Colne Valley Railway News

Sunday was a busy day with diesels of varying shapes and sizes running - Hibberd Planet, 2 Class 03s, Class 121 bubble car and Class 31 along with 2 diesels on the mini-rail.

Concrete was delivered this morning for the shed base, quite amusing watching it being levelled out. Syd has now started putting some pieces back in Aquila.

Work is in progress on the site for the new toilet block, which will hopefully be delivered before Easter. Castle Donnington has been inspected and had the boiler washed out in preparation for steam testing. Next operating day Sunday 28th March for Diesel gala.

Saturday 13th saw the first Driver Experiences of the season and Sunday 14th the first steam operating day. Jennifer was used on both days and performed well - Castle Donnington No.1 is still awaiting boiler inspection -and the miniature railway had steam loco Romulus visiting. Halstead canopy has had some timber replaced and the station area has had a repaint.

6th March - Brian, Evan & Sally attended the annual Travel Fair at RAF Lakenheath, met some very interesting people. 7th - AGM held in the morning, various jobs done round site pm in preparation for running next weekend. All the rotten wood has been removed from Aquila, the coach now needs to dry off. Think Syd is wishing he hadn't started the job as it gets more complex by the day.

The CVMR construction crew completed laying and clipping the rails for the new Riverside storage siding today. Halstead station/canopy are being painted, parts of the canopy have to be replaced. School visits of 60+ children have kept us busy over the last 2 days

The 7 1/4" guage line has seen plenty of work over the last few weeks. Track has been reballasted, new track laid in station area, 2nd platform area laid and a station canopy has been erected. First planned operational day is Sunday 14th March when live steam loco Romulus should be working.

Pullman kitchen car Aquila has been taken out of service for major refurbishment. The kitchen end has been stripped back, exterior panelling and some of the rotten framework has also been removed. This will all have to be replaced. The photo shows the stripped end.