Running 2008
Signalling Improvements
Some new signalling came into use in Dingly and Bay Tree. Here we see a happy Bob Thackery in Dingly, enjoying his new shunt signal from the shed and the interlocking of the section signals with the block instruments. Unfortunately not all the team understood this interlocking and we experienced some delays when Bob was not present.
The King goes for re-gauging
Alan Ainslie bought a Great Western King locomotive from America in 2007. Sadly, it was 7½" gauge and last year it stood in the shed, unable to move because it did not fit the rails!
In June it went to Alan Stephen's workshop to become 7¼" gauge. The picture shows Mike Collins driving the electric, whilst Robin steadies the load as the loco is jiggled down to Old Oak for loading
Robin and Nick's New Coaches
Here they are, just arrived in June 2008, pictured in Dingly with Robin waiting for Nick to drive the Smith family Class2.
Off from Aberdeen to Brechin?
They have working vacuum brakes for authentic and safe operation provided the loco can pull a vacuum. Robin chose LMS type with the correct '1' and '3' on the doors. Who remembers 3rd class?
Alan Ainslie Celebration Birthday Run on July 19th
The team presented Alan A with a birthday gift of a new Water Tower. This was organised by Glyn who found the casting and machined it with the help of Alan S. who did the big bits that would not fit on Glyn's machines.
We took our president quite by surprise!
Visit of Malden and Cockcrow in August
It was good to see Myke Baigent back in action driving the Scot. This loco spent the day giving a drive to almost all the Cockcrow visitors whilst King Jack and Kate tried to do the same for the visitors from Malden.
The left hand picture shows Myke on the Scot next to Shaun Hampshire's black 5 with David Daines and Phoebe looking on.
The right hand picture shows Richard Stokes' locomotive, Sister Dora, a black five, which Richard brought from Cockcrow for the day. Alan A is alongside on King Jack.
We hope our many visitors enjoyed the visit. It was a busy day; perhaps too busy as we were not able to offer all our visitors a drive. A lesson learned!
New Cushions Arrive for the Cromar Coaches
The new green cushions arrived for use on October 4th when unfortunately they got rained on. They were a welcome replacement for the very tired yellow ones which
came with the coaches in 197?.
Together with the repainting by Mike Collins undertaken in the two years before, they have become vehicles the railway can be proud of.
A Very Wet Start to September
It was a very wet running day on September 6th. However we were expecting Australian visitors at 11:00 and amazingly we had two engines in steam ready at 11:15. The right hand picture shows Australian visitor Graham Bulkely ready to drive the Scot after he has spoken to grand daughter Annie. The other picture shows Andrew Ainslie after completing Lisa's first driving lesson. It looks as though they both survived.
And then the end...
The picture on the right shows the usual sad end of the year with the signals gathered on Bay Tree platform prior to washing and then putting away.
It was quite a wet year with several days spoiled by rain and little sun.
Kate is looking for better in 2009.
