Saturday 30th May

A lovely day at Whitrope saw a good number of volunteers on site with several jobs on-going. The main aim of the day was to improve the look of the compound area. To this aim the rails at the end of the stock siding were cut back, creating a working area in front of the new office block. The redundant rails along with other spare rails was dragged to the bottom end of our site for possible future use.

A general tidy up of the area is now underway with material being sorted and stored in suitable locations. In the office block another coat of paint was applied inside, whilst the electrics continues to be re-wired and should be ready for connecting up next week.
Davie continues to work away on the Fowler and a start was made on reconnecting the main drive coupling as work re-starts on getting the engine back up and running.

The Ruston was employed collecting water containers for the use with the new toilet block. The access path from the car park to the station also saw further top dressing done. Various other smaller jobs including restoring one of the old chalkboard noticeboards were also done during the course of the day.
The compound still has plenty of work to be done to improve its appearance but as work continues on the recently purchased containers freeing up storage space the look of the whole area should continue to improve.

We are looking for any old industrial strength shelving or racking units for use in the containers, so if anyone knows of any going cheap or ideally free to a good home please get in contact.

The railway will be running again this Sunday so if the area please pop in and see how the railway is developing and moving forwards.

The Ruston with its new match wagon starting up in the platform.

The Ruston getting ready to leave the platform and collect materials from the bottom of the site.

The Ruston sets off back up the hill with a couple of water containers.

The containers on this load are going to be used as part of the supply system for the new toilet block.

On a lovely sunny day the Ruston approaches bridge 199 working back up to the platform to drop off its load.

With the rails cuts back there is now a working area in front of the new office / mess block.

Work on going to wire the office up for connection to the electrical system.

Davie at work on the Ruston.