Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

Voted - looks superb, very well done!

 

Thank you.
Dave

 

I have voted too. The carriage is just lovely and my heart leaps whenever I see it.

 

Thank you - can't wait for a ride in it! Tell your friends to vote

Dave

 

Despite everything we continue to make progress. The maintenance facility is being extended by about 30ft, the main structure is now up and secure and the PW dept are extending the tracks under cover.

In the hope that it will be possible to run trains at Easter we are taking bookings for "The Train through the Easter Countryside", a special event for families in compartment coaches involving socially distanced chocolate eggs. We also hope to offer seats for ordinary visitors to travel "Vintage Class" in the LMSCA porthole brake with distanced seating arrangements. All bookings will be refundable if it does not come off, please keep an eye on the website.

Bagnall 2746 The Duke: tubing of the boiler now in progress, hoping for a hydraulic test soon.

 

Here is the new extension to the maintenance facility; also the road rail machine purchased about a year ago has been in action, it is a very impressive beast!

 

The Easter service will be re- examined by the Board this weekend, it may be that a tightly controlled service as operated at Christmas may be possible. If not, we will not have that much longer to wait. Watch this space. At least it would give more time for engineering works; the road railer has been busy down the line laying out a large batch of concrete sleepers, and will soon be in action again, with about 8 panels due for re-laying.

 

The Easter service is cancelled, we are now looking at starting services around Thursday 15th April, to be confirmed.

Meanwhile three of the eight panels have been relaid on concrete sleepers and the floor of the shed extension has been concreted - see photographs below. LS Enterprises are undertaking a particularly thorough contract overhaul of another Gresley coach. The frames of Cathryn have been shunted out of the shed ready to receive the boiler; the word from Loughborough is that the boilee for The Duke has had all the tubes fitted and expanded; there are still detailed jobs to do but a hydraulic test should take place before long.

 

WyvernRail plc are delighted to announce that they have reached agreement with the Princess Royal Class Locomotive Trust (PRCLT) for BR Standard class 4 tank locomotive 80080 to operate on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway. This popular powerful main line certified locomotive is set to arrive on the railway ready for its reopening following the Coronavirus lockdown and will operate for an initial two year stay at the EVR.

 

Does this deal for 80080 replace the previously announced deal for 9466, or is the intention to have both available for service in due course?
Thanks in advance

 

We expect to have both 9466 and 80080 in trafiic this summer.

 

Just going back to the shed extension, is the there anything special about the details of the track set into the concrete floor to allow for movement between materials? I can see that steel sleepers have been used but was curious about how the channel for the wheel flanges was formed and if any other materials were required as part of the final arrangement. Cheers

 

Hi Squiffy,

The flangeways do not show in the photographs. The concrete had only been laid the day before so the formers had not been pulled out; hollow section bars about 30mm square were laid in the concrete and will have been pulled out by now. Look carefully and you will see pale lines in the concrete where the paper thin layer on top of the rails and bars has dried.

 

Here we are, another week on, the flangeways have been cleared and the rails are in use.

Meanwhile down the line, the relay continues; five panels so far, three more to do next week.

 

The relay is now up to seven panels and we have decided to pause there to be sure of completing the ballasting and other works elsewhere completed in time for the re-opening. Henry Ellison will be steamed tomorrow to operate the ballast trains.

The boiler for Cathryn is due to return tomorrow, there are photographs of the completed boiler on our facebook sites.

 

This is fantastic news, the EVR are going to have a lovely line up.

Chris

 

Mainline Certified? I knew it had previously ran on the mainline but didn't realise it had a ticket for it at the moment

 

Henry Ellison on ballast duties; and the boiler for Cathryn has returned from repair. Pictures by Richard Buckby

 

I love seeing pics of real work in progress on heritage railways, especially a steam loco on maintenance duties. A credit to the EVR.