Objectives
The Scottish Railway Preservation Society (SRPS) owns the Museum of Scottish Railways and the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway and manages the core collection that has been Recognised as being of National Significance through the Scottish Government’s Recognition Scheme. Most of the collection is owned by the Scottish Railway Museum Collections Trust (SRMCT) and SRPS manages it on behalf of the owner. Visitors to the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway can see parts of the collection and other rolling stock in operation on the railway and visit the Museum of Scottish Railways.
The post holder will work with our collection to enhance continually its presentation, documentation, storage and use of a searchable online collections database. There will also be a requirement to work closely with the Board and with a team of volunteers. The post will be supervised by an appropriate member of the Board of the SRPS.
Key Responsibilities
Qualifications and Experience
Essential
Desirable
Closing date for this position is 30 April 2024 with interviews to be held in the week beginning 6 May 2024.
Applications should include a CV and covering letter with your reasons for applying.
Completed applications should be emailed to chairman@srps.org.uk (preferably) or sent to: Scottish Railway Preservation Society, 17-19 North Street, Bo’ness, West Lothian, EH51 0AQ
Should you require any further information please contact Yvonne MacDermid OBE, chairman@srps.org.uk.
Also, please advise if you need reasonable adjustments to attend the interview.
The Collection
The Museum of Scottish Railways is situated close to the SRPS station in Bo’ness and the publicly visible part of the Collection is housed in two large exhibition halls and one covered viewing shed all connected to the Station by a Visitor Trail from which visitors can see a large part of the site of the heritage railway. There is considerable interpretation in these buildings and this tries to tell the story of the impact railways had in Scotland’s history and their evolution from the 1830s to the present day.
The rest of the Collection is held in the archive facilities which comprise a twin industrial unit near the station and two containers situated close to the main Museum building.
The most visible part of the Collection is the array of vehicles, of which there are 183 accessioned locomotives, coaches, wagons and platform road vehicles, many of which are on display, along with a number in use on the working railway. Additionally, there are a number of vehicles owned by other organisations or individuals on display in the Museum.
The “Small Objects” part of the Collection has several hundred items on display but very many more which are kept in the archive facilities. Within this, there are currently around 50,000 photographs kept physically in the Archive Store with new donations arriving regularly. A team of volunteers decides what to accession and interprets and documents accordingly, as well as digitising them for potential sale of copies to enthusiasts.
Additionally, there are over 3,000 other accessioned items such as railway brochures, tickets, maps, plans, items of costume, railway signs, paintings and items of signalling equipment.
Lastly in the Collection are over 7,000 books representing a high proportion of railway books ever published on the subject of Scottish railways. These are housed in a library building in the Station car park and looked after by a volunteer librarian.