Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Christmas Programme has been formally announced:

www.e-v-r.com/christmas

 

The "Bounce Back" bubble tickets continue to work very well, the pre-booked tickets mean we know who will be travelling in which compartment on each train, which gives us an excellent opportunity for selling refreshments in advance.

There is strong demand for the Christmas trains; some days are fully booked already. The receipts will be held in reserve until the trains have happened, just in case.

The structure for the new bracket signal has been erected at Shottle, and we expect to be able to order the signal box cladding very shortly.

 

I believe it is due to arrive during October, but Christmas specials apart, we only issue definite plans a few weeks ahead at the moment, please keep an eye on our website.

 

Much digging at the back of the maintenance shed; the aim is to extend one track towards Cemetery Lane bridge to allow bogie examinations to take place. Once this is complete, work on the shed extension will resume. The length is being increased from 1 1/2 to 2 coach lengths, at present there is one coach and one locomotive on each of the three tracks. The projects inside at the moment are the LMSCA open, an LNER full brake under repair for the NYMR and an EVRA SK which is under active repair for the Santa bubble trains. I am pleased to say that our services have been heavily booked so far, despite the end of the summer season; the fish and chip tickets on Saturdays have been particularly popular. We will be operating on Saturdays only during October. Bookings for the Santa trains are still very strong, despite recent government announcements, so far they are about five times what they were at this time last year.

 

pannier No. 9466 arrived on Thursday 1st October; it will undego trials and crew training and will be operating trains on and from 27th October and in November; please see our website for details:

www.e-v-r.com

 

Here is a picture of our guest. 9466 raising steam in readiness for a trial trip and crew training tomorrow.

 

The new shower room for loco crews in particular is making good progress, but is difficult to photograph. .

 

How long will that stay clean?!

 

Our half term steam service starts tomorrow, hauled by 9466, which like all locomotives operating on the EVR will face North, i.e. Wirksworth, when leaving Duffield, these trains will continue at weekends through November; 9466 will then leave but will be back next year. Advance bookings seem to be very strong; the Santa trains are into profit already, though just what the COVID position will be in December remains to be seen. For the moment all Santa money is being held in a reserve account in case of lockdown refunds, and will only be released to the general account when trains have run. EVRA will be providing the motive power for the steam end of the Santa trains and have been investing heavily in steam heat equipment and have had patterns made for some of the components.

Major work is about to start at Wirksworth in connection with the extension of the shed, two of the three roads have been cleared of all stock and the PW dept are to start lifting the tracks tomorrow so that they can be relaid realigned and extended, the steelwork for the shed extension is progressing. One item still under cover is the LNER full brake under contract restoration for the NYMR, which is making very good progress.

 

مشاهدة المرفق 55271 9466 leaves with the last train of the day. مشاهدة المرفق 55270

 

It’s good to see a thread updated frequently on a line which reports lots of progress and positivity in the current climate .

 

Thankyou for your kind words, the reports of the first day's operations indicate that two of the three trains were nearly fully booked and the other at least "well loaded" which is not bad for an autumn Tuesday with heavy rain.

EVRA report that the boiler of Cathryn has passed a cold test at Newtons of Cromford, steam test to follow shortly.

 

My pic of pannier tank 9466 @ E.V.R. does anyone on nat pres know if this pannier although mainline certified is still allowed to run on the mainline or go out on railtours on hire, although nowdays its owned by john jones pratt? Anyhow happy haloween whatever you all may be doing tonight to all nat pres members
Davo 56F

 

I'm afraid I can't answer that one, but I can tell you that this locomotive definitely has presence and our loco crews are very impressed: it steams well and has been fitted with a drop grate at the front of the firebox.

Until the prime minister spoke we were doing very well: another fully booked fish and chip special today, other trains well filled and heavy bookings for the rest of November. Hopefully we will be able to fullfil the very heavy Santa bookings for December which are now over 65% booked.

Elsewhere there has been a lot going on. The PW dept have the unusual luxury of working under cover inside the maintenance shed, where they are re-levelling and realigning No. 2 and 3 roads and making good progress. There is something else which we can now take off the confidential list:

"Operation Micrometer".

About this time last year, we were contacted by certain aerospace company based in Derby, who wished to clear out measuring instruments in their apprentice training school, which they were prepared to donate to us, and we were happy to oblige. We were told that some of the items were so old they were marked in imperial units - which as you can imagine, did not bother us in the slightest. There was far, far, more equipment than we could ever expect to use, and naturally it was a term of the gift that items could not be resold. There were hundreds of micrometers in sizes from 1" up to about 36", internal micrometers, depth gauges, sets of slip gauges, vernier gauges up to about 30" and many other bright and shining things, some of unguessable purpose, no doubt created as a one off for some specific project. We kept the details very confidential and sent in a team with transport to collect this very generous gift from Rolls Royce Aerospace. All of the proceeds were laid away in a dry secure place to await developments, dealing with them has been delayed by the COVID-19 crisis, but we have finally got around to it.

Naturally our own internal groups have been through this hoard for their own requirements. The 48624 team had the first viewing, and I think it would be fair to describe their reaction as "gobsmacked". The rare and valuable items were rationed to one of each kind per group. We have also invited and entertained visitors from the FR-WHR, GCR, Gowrie Project, 10,000 Group, and the class 25 Group at Butterley among others, I think they have all found their visits worthwhile. All have given written undertakings to take this equipment "as seen", treat these items as RR require and in particular never to sell on the items concerned. One or two invitees have yet to visit, and in view of the government news today I guess it will be a while before they can. For the time being we are calling a halt to sending further invitations; the light in the store is not good at this time of year and we need to go through the remaining items to see what there is which is capable of further use, mostly conventional micrometers in various sizes both imperial and metric. Our profound thanks to Rolls Royce Aerospace for this very generous gift.

 

The EVR board have considered the latest government pronouncements and made their plans for the next two months or so.

The November steam service has been cancelled, which is a shame as we were taking more money in fares than at this time last year. Our booked customers will be offered the choice of a refund or travel at a later date. The same will apply if some or all of the Christmas Trains are unable to run, though we are still receiving bookings and live in hope. We are considering extra trains at New Year and at other times. If Christmas is cancelled there is bound to be pent up demand later.

Meanwhile, restoration projects can wait but the essential engineering operations will continue as normal with appropriate precautions; we are more than just a heritage railway. If there are any volunteers who are unable to work on other railways in the area but would like to keep in practice then they will be very welcome to sign on temporarily with us. The latest testing/training contract is just starting and there should be others to follow. Once the present lockdown is over we intend to plan for expansion, winter weather permitting.

 

A little update from Wirksworth this week, namely an update from Bob Gibbens regarding locomotive 'Cathryn':

This afternoon, Cathryn's Boiler successfully pased its Hydraulic test. Hopefully, sometime towards the end of next week it will have the first of two steam tests before it can return to Wirksworth .
When this test takes place it will be the first time the Boiler has been steamed since the loco was withdrawn from NCB service at St Johns colliery Normanton 30th July 1975.

 

Nice picture Neil, but that is "Duke"! Taken at least a year ago I should think, before we put the cab roof on for a trial fit. Hopefully The Duke will not be very far behind - latest word is that the new front tubeplate is being prepared for fitting, and the new longitudinal stays and tubes are ready to fit.

 

I know it's kind of obvious but the picture does show the difference a working environment makes. The shed looks dry and well-lit with plenty of sunlight. I imagine it's so much nicer to work in there than a cold/wet, windswept, dirty and cramped yard, lots of preserved railways would love to have such a shed!

 

You are so right! We had done our best with The Duke in the open, but I doubt if we could have remade the motion to the same standard without being under cover. The sound of raindrops pattering on the roof overhead was very sweet. However, the other side of the shed is the posh side where the track is set in 15" of concrete to support lifting jacks and where carriage bodies are lifted for bogie exams: see below.