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Diesels, NER Petrol Electric and Beer 30/05/09
An odd mix, maybe, but there is a link!
DIESEL GALA: Full details are now on the website, including the Saturday evening BBQ and BEEREX
trains. Day Rover tickets are priced at £15 for adults and £5 for children. BOOK NOW for the BBQ and BEEREX -
only £8 - limited places available. MORE DETAILS
NER PETROL ELECTRIC: Despite being based on the Railway for some time now, I have only just got round to putting a page
together about the vehicle - many thanks to Simon Gott for the information! As the Railway are part of the Trust which aims
to restore and operate this historic vehicle, it is only right that we share some of the information! The Trust has achieved
a Stage One pass for Lottery funding. MORE DETAILS.
BEER: We are conducting a 6-month trial in the Buffet Car, serving bottle conditioned local beers and some foreign
lagers. So far we have beers from the following breweries: Saltaire, Summer Wine, Naylors, Old Bear with more lined up over
the coming months. We currently have a Wheat Beer and a Ginger Beer to see how these go down. We attempt to open the Buffet Car
on Saturdays and Sundays, subject to the availability of volunteers to man the Buffet Car. If you'd like to become involved in
this, get in touch!
SKIPTON 15/05/09
As has been mentioned elsewhere, we aim to return trains to Skipton, from Embsay. To this end, the first Network Rail study
(GRIP 1) has been completed, and so far everything is going well! Two further studies are required before any work can start,
and the project will cost somewhere in the region of £2 million. The idea is that Embsay Junction would be reinstated,
fully signalled, controlled from York, and we would operate services between Skipton and Embsay, using part Network Rail's
branch to Swinden Quarry (Tarmac). We would use Platform 5 at Skipton, which is currently derelict, and could operate a Park
and Ride service for Skipton using our large car park at Bolton Abbey station. This would hopefully ease the traffic going
into Skipton...
A new range of Skipton Savers has been launched to help raise funds for the project: these can be bought on the train or in
the shop at Embsay, and allow your money paid to be doubled against tickets in 12 months' time.
37 294 27/03/09
This Class 37 has just arrived on the Railway following its purchase by a new owner. It will be the guest engine for July's
Diesel Gala, and will not operate any services prior to this. The lineup for the Diesel Gala is
looking very impressive at the moment:
"37294 will be running at the gala along with 47004, D.5600, 31119, Class 14 D.9513, 08773,
08054, D.2203 & No.36! The 08's, 04 & 36 will be
on the shuttles, and it is hoped the Class 14 will be going full line." - A timetable will be published shortly!
The Class 14 is having attention to its cooling system, with replacement parts having been sourced recently. Efforts will
now focus on modifying these components to suit. Fowler H.W.Robinson has entered the shed and has
been stripped down for repairs. The gearbox issues it suffered from seem to have all come from a collapsed bearing, but time
will be spent going through the gearbox carefully and swapping any worn parts with the spares we have.
22 has seen much more work carried out with it now being a pile of parts in the shed! The firebox has
been removed and sent away to be copied, the valve gear is due back shortly and the cylinders and pistons have been checked.
The rings were incredibly worn! Annie is making slow progress as work concentrates on the chassis. Far
more jobs have been found that need tackling, and new horns and axlebox modifications are in hand. The boiler has been painted
and the new smokebox is being fabricated. Beatrice is moving on apace with the boiler now ready to go
back into the frames after the final riveting was completed. Primrose's chassis continues to make
progress with all the paint being stripped off and other jobs attended to. Illingworth has now
been dismantled again to allow access to the boiler for the remaining work to be completed.
Site tidying at Embsay continues and recently saw the demise of the old mess hut. It took very little to demolish it! Well done
to all those who have heled to fit out the new mess hut, and who are working on the second one at the moment! We hope to have a
much tidier site by Easter to benefit both the public who visit and the members who work here. The new toilet block at Embsay
is also moving along with work centred on installing the new roof over the existing toilets and the new part of the building.
Carriage and Wagon are working on the Buffet Car in the shed which is now in need of lifting to see work completed. Tom is
busy rebuilding his van... replacing almost everything in the process! I can only hope mine isn't as bad... Work on the
Midland Railway coaches from Ireland should start later in the year, subject to space being available. Not a lot of work
is required to regauge them back to 4' 8.5", but the opportunity will be taken to tackle the bogies thoroughly. The LMS Shark
brakevan is also going to be rebuilt, all being well. Stephen Middleton has been repairing the 6-wheeled carriages and
repainting is now taking place ready for the upcoming season. Work can then return to the LNWR Directors' Saloon which is
not a long way off. The NER Petrol Electric Autocar has made progress with its funding and more details will follow soon.
S&T have been working away on all projects as and when other commitments allow,
with the new groundframe for Bolton Abbey coming on steadily - now at the point of having the rodding runs laid out. The
lead-out bench has been completed. Sleights Sidings East has seen a lot of attention focus on removing the LMS designed
blockshelf (carefully, for possible reuse) and tackling more of the windows. A new set of rollers for these windows have been
made and should arrive soon... as should new shiplap boarding for the downstairs.
More news and photos will be added in the coming week or two, all being well as work commitments have eased for Easter!
Hot Food at Bolton Abbey 31/01/09
We are pleased to announce that on Sundays, starting 1st February 2009, Hot Food will be available at Bolton Abbey
Station in the Refreshment Rooms. This home-made food is being produced by Kelvin from Pan Loafy's (formerly in Skipton).
Older news articles can now be found on the Archived News pages.
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