A Late Start
In the 'News', Tim described this as "Over-Running Engineering Work". It was June 1st before any steam loco was on the railway. The re-laying of the up main across the gate and the replacement of the signalling cables down from Spinney proved a challenge!
Indeed some signals continued to be connected to the old wiring at the start of the season. Robin, with a small team David D, Peter, and Dave MB, visited between running days to progress the work. Alan A worked on in the box. Once we attempted to run, the usual collection of stuck points, stuck signals etc. had to be tackled but, of course, we rose to the challenge and we were able to enjoy the railway.
All year Issues:
Two signalling issues were not properly resolved but 'worked around' all summer : two track circuits at the Bay Tree splitting distant were combined and the down block needle between Bay Tree and Dingly never worked. The additional, un-authentic, signal in the long tunnel was disconnected.
Weather:
It was a cool year; the first running day in June was recorded as "cold" and the next running day was lost to rain.
Events
A New Loco
During August, Alan A bought a model Britannia class loco carrying the name "Lady Marjorie". A really nice detailed model also capable of hauling significant loads on our steeply graded railway.
The picture shows Alan driving the loco with just such a substantial load in September.
Freight Day
The pictures above capture the spirit of a different day.
Friends and Family Day
Again the pictures capture the spirit of a fine, sunny day with lots of visitors. As usual several visitors had a drive and were able to pull levers - part of the spirit of our railway.
We visited Echills Wood & Cockcrow
The visit by Tim, Heather, Robin, Nick and Dave M to the Cockcrow Gala in September is now a regular feature of the year but this year a visit to the Echills Wood Railway near Birmingham was a new venture. The visitors were Tim, Heather, Robin, Nick and Mick - all with locos. The photo shows Heather and L94 at Echills Wood.Link to item in Archive news
Visitors to the SLR
Our friends from London Underground visited in August and on the last day there were visitors from the VAMES club in Buckinghamshire and from Cockcrow.
The Cockcrow team brought a loco, shown on the left.
The Last Day ended with night running and fireworks - quite atmospheric!
A picture below shows husband and wife team, Andy & Sarah in Spinney box.
Lots of photos of the last day are in this Link to the Archive News for the last running day of 2024.
Loco Running The table below shows a summary of our loco activity
| Loco | Days Active | Loco | Days Active | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1420 Dave MB | 7 | Jessie 0-4-0 1939 | 3 | |
| Kate | 6 | Eileen Grant | 3 | |
| L94 | 6 | Brunel | 2 | |
| Scott Line | 6 | Royal Engineer | 3 | |
| Karen | 5 | 117 Nick T9 | 2 | |
| Bobside | 4 | 70075 Britannia | 2 | |
| Class 20 | 4 | King Jack | 1 | |
| 7163 Jamie | 4 | George V | 0 |
The number of times each engine is steamed in the year varies over the years. Friends can explore the running of our engines since 2011 by going to
https://www.spinneylightrailway.co.uk/members/locorunning/locorunning.html
(where they will need the friends password).
Finally, A "Part Team Photo"
I suppose this realy belongs in the summary of winter 24/25 but since it was to hand and I like to include team photos it is included now. Left to right Robin, Alan S, Heather, Peter, Dave M (just), Mick, Phil, David G and David D. We could have fetched Andrew and June (this time it's "Tim's fault" who took the photo.)
The full story of the year can be found in the Archived News of 2024 by reporter Tim.
The Archived News is the 2024 News and presents events backwards.
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