Colne Valley Railway News

At long last -the old green toilet block is being demolished. Some of the fittings have been kept as stand-by, but most of it was rubbish! Evan disconnected everything yesterday and today, with help from Alan, David and a JCB the demolition started. All I can see from the window now is 1 end wall, 2 part walls and 5 loos!

The 3rd Model Railway Exhibition was held on Sunday 27th June, and in spite of the very hot weather and some football game there was a good attendance. With at least 10 layouts - ranging from 'ooo' to 'HO' and several trade stands there was something for everyone.

Yet another busy week. Thomas the Tank Engine was here over the weekend again, even a very cold wet Saturday saw lots of visitors, with even more on the Sunday. Thomas left on Tuesday to go back to the Midland Railway. 14 schools came to our Old Smokey educational event over 2 days, everyone seemed to go away happy. Pullman coach Aquila is looking grand in her new coat of brown paint and painting has been started on the TPO. The old toilet block has now been closed off - hooray!! next job is to strip it out then remove it. Model Railway exhibition is on Sunday 10.00-16.00 with layouts, tradestands and train rides.

The first Thomas weekend of the year went very well with lots of visitors riding on Thomas and Daisy. Mavis, Percy and Trevor were also in attendance and of course the Fat Controller made sure that everyone behaved. We do it all again next weekend.

We have been getting ready for a visit from a certain blue engine, Thomas events take place 12/13/19/20 June and a great deal of time has been spent getting everything ready. The bookings are looking good and we hope that the forecasted good weather will bring more visitors. A big thanks to Brian, Evan, Sally, James, Natalie, Allan and Steve for their efforts

The pacer has been seen in several colour combinations over the last few weeks thanks to the efforts of Bernie & Wendy. The two-tone blue and grey it is wearing at the moment looks quite good.

Pullman carriage Aquila is now starting to go back together, Syd is working almost non-stop, and Ashley has been working on the roof/body.