Arbroath excitement over a possible comeback for the town’s famous miniature railway has been swiftly stopped in its tracks.
It followed the launch of an Angus Council consultation on a 20-year extension to the lease for the Kerr’s miniature railway site at West Links.
The Kerr family operated the crowd-puller at Arbroath seafront from the 1930s.
But in 2020 dwindling numbers forced John Kerr into the painful decision to shut down the family favourite his grandfather started.
Mr Kerr has now revealed the community consultation is a legal technicality.
And he said their are “sadly” no plans to bring the railway back.
His business interests are now concentrated on railways in Scarborough and Cleethorpes.
He bought the North Bay railway in Scarborough after plans to expand the Angus set-up collapsed.
West Links consultation is technical exercise
But he still holds a lease for the West Links ground. Remnants of the line and railway buildings remain there.
He said the consultation follows work which Network Rail carried out on the adjacent east coast main line.
“The council have to change the boundary for the miniature railway because of the work that was done, there’s no more to it than that,” he said.
“They have to put it out for public consultation because it is common good ground.
“It’s a continuation of the lease we have, but sadly there are no plans to bring the railway back.”
The consultation is online at Engage Angus.
At the time of the 2022 main line works, Mr Kerr said Network Rail had left the old miniature railway site “like a bomb had hit it”.
However, a piece of Kerr’s history is now running in Fife.
Earlier this month, the Scottish Deer Centre launched its own miniature railway, using a Kerr’s engine loaned to them.
The train was known as Loch Lee to generations of Arbroath visitors.
But the Cupar attraction launched a competition for its visitors to choose a new name.
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