19-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Rail Sidings engineers revival of massive wartime factory
The same can be said for rail transport, particularly for freight and rolling stock maintenance, and recently we have had the privilege of working with one such location. It's one that until lately you could say has been a hidden railway gem in the heart of Dumfries and Galloway, only perhaps not so hidden now.
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Down a leafy single-track road in Eastriggs in the south of Scotland, is the site of a widespread factory complex known in its day "as the largest factory in the empire", having been built to address a huge demand for munitions in World War I. HM Factory Gretna produced "Devil's Porridge", the name given to a form of explosive known as cordite used as a propellant in munitions, employing 30,000 workers with 12,000 of them being women.
This ex-military base massiby bringing jobs to the area and potential career paths into rail for young and not-so-young people. Rail Sidings has leased 18 acres of the circa 1,000-acre site for a 10 year period, with the current area housing double platforms, a loco maintenance shed, numerous buildings in good repair and an internal rail network with valuable direct links to the West Coast Main Line.
The Rail Cluster Scotland Project, led by Scottish Engineering and funded by Scottish Enterprise, Transport Scotland and Skills Development Scotland, connected with Rail Sidings managing director Gary Draisey and have been an active part of the Rail Sidings journey since, seeing from the start the significant potential of the team's development plans for Scotland's rail industry.
The site has experienced rapid growth and interest over a short eight-month period since, and is now full to capacity, housing large numbers of wagons, passenger trains and snow ploughs, providing secure storage, repair and maintenance services and employing seven local people as a result.
Beyond this sprint start, there have been several approaches from local businesses, such as quarries and logistics companies, keen to use the railhead facilities for the movement of their products by rail instead of road.
In a world struggling to reach decarbonisation targets, the opportunity that one freight train can remove up to 129 HGVs from our roads, with carbon emissions reduced by 76%, becomes a very attractive switch.
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If a wider section of the site were to be made available, Rail Sidings could develop the site further, using the vital nearby A75 links to offer rail freight facilities, taking lorries off the already congested roads and supporting the Scottish and UK Government's net zero targets. With the site in Eastriggs being the only available rail service site between Manchester and Glasgow, the opportunity for increased rail freight with all its benefits could be far-reaching.
Linking with local schools and colleges is high on the agenda for Rail Sidings and discussions are ongoing with local secondary schools in Annan and Dumfries about providing work experience for young people to give them an insight into the rail sector and some practical hands-on experience under the watchful eye of rail sector businesses working on site.
The benefits of this would be two-fold: encouraging young people to consider rail as a career whilst also helping to fill the well-publicised skills shortage in the rail sector. It can also develop an industry in an area of Scotland that has a real need to expand employment opportunities and economic prosperity for the locality.
Subsequent plans around skills could include the development of a training facility at Eastriggs, giving students the opportunity to learn practical skills on the rail infrastructure away from the live rail network in a safe and secure environment.
The project has perhaps illustrated one of the key advantages of developing ventures like this in Scotland, in that we are big enough to have scale, and small enough to make the connections between the right organisations and people quickly and willingly.
Rail Sidings at Eastriggs has had a bright start. More of the same approach of active collaboration between the key stakeholders could see that being just the beginning of an even brighter future too.
Paul Sheerin is the chief executive of Scottish Engineering.
