Date: 31/07/2014

Built to produce much-needed ammunition for Britain's out-gunned troops in the early years of World War One, HM Factory Gretna was a game-changer. Its role in the war effort - and the remarkable social experiment it was part of - are told in a new custom-built museum which has just opened in the village of Eastriggs.

External links

'The greatest factory on earth'

BBC News

A new museum opens in southern Scotland telling the story of a purpose-built munitions factory which helped to win World War One.

Related images

Privately stored class 20s at the former MoD Base Ammunition Depot, Smalmstown, in March 2005. The lines in the foreground pass under the road to link with the larger MoD Longtown, directly behind the camera. Once part of the enormous complex that was the wartime 'HM Factory Gretna' stretching west as far as Eastriggs on the other side of the border.
Location: DLO Smalmstown
Company: HM Factory Gretna Railway
10/03/2005 John Furnevel

Aerial view east towards MoD Longtown, with BAD Smalmstown top left. The WCML runs across the picture, with the remains of the triangular junction bottom left, as well as the trackbed of the old military line to Eastriggs. Longtown itself, once served by the Waverley Route, stands top centre.
Location: Longtown
Company: Border Union Railway (North British Railway)
// Ewan Crawford

Bridge remains south of Gretna looking towards the Solway Firth. The bridge was part of the private railway system serving the enormous wartime factory complex that stretched from Eastriggs in the west through Gretna and across the border to Longtown in the east.
Location: Gretna Township
Company: HM Factory Gretna Railway
06/03/2010 Bruce McCartney