Colne Valley Railway News

 Chase and Marshall from children's programme Paw Patrol made their first visit to the Colne Valley Railway on 10th September. Lots of children came to see these larger than life heroes.

We were represented at a travel fair held at USAF Lakenheath recently.  It was very busy and a good opportunity to promote our forthcoming Day Out With Thomas event

 Bank Holiday Sunday saw our Annual Bus Rally take place. An assortment of vehicles gathered in brilliant sunshine including this 1950 Bristol and a selection of LT buses.

This week that should see several engine movements - starting with the arrival of a certain little blue engine Wednesday morning.  A class 08 then left us Thomas will be running on 10th, 11th, 17th & 18th June Keep watching for news of the next arrival

Peppa Pig made a return visit to us at the weekend. Lots of children enjoyed meeting this larger than life favourite as well as riding the trains.

Our 2017 season started with the Colne Valley at War event. The weather was lovely, warm and dry and visitors came out in force to see re-enactors on site transporting the station area back to the 1940s. Steam engine WD190 worked well on her first operational day We also welcomed Nadine and her team who have taken over Sidings Buffet.

Our 2017 Season starts on Sunday 2nd April with the Colne Valley at War event.  As it is the Easter We are then open Sunday 9th when our dining train is running - there are still places available, please see website or call for more details.  Easter Holidays we are open Wednesday 5th when Colin the Bear is visiting, then 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th with steam and diesel rides.

Class 47 47771 owned by the Class 47 Restoration Project left the Colne Valley Railway today for Hampshire. Quite an impressive site with a total weight of around 200 tonnes. It took the scenic route through Halstead, I imagine a lot of motorists were surprised seeing this .

The toilet block on Platform 1 has been demolished to make way for the new Brewster Interpretation building.  Looking from the bridge today it can clearly be seen where the sidings have been removed and the remains of the flattened toilets.

With all the work planned some major shunting has had to take place.   The Newmans siding area has had to be cleared.  This meant re-siting the Travelling Post Office over near the entrance to keep it accessible,  and putting the goods van, Rusty, a works carriage and the old Gresley carriage in other sidings.   Once the tracks were clear a gang of volunteers dismantled the track and stored it. Lots more work will be done in this area over the coming months.

A crew spent two days on site this week filming a documentary  (unfortunately can't say what) Interesting seeing the carriages go under cover, and the attention to detail was superb. WD190 in the evening - this was a static shoot, staged mainly for the steam and very effective it was too.