LETTING THE TRAIN TAKE THE STRAIN ...
The weather showed some improvement for the arrival of our second resident Daniel Munoz, who arrived into Aberdeen to be met with brilliant sunshine. Having travelled from just outside Madrid, Daniel is a close friend of last year’s Spanish artist Suso33. Although he comes from the same street art background as Suso, Daniel now prefers drawing for his medium of creative expression.
Like many other newly arrived artists Daniel spent his first few days at Glenfiddich getting used to his new surroundings, exploring the country side and finding his way about. However the Dufftown to Keith railway station, situated just behind the house where Daniel will be living for the next three months, has already proved to be a great attraction.
Opened in 1862 the line was originally part of the Great North Scotland Railway network before eventually becoming incorporated into the newly nationalised British Railways in 1948. Although it provided a passenger service to the local areas- Dufftown Station being the departure point for many of Charles Gordons sales trips in the early 20th century- much of the custom for the line came from delivering raw materials to the many distilleries it ran past. Most of these had their own sidings such as the one at Glenfiddich where coal wagons were detached from the train on the main line and then pushed by hand down to the distillery for unloading. In fact the needs of the distilling industry meant the line escaped the Beeching cuts of the early sixties and continued in operation until deteriorating infrastructure and an increase in road freight saw its eventual closure in 1991.
The line was bought by the newly formed Keith and Dufftown Railway Association in 1992 who spent the next eight years restoring and upgrading the track before launching their own passenger service in 2000. Staffed and run entirely by volunteers this service runs every weekend over the summer months.
http://www.keith-dufftown-railway.co.uk/
By strange coincidence the week also saw some renewed interest in a work of another Spanish artist, Luis Bisbe, who was in residence back in 2007. His instillation ‘Not a Car’ has been attracting puzzled looks from many visitors over the past eight years, prompting one to post images of it on Facebook. This was in turn picked up by Deadline News an Edinburgh based online news agency. Although with plans to resurface the carpark where the work is situated mean it will be lost, visitors to the distillery will still be able to still see Bisbe’s other residency pieces ‘Not a Bike’ and Not Scotch Whisky’
http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/?s=glenfiddich&x=8&y=13
