The Caledonian Railway (Brechin) Ltd is a

private limited company A private limited company is any type of business entity in "private" ownership used in many jurisdictions, in contrast to a publicly listed company, with some differences from country to country. Examples include the ''LLC'' in the United St ...

formed by a group of steam railway enthusiasts, the Brechin Railway Preservation Society, with the object of operating a railway service on the former

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

line between

Brechin Brechin (; gd, Breichin) is a city and former Royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. Traditionally Brechin was described as a city because of its cathedral and its status as the seat of a pre-Reformation Roman Catholic diocese (which continues today ...

and Montrose,

Angus, Scotland Angus ( sco, Angus; gd, Aonghas) is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Dundee City and Perth and Kinross. Main industries include ...

. This line was built by the

Aberdeen Railway The Aberdeen Railway was a Scottish railway company which built a line from Aberdeen to Forfar and Arbroath, partly by leasing and upgrading an existing railway. The line opened in stages between 1847 and 1850, with branches to Brechin and ...

in the 1840s. It closed for passenger traffic during the early 1950s with final closure undertaken by

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

in 1981.

Brechin to Bridge of Dun

The line has now been re-instated and preserved for between Brechin railway station and

Bridge of Dun railway station Bridge of Dun is a privately owned station in Angus. The adjacent platforms and line are independently operated as a preserved railway by the Caledonian Railway (Brechin) Ltd. History The station was originally opened by the Aberdeen Railway, o ...

and since 1993 trains have run at weekends during the summer as well as on special occasions at other times of the year. The two railway stations have also been refurbished. Although the line originally went all the way to Montrose, which is still a station on the main rail network, there are currently no immediate plans to link the Brechin line back into the main rail network, as the section at Dubton through and onto Kinnaber Junction close to Montrose itself has now been redeveloped, making it difficult for the preserved railway to be reconnected to the national network at all.

Proposed extension

However, there is still hope of seeing the "CR Brechin" extended a further to Dubton, bringing it up to a total of in length. This is a long-term aim which would only require the re-instatement of a short length of track.

Locomotives

As well as a number of steam and diesel locomotives, the railway also owns two DMUs:

Diesel Multiple Units

*BR Class 205 no. 1128 *BR Class 205 no. 1132, Operational

References

External links

Official websiteCaledonian Railway Diesel GroupVideo and annotation of Bridge of Dun railway station
{{authority control Heritage railways in Scotland Transport in Angus, Scotland Tourist attractions in Angus, Scotland Standard gauge railways in Scotland