Churnet Valley Railway General Discussion

Evening,

Full set of shots from the Churnet Valley Gala now online at my Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/frank47524/albums/72157701669062281

....&....

Full set of shots from when 33102 'Sophie' visited Llangollen Railway in September now online: https://www.flickr.com/photos/frank47524/albums/72157696162946510

Cheers, Frank.

 

Positive smoke signals from the Moorlands..... not much hard detail but I gather all is going according to plan and with the support of Her Royal Sybil-ness we surely cannot fail....

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/local-news/leek-railway-station-churnet-valley-2178657

 

Yes, nothing terribly new, but it's nice to know that everything's still moving in the right direction, Leek-wise.

 

x

 

More news from the Sentinel
£810,000 to connect railway from Leekbrook to Leek

https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/new...oumjDAKy4e4kHZjuDGySX9kflmbVmaSgHZnxU5uC3j7dw

 

Nice to see that word is filtering out about this. I remember seeing the £810k figure a little while ago, April maybe but even so the article shows progress is being made. I'm aware that a funding application has gone in to the ERDF (if I remember right) and I hear on the grapevine that signs are positive. CVR's application benefited from advice by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council - who of course want the application to succeed because they want to have the extension into Leek to promote tourism and also, getting further out here, the council are keen on restoring the raillink to Stoke.

Even with a successful grant application CVR will still have to raise a significant amount of funding. Still, one step at a time and soon we could be laying track instead of just walking and maintaining it...

 

The article refers to a funding application to 'EAFRD' . This is apparently the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development - so time will be of the essence?

 

Bill to be probably picked up by DEFRA. Subsidies etc supposed to be covered to 2020 come what may.

 

I heard that the deadline for the application for grant funding was 30/9/18 but that we (CVR) were given an extension to 31/10 and that deadline was met. I also heard that the signs were encouraging both in terms of likelihood of a successful application and the % of funding that would be covered by the grant.

All a bit sort of Smoke Signals but the best info that I have.... fingers crossed anyway...

 

S160 5197 (running as 1225) was seen leaving Froghall this week to do duty on The Polar Express at the Telford Steam Railway

 

https://www.churnetvalleyrailway.co.uk/news/whiston-upon-a-star

Christmas comes early!

 

Nice colour coordination too...

 

Damn. Now I'll have to go for an afternoon out with the camera instead of going round the shops. Woe is me.

 

The OAPWay arsonists in action. Four weeks work (so far)clearing where the up line used to run south of Froghall prior to relaying some of the track.

 

A horrible wet day at Froghall with the main task being burning small trees that had been felled last weekend. With everything being so wet we were lucky to get the fire going - but the chief arsonist succeeded in puffing life into it.

 

Last track inspection of the year - a damp greasy day with 6046 running up to Ipstones. Some difficulty slipping on the first run. No report yet on how it managed on the second

 

Ahh, Mr Helsby and T-Bar Tony if I'm not mistaken, plus PWay Dog too... truly an elite group....

 

Is the s160 scheduled to do the rest of the winter warmer trips ? Is it the usual load 6 train?

Thanks .