Colne Valley Railway News

We started our 2018 season with a Diesel Gala, the first for a while. Services during the day were provided by our two class 03s - D2041 and D2184, 121 Bubble Car and the 141 Pacer - the first time this has worked for some time.

 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.

 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.

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.

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 .

  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

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 

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.

11th July saw the diesel crane operate for the first time in several years.  This has gradually been got back to working condition by a couple of our volunteers. It successfully lifted the cab roof and tank off WD200. Work is continuing on this loco, and the wheels from Jupiter have gone away to be turned

Icicles on the water tower (12th March) The opening weekend of the 2013 season saw steam driver experience courses on Saturday 9th March which all went well. Our first steam day on the Sunday didn't.  The weather was very wet, cold and snowy so the decision was taken to run the DMU only.  The atrocious conditions meant visitor numbers were lower then expected but there was a good number who braved the weather and came along and enjoyed themselves. We had a school visit us on Tuesday and in spite of the bitter cold they still wanted their ride on the miniature railway - it certainly blew the cobwebs away!

Built by Hunslet in 1952,  0-6-0ST WD190 returned to service at the weekend after an absence of 5 years.  In that time she has been overhauled by our own Steam Restoration Volunteers (fondly known as The Eccentrics!) The motion has been stripped, bearings remade, and the boiler was removed.  Some of the specialist work needed to be undertaken by a contractor off-site but most of the work was completed at Caste Hedingham.  The next project is another of our own engines - Jupiter.   A big Thank You to all the volunteers involved in working on WD190 - a great job well done.