The Scottish Railway Preservation Society was founded in 1961, at a time when rapid change was sweeping away much of the infrastructure of the Victorian railways.Railways had a particular effect on Scotland, allowing her to develop from a rather isolated part of the British Isles to a land with great industries, whose engineers were known the world over. The industries of steel, coal, shipbuilding and engineering, which brought prosperity, would not have developed without the railways. Railways connected harbours and allowed fishing fleets a ready market in the growing towns. Railways were used as a deliberate means of bringing development to the Highlands, and those parts which never had a railway did not develop much at all.LNER D49 Class 4-4-0 No.246 MorayshireBuilt in 1928, Morayshire is the only surviving member of 76 ‘Shires’. As British Railways No.62712 Morayshire continued in service until 1961. The locomotive was purchased by Ian Fraser and subsequently donated to the Royal Scottish Museum and was then restored. In 1975 Morayshire featured in the Stockton & Darlington Railway 150th Anniversary at Shildon and hauled several main-line excursions until 1981.