Colne Valley Railway News

Witches, wizards, skeletons, vampires and more visited the Railway Saturday evening. Luckily the weather stayed nice and didn't blow too many witches off course! The diesel train was worked by a skeleton crew - we also had ghostly signalmen. We are now shut until the first of the Santa Specials on 5th December. That doesn't mean we stop working though, always something to do.

The final steam day of the season went very well on 27th with a visit from Colin the bear. Our next event is the Wizards Evening on the 30th October, witches and wizards will be taking over between 16.30 - 20.00

A chilly start to Gala Day today although it stayed dry and the sun came out later. Jennifer and Castle Donnington No.1 were in steam working passenger and freight trains, with two freight trains being topped and tailed. On the diesel side, the class 141 pacer unit ran for most of the day with 31255 working during the afternoon.

Another busy week has seen the track slewed across and foot crossing installed for access to the mini- rail. Eventually the TPO will sit here allowing easy access, in it's previous position it was only accessible by a flight of steps.

Today saw the arrival of a crew from Hammer Films. The makers of classic horror films are shooting The Woman In Black written by Jane Goldman. We have hosted film crews before but this was by far the largest, about 120 people setting up, filming and taking it all down again in 12 hours of hectic activity. The star of the film is Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) who was lovely to talk to, and he took the time at the end of day to come to the office for a chat.

We have just finished our 25th Victorian Fantasy - this educational event is still very popular, with each of the three days seeing over 1,000 Victorians on site. As well as meeting Queen Victorian and Princess Alexandra on the Royal Train, our visitors enjoyed the music hall and Punch and Judy, and had a lesson in the classroom, this seemed to be one of the favourites and watching a penny farthing being ridden was also highly popular.

The beer festival went well, in spite of the weather trying to put a damper on things. Those who came seemed to enjoy it and it is hoped we will hold another festival next year.

Today is the opening day of our first ever Beer Festival in conjunction with Harwich Town Brewery. With over 30 beers and ciders to chose from and live music in the evenings it should be a great addition to the calendar. The music on Friday is provided by Songs from the Blue House, with the Flaming LLamas on Saturday