Avon Valley Railway Updates and Videos

Great news! The fundraising for Littleton No.5 is already over half way towards the £10,000 goal. If you can spare a few bob, please do chuck it in the pot before the 10th and the your donation will be doubled.


LINK HERE
https://bit.ly/35Lp6Jr

 

Only 24 hours left to donate to the Littleton no5 restoration. Nearly there with the appeal. if you wish to see this unique engine working again donate now please

 

thanks to everybody who donated to the Littleton no5 appeal the reached its target

 

Calledin for another decent lunch yesterday whilst out/about. Only one negative comment - knapkinsare appreciated but notso when served beneath the food you are eating... Came to use ours and needed to ask for a replacement as the one we'd been provided was covered in food. Might seem nit-picky and trivial, but it was just a waste. Otherwise a good lunch, friendly service and looking forward to the outdoor developments coming into use in 2020.

 

Speed limits now imposed at the AVR. One short stretch has a max speed of just 5 mph. <BJ>

 

I wonder what's brought that about

 

Condition of the track?

On a positive note I see that approx 60 rails have been delivered to Avon Riverside. 30 track lengths @ 60' each = 1/3 mile.
Let's hope that track repairs/replacement can be carried out over the winter shutdown. <BJ>

 

Could anyone connected to the Avon Valley DM me an email contact for their chairman/board of trustees? I have tried the email addresses from the website but not got a response. Am trying to pass on a grant opportunity.

 

try membership@avonvalleyrailway.org had a email from them today

 

Hello!

trustfundraising@avonvalleyrailway.org is probably the best bet - that'll go straight to Roger Eynon who heads the fundraising team and is also Trust chair. I do some fundraising stuff for the AVR too, so drop me a line if you don't hear anything - I'm intrigued as to what the grant opportunity is...

Cheers,

Andrew.

 

It was good to see a train running today at the Avon Valley Rly, albeit a diesel hauled engineers train.

Hopefully a passenger service in the not too distant future. <BJ>

 

Fingers crossed!
Today's trains were for shunting and signalling reassessment purposes, to make sure we have staff for when we are allowed to open again!

 

Just been notified that the AVR's planning application has been approved, subject to conditions. A victory for common sense.

 

Planning application for what?

 

Part of it is to erect a permanent canopy outside the cafe.

Part of it is stupid - the original planning permission limited the railway's operating hours and prevented it from running trains before 10am. Recently people have started to grumble that lighting up counts as "operating" and the railway is in contravention if that's the case, so the application was to change the current planning permission to specifically allow lighting up from 6am.

Full info at https://developments.southglos.gov....s.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=Q8EW0ROKGRE00

 

Good news.

On another thread....

I cycled alongside on Tuesday and concur. I saw rail in the four foot too, presumably now awaiting 2021 winter works?

Warmley (next station up) was very busy with customers at the cafe, Bitton seemed from the cycle path to be less so. Volunteers were out and about tidying and weeding.

Even I, a preservation railway nerd, was surprised how much stored/unrestored stock there is in sidings though.

Patrick

 

We have been untaking spot rail replacement and having a sort-out of all of our stock rail. Depending on where on the line said rail was depends on what the plan is with it!

A slightly sore point - we do have a lot of stuff in the sidings. This was also undergoing a sort-out as we have aspirations to move vehicles we have stored offsite back to Bitton in order to save on storage costs. The lockdown hasn't helped us with the sorting out of the yard, but we do have plans to make space and have a sort-out at some point. No promises on timings, of course!

 

My video from today's outing to the railway to see the Chocolate Train in action.