Museum of Scottish Railways


(Scottish Railway Exhibition)

Scottish Railway Exhibition, Bo'ness
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

Scottish Railway Exhibition, Bo'ness

Lying behind Bo'ness station on the shore of the Firth of Firth, the Museum of Scottish Railways (previously the Scottish Railway Exhibition) is Scotland's largest railway museum. It is run by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, who also operate adjacent the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway.

The original purpose-built 1400-sq. m (15,000-sq. foot) exhibition hall opened in 1995 but this was extended in 2002 by another 1765 sq. m (19,000 sq. feet) with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley, Falkirk Council and the Scottish Museums Council.

A substantial collection is held at Bo'ness, extending to 25 steam locomotives, 28 diesel and electric locomotives, 65 carriages, together with a significant number of other rolling stock. Several of the locomotives were built in Scotland and they represent a period spanning 1876 to 1970. On show are Scotland's only Royal Saloon, which was built in 1897 by the Great North of Scotland Railway, and a range of wagons dating from 1862 to 1963, showing 100 years of technological progress and including Scotland oldest surviving wagon. There are also a considerable number of smaller artefacts and an archive, all held on behalf of the Society by the Scottish Railway Museum Trust, which was created in 1992 to preserve the collection.


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