thank You.

I rode of this railway in around 2010 after visiting the little museum just across the road. It was great and really enjoyed it. Sad to see it became abandoned/closed down and I hope it rekindles as it was amazing! Good luck to them!

Absolutely brilliant! I love abandoned railways that are left in tact

I feel like I was a kid again on a adventure .I always enjoyed exploring old abandoned buildings .I have mixed emotions nowadays driving by vacated farms .There is a sadness of the past simple life of freedom and independence .Thank-you for the journey .

I very much enjoyed this! Thanks for sharing!!

I always enjoy watching you!

your comment about the eerieness of the workshop kind of reminds me of the East Broad Top here in the US: the narrow gauge line put its engines away one night, then the next day, a miner's strike shut the railroad down for good. it's effectively abandoned in place, with part of it running as a tourist line...until it was shuttered again in 2011(?). All isn't lost however: the railroad is back and slowly rebuilding...in fact, their first steam engine to be rebuilt, no. 17, hasn't run since 1956, and still had ash in the pan and flues. Perchance she is not dead, indeed.

keep'em coming. like to see all the old stuff you find

Absolutely fabulous….thanks for sharing.

Brings back fond memories, holidayed there often as a tween, the nearby house and estate park at the other end of the railway had a caravan park, and I remember disco dancing, aged 10, so 1980 is correctñ the railway line was an attraction, and was back often with mum and dad, wasn´t so far, couple hours drive and we would just wander the estate and country side, as kids left to do our own thing. Haughton house as it was then known, rode on the line as minature railway in the park

I had a walk along the Penrith to Keswick Railway in the Lake District and I walked the part from Threlkeld to Keswick which has been turned into a trail. There are marker posts, bricks dotted around, some magnificant bridges and Keswick station is still intact and is now part of a hotel. Expoloring abandoned railway lines is always exciting because you never know what you might find. Great video!

Dude that’s so awesome what you found, usually railroads are left abandon and decay over time but his is still in tactic which is awesome. For me I think they would bring it back to life since it had a good long run back in the days but who knows. Good job on your video.

Really enjoying this series 😀

An amazing way of putting a video together... Exploring and discovering with you.. It was obvious you had permission but continuing the intrigue and discovery really worked... Nice one... More please...

It's so sad to see this railway not running, I have been a visitor with my family a number of times in the past, so many happy memories of trips on the line. I really hope that funds become available to get it working again, thanks for the video....

Wonderful stuff. Many thanks indeed.

That was. An awesome informative video. I hope someday they can get it back up and running

Oh, I did enjoy this vid, especially your enthusiasm. Good luck to Alford Railway.

Love the video! I would love to find an old abandoned railway like that.

Thanks for sharing

I really enjoyed this never expected the shed.

This was so cool, exploring a place it seems that time forgot, yet was active not that long ago. It's crazy to think that only 5 years ago, there would have been passengers, trains running, a typical heritage railway, and it was seemingly gone overnight. Those points with the weighted lever, we had something similar in the USA; We called them "flopover" switches, and the lever has a heavy ball or square end that goes all the way down to the ballast, but they were really only in yards and sidings. You had to be careful with them though, or that heavy iron lever would flop over right on your hand or your foot!

Love the story and I hope the railway will start again.

Awesome replica of a vintage locomotive Thank you for sharing your video and God bless🙏🙏

Love these vids exploring history

The Alford Valley Community Railway reopened this year having been closed since 2017. The standard gauge branch from Kintore closed to passengers on 31 December 1949. It remained open for freight until 31 December 1965.

Fascinating. Superb video 📹 👌🏼

You'll be delighted to know, the Bure Valley Railway in Norfolk has been operating with trailer hitch couplings since it opened in the early 90's ;p

AWSOME VIDEO , LOVE TO KNOW ALL OF THAT . WONDER FULL LOCATION AND YOU EXPLAINED WELL , VERY INTRESTING AND EXCITING. ITS LOOKS LIKE PART OF SOME MOVIE. WE LOVED IT.

yes Lawrie,I did enjoy that exploration!

that bit in the work shop reminds me of the stories I read about how everything looked when they started to save the FR in Wales

What a charming line- definitely worth bringing back to life. Regarding those road caravan couplings, the Bure Valley Railway also uses them. They must be safe enough, but they are so ugly on the buffer beam of a loco

Excellent video Lawrie

I used to ride on this railway when I was 18. I am now 48. What a great little railway this was.used to go through the woods too. Such ashame.

Amazing.

By the look of it, the original standard gauge track was re used and repurposed to make the narrow gauge line, that track is super heavy! Nice find, and good luck to those re opening it!

The last abandoned railway I explored was the Tralee and Blennerville in the republic of Ireland. That was many years ago, hopefully it is running again now. Great video again Lawrie.

Nice video thank you. I'm sure you knew all about this as you were walking but I can understand trying to build interest in this video. Thank you for sharing I love the rails and old locomotives myself don't have much of that where I am right now so I'm kind of stuck not having much to play with. Best regards Bob from Virginia USA

Brilliant find

Love it. Plenty more updates on this if you can. Maybe give a hand volunteering or strimming grass or something? It needs a lot of work but I'm sure it can be done with the right support.

On the west side of the big puddle, there is a narrow gauge (3') steam line called the East Broad Top. It shut down in a956, when the last moves were made on the line to get the coal hoppers in the locations needed... should it start back up. The line was sold to a scrap dealer.. Kovolchik Salvage or something like that. The owner went thru the round house, and found 6 Mikado's, a Gas Electric Doodlebug, and assorted other goodies. There was a lean that was used to hold busses when they were doing that... And so on... a narrow gauge line that was in the business of hauling coal. Unfortunately, constant miner's strikes and the influx of oil for home heating basically removed their reason for being. shut down. There was an initial abandonment petition, which was withdrawn by Nick Kovalchik, who had found his real model railroad. When the cities of Rockhill Furnace and Orbisonia asked, they fired up steamers, and some of their passenger equipment to run trains for the 100 year anniversary celebration for the cities.. Then they brought back several folk to run the railroad on a 5 mile excursion up to the Colgate Grove... and while never making a profit, at least kept that chunk of the line in operation. Re3cently a non profit bought the line, and has in a couple of years, restored #116 to operation... That is one of the "Big Mikado" engines on the property. (12 being the smallest and most worn out, 14,15 the mid sized, and 16, 17, 19 being the bigger engines. They are now working on 14 to bring that back to life. Lynn over at the Strasburg Railroad said that 12 was so worn out that you needed a new set of wheels to drop a new boiler and other gear onto... The M-1 is the doodlebug that was built from Brill plans for a full sized car...but the EBT ccrew at the time did the math, and downsized it to run on 3' spacing... It is an AMAZING place to visit... the machine shops are complete. The foundary is complete, and so on. The Electrician's shop still has the calendar from the day that they shut down... ALL the toools were waiting, because no one in the valley expected them to close down permanently...

A great watch, know the area well, people will be queuing up to help.

Great explore - also wasn't expecting it to be a narrow gauge one until I hit play. A pity it's at a time when that turntable pit is now practically lost to the wilderness.

16:00 The utter disdain for fake steamers is always hilarious. Fantastic video. Apologies that your barn find was a bit of a mess! Still fun to find locos nonetheless I imagine.

My local (cargo only) railway still has those points with a weight! They're still in use for the 1-3 daily cargo services, as well as when we get a heritage steam loco that comes and visits a couple times a year.

I love how you mocked the rebuilt steam diesels and then praised the little one at the back. Feels like a Cinderella story

You're right about Alford Station being formerly on the national network. It was on the old GNSR system before nationalisation, and closed by BR in the '50s I believe. Hope it reopens.

Wow what a ending, really hope it can be recovered again. Would have looked like a beautiful location for a railway.

What fun!

Excellent video and you looked like a kiddie in a sweet shop. Absolutely not a criticism as I would feel the same too. Merely observing how it looked. Lol. I was directed after watching this, to the FB page of the group that let you round and according to their latest update only a day or so ago, they have just obtained a lease agreement to restore the line, so definitely a revisit and update needed I'd suggest. Probably this time next year as a reasonable suggestion? Excellent and thank you for bringing this to us.

I'm loving Lawrie's excitement

Wow Laurie , That was just amazing. i loved every minute of that. Very well presented i might even say. What a lovely place but what a great shame it's not being used anymore. I have an old station and engine in my field in Cornwall. Although not real i'm afraid but I just love it. Can be seen on my channel under Darley Halt. I would love to visit at sometime to see it for myself. I'm sure there is money still to be made there with a bit of work. Thanks for sharing, All the best Duncan.

The line was running about 6 years ago - took my kids on it. It's right next door the Grampian Transport Museum, which is well worth a visit in its own right.

Great Video👍 Well edited and very exciting! Look forward to seeing more fascinating videos similar in the future

Near me! We often rode the wee train back in the 80s

Very narrow track. Absolutely Beautiful Country ❤✝️

Why is it when lawrie spotted the Simplex at the back of the shed I could see a twinkle in his eye and thinking " he wants to buy that and put it in the shed" 😂😂 awesome vid as usual guys 👍thanks 😁

So cool

Very interesting. I hope the restoration is progressing.

Nice one indeed Laurie!

Seems like an epic video!

Great video of industrial archeology

While not nearly as dramatic I did find an abandoned turntable once. 'abandoned' is a slight misnomer as while it had been 'abandoned' it was also left on site, next to an active railway yard, and was still in a shape good enough to be turned by hand (which I a young child did do). Currently its 1/2 the site of a modern railway museum in the town near where I live in Oyster Bay New york, they're restoring a few coaches, doing a cosmetic restoration on a steam engine, and have one small working diesel engine and one other *nearly* working diesel, and a working turntable (which is hard to find space for in down state new york, so big plus there)

The little transport museum at Alford is quite nice. It was about 5 years ago I last saw the railway in steam. I remember not very friendly staff.

13:46 “It’s a nicely done abomination!”😂 I enjoy your adventurous deployment of the English language!

I always suggest the Perth to Forfar line for a good honest walk and it is in remarkable condition, I remember the last years of its running too as we used to park our camper on the site of one of the stations, my BR signalman legend father soon made friends with the drivers and the roaming signalman who went to close off the level crossings in Couper Angus, hugely rich line with branches to Blairgowrie, Alyth, Newtyle to Dundee, Glamis for the royal trains and Forfar which connected to lines to Brechin, Dundee etc. There is a growing community demand to reinstate the line from the ECML down through Forfar connecting stations long languishing with no connection and towns suffering terrible decay because of that. My great aunts used to hire a train from Perth to Glamis for WI garden parties in the castle patronage by royal personages, one of the great aunts was a dowager and saw the hire of a special train as negligent.

Dude, steam outlines are awesome! I actually plan on building one someday, if I can ever find some friends to come together and help buy land to run it on lol

just had a look on the maps, its a nice run around the golf course but more interesting is that the turntable pit is original

I'll be at the Grampian Transport museum on Sunday for the Bus Museum open day so I'll have to have a scout around 😊

I could imagine a similar video from Alan Garraway back in the 1950's as they started exploring the Ffesty. I hope you can go back to see if you can get that simplex to start.

I saw pictures of this railway when it was running and the turntable was clear and being used. Awesome railway I hope they do something with it. Maybe Lawrie could donate some time and get the loco's going.

I remember going up and down this miniature railway when I was little, sad to see it in a state like this.

I travelled on the railway with my young family, back in the 80s, behind a steam, ex-sugarcane railway loco.

Wow cool! I'm curious to see if and when something runs again! Definitely a great video! Of course that gets a like!

Looks better than my garden railway (G scale) which is currently suffering from "deferred maintenance" since a few years...

What a lovely little narrow gauge locomotive.

There’s an abandoned railway near me well it’s more a set of sidings with a run around but it’s really thorny so it’s hard to explore but there’s a ground frame at the far end as I have been down there

walking next to a cemetary here theres an old section of line here that goes throught the woods, and over a canel, the bridge and rails are still there, but im more curious to where it originally ran back in its day, might have to do a short walk vid of the section of line

Was half expecting Lawrie to announce that he'd bought the place :P

12:58 some of the best acting ever seen on RU-vid.

This is the Alford valley railway it closed in 2017 there was a group formed with the intention of reopening the line

Nice little railway. It is true about the shortage of volunteer manpower. We have a similar issuechere in Australia where we are in the process of opening a branch line. It is a shame. Getting volunteers for any organisation seems very hard in this day and age. As for this 2 foot railway, the vegetation doesn't look too bad. A few weed wackers would clear that up pretty quick. If I was in the area I would definitely chip in.I does need a steamer though.

There is a great narrow gauge mining railway in the apparently haunted place of Wanlockhead that is in the Leadhills great place with good locos worth seening @Laurie's mechanical Adventures

Just read that the line is to reopen, which is great news

I take it we can look forward to a video of the transport Museum in Alford