Colne Valley Railway News

Following fears that the Colne Valley Railway would have to leave its site at Castle Hedingham, we can announce that we have been successful in purchasing the current site with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and our future is now secure.  This also enables us to construct better facilities such as a new entrance & reception buildings, interpretation centre and workshops We are preparing for our first Santa Specials this weekend and will be  releasing further information about these enhancements in the new year 

  Essex Fire Service held a training exercise one evening.  A fire was staged in the sleeping car, complete with bodies and there were live victims in another train. Appliances attended from Sible Hedingham, Wethersfield, Halstead and Thaxted

Some of the Thurrock Courts Players paid a visit today for a photo-shoot to promote their production of The Ghost Train by Arnold Ridley

The HCT has been in use today, a great help in reaching the overhanging trees.

We've had two weekends of fun with Thomas and his friends, the weather could have been kinder  but lots of excited children came along. We had Thomas, Daisy and Mavis on the main line, Toby on the miniature railway and several characters on the garden and model railways

  One of our volunteers has purchased this brake van and has spent several hours repairing and painting it. The steam crew had a surprise one morning, during the week WD190 had been unused and a blackbird had found a way in and made a nest. Unfortunately it had to be removed so we could use the loco, thanks to Chris who took the photo before he very carefully removed the nest (luckily there were no eggs)

Peppa Pig made her annual visit to us on the 1st May, she was kept busy throughout the day meeting all the children who came to see her and ride the trains

We started our operating season at Easter.  Good Friday saw lovely weather and lots of people, Easter Sunday was cold and wet - but what a lovely rainbow!

The S&T team have been busy replacing steps on Nunnery signal box 

We are now used as a test track for these road rail machines.  Interesting to watch and they very kindly took a camera up to take some shots of the railway not normally seen.   Newmans from the level crossing

We've had some strange weather recently and some lovely skies. The sunrise was taken 4 days before the frosty morning, what a contrast but both beautiful to see.

7 1/4" gauge steam engine Romulus has returned to the CVR after having some work done, including a new boiler.   The paintwork has also changed on the main engine - the tender still needs to be done but it does look very smart, be great to see it back in action.

The year has started with the British Transport Police Dogs training on site. This is a regular thing, and it's great to see how the dogs and handlers work.

Well that's another year over.  Quite a successful one though with lots happening.  Peppa Pig and Fireman Sam delighted younger visitors whilst the vehicle rallies and War day were popular with all ages. We finished the year with our Santa Specials which kept Santa very busy. Here's hoping for an even better 2016