Colne Valley Railway News

Today we had Mark Wesley Productions on site making a training film for London Overground Railway.  The film stars Shaun Williamson and Richard Tate both seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.  The whole crew were a great bunch and it was great to see them in action - very entertaining.  They will certainly be welcome back anytime.

The 24th June saw the arrival of the Colne Valley Railways latest acquisition, WD200 from the Kent & East Sussex Railway. An 0-6-0ST this is from the same batch as our WD190, and they used to work together at Shoeburyness Military Railway.  WD200 stayed there until 1970, when a group from the K&ESR purchased it.  It saw regular service there until 2012 and now needs an overhaul to get her back on track. Having recently finished WD190, our Engineering team - the Eccentrics - should be able to get this one working in no time!!

June has been a hectic month.  We've had several schools visit us, a film crew arrived at short notice to do some filming for a new BBC programme, I've been asked not to publish photos though until the programme airs in September. We then had two weekends of A Day Out With Thomas The weather was a bit damp the first Saturday but that didn't stop visitors coming to see Thomas, Daisy, Mavis, Trevor and of course, Sir Topham Hatt who made sure everyone behaved.  New for this year was a 7 1/4" Toby who looked very cute. The four days were a great success, and seeing the faces of some of the children as they saw Thomas made it all worthwhile

18th May saw the 2nd Emergency Services day.  Fire service vehicles  from the 1950s and 2000 were in attendance along with an ex Essex Police car, Essex Police Museum, St Johns Ambulance and British Transport Police Search Dogs.  A re-enactment saw a Fire Engine, Police and Ambulance go into action with lights and sirens, much to the delight of younger visitors.

Peppa and George paid a return visit to the Colne Valley Railway over the Bank Holiday weekend of 4th & 5th May.  We were lucky with the weather and they were able to stay out on the platform meeting and greeting their fans, young and old.

The weekend of 26th 27th April saw the annual Vintage Vehicle Rally. Cars of every shape and size filled the field along with some commercial vehicles and stationary engines. Unfortunately the weather wasn't too kind on the Saturday but Sunday was a lot better.

The access paths and area at the end of the main toilet block has been tarmacked, making that area look cleaner and tidier With the removal of a carriage we have created a viewing area for visitors to get another view of the trains as they go by. We have also improved the step-free crossing here by tarmacking some areas, marking the route and installing two smaller gates.  These will eventually be controlled from the signalbox. This crossing has already received very good comments from our regular wheelchair users.