How do I find railway information about my great grandfather, John Russell? His obituary in the Elgin Courant and Courier of Feb. 12, 1901 mentions he "left the railway service some 15 years ago, and took the farm of Wester Bauds"...He carried on a coal business at the station [at Orbliston] He was Superintendent of the Orbliston Mission Hall Sunday School, [for nearly forty years.] In a Church of Scotland Teachers' Magazine of Sept. 1916, he is remembered in this way - "His name is intimately associated with that of Mr. C. Kennedy, Stores Superintendent Highland Railway, Inverness, in the founding of the Orbliston Sabbath School in 1872...for over fifteen years the pupils assembled in the waiting-room of Orbliston Station, till...the Mission Hall was built in 1888.- The idea for the Sabbath School was the idea of John's sister, Miss Agnes Russell. I hope to be in Elgin for an Aug. 12th wedding, and plan on doing family research again, while I'm there. I visited Scotland in 1998. I can't wait to make this return trip. It's always enjoyable to read all the stories and helpful hints of this site. TIA Sylvia Russell Coast Pennsylvania, USA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Howard Geddes" <hwg58lists@hwgeddes.freeserve.co.uk> To: <MORAY-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 4:42 AM Subject: Re: [MORAY] Libindx - Highland Railway > First, the Libindx is a super resource to have online. Congratulations to > Graeme Wilson and his colleagues. > > I am Archivist for The Highland Railway Society. We have just this past week > acquired a ledger "Highland Railway - List of Employees in Locomotive > Department" dated 1906, it has handwritten alphabetic entries of all those > signing on with the HR, from 1906 until the great War, with occupations, > dates of entry and leaving HR service, and remarks. I'm not sure how it > relates to the ledger at the SRO. > > > Above is just a one-off. I'm afraid it's not possible to offer a 'look-up' > service, so please don't ask! If anyone's interested, they'll have to join > the Society first. We have a website http://www.hrsoc.org.uk/ which is > currently under reconstruction but the old version is still accessible. > > Regards Howard Geddes >

Hi Sylvia, One way might be to subscribe to the Rootsweb list GEN-Railwaymen. Line Societies, like the Highland Railway Society, tend to focus on the history of the railway itself rather than its employees, so whilst we are likely to know how many tubes were in Cawdor Castle's boiler, we are unlikely to know even the name of the person who drove the loco for umpteen years. So you'll have more to tell us than we have to tell you! In fact, if you put together a short article on your gt-gdfather and submit to the Society's Journal (that's you telling us), you never know what feedback you might get (that's us telling you). How about it?! Regards Howard PS am I right that your John Russell is: 1881: Blackburn, Speymouth, Elgin, Scotland John RUSSELL M 41 M Speymouth, Elgin Rel: Head Occ: Railway Pointsman & Crofter Of 8 Ac Agnes RUSSELL M 37 F St Andrews, Elgin Rel: Wife James G. RUSSELL 10 M St Andrews, Elgin Rel: Son Occ: Scholar George RUSSELL 9 M St Andrews, Elgin Rel: Son Occ: Scholar Ann RUSSELL 7 F St Andrews, Elgin Rel: Daur Occ: Scholar Agnes RUSSELL 5 F St Andrews, Elgin Rel: Daur Maggie Jane RUSSELL 3 F Speymouth, Elgin Rel: Daur John RUSSELL 2 M Speymouth, Elgin Rel: Son Isabella MOIR U 15 F Boyndie, Banff Rel: Servant Occ: General Servant Dom I note that James G Russell is James Geddes Russell born 20 JUN 1870 St. Andrews-Lhanbryd, Moray to John Russell and Agnes Smith. Should I be getting interested?! C Kennedy could be this person, in 1881: 2 Charles St, Inverness, Inverness Charles KENNEDY M 30 M born Dunkeld, Perth Head Occ: Inspector Of Railway Harriet KENNEDY M 25 F born Kirkhill, Inverness Rel: Wife