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The training train at Alloa

One of the reasons that far fewer people are killed in train crashes than in accidents on the roads is that for at least four weeks before passengers are carried on a new line train drivers have to drive empty trains back and forth until they know the exact position of the dozen signals and half-dozen sets of points. This Class 158 two-car diesel unit us one such driver-training train, just setting off from the new Alloa station, visible through the bridge in the distance, for a non-stop run to Stirling. Re-opening the line to Alloa took about thirty years from when it was first mooted and a final obstacle was the sale of the land beyond the bridge, which had been occupied a lager brewery, to a supermarket company, necessitating the purchase back of a small strip for the station and its approach road. The filling station accompanying the supermarket, which grew out of a Leeds-based firm called Associated Dairies, is already open, with petrol selling at almost 60p a pint.