SCOTLAND’S DOON Valley Railway is facing potential closure as it looks unlikely to raise the money needed to secure vital facilities at its Dunaskin base before the deadline closes.
The Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group, which operates the former NCB railway, has been trying to raise £250,000 after its landlord informed the group that several buildings used to provide visitor facilities were being put up for sale at the end of July (SR542/544). These include the DVR’s museum, toilets, signal box café, ticket office, and gift shop. At the time of going to press in mid-July, the line had raised less than 20% of the required total.
ARPG chairman Archie Thom told Steam Railway: “Although the response from the public has been incredibly generous (at a time of financial hardship for many), every single grant application we have made has been turned down. We also approached a large number of businesses for sponsorship; the result of that was negligible.
“It is therefore now obvious that we cannot meet the July 31 deadline, and are therefore faced with a very different future. I have called an EGM for Saturday July 29; that future will be decided then. The current plan is to use the moneys donated to purchase an area of land where we currently have storage sidings. Along with the locomotive shed and other buildings which we already own, this would allow the group to continue to have an existence on the site and to protect our rolling stock. However, without the visitor centre buildings, we would be unable to open to the public and would therefore have no source of regular income.
