Work continues on the Midland coach. The roof has been removed and all the roof supports replaced. New partitions have been installed.
For those of you who are purists on the subject of locomotive liveries, look away now.
Following a swift repaint into black, in the VCT workshop, Sir Berkeley is now at the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for a film job. This livery will probably be retained until the expiry of the boiler ticket.
BELLEROPHON will be appearing on the Churnet Valley Railway on 27th & 28th June, hauling the Foxfield Railway’s “Knotty Train” over the weekend. The engine will do 4 round trips per day and no doubt will look splendid, as always.
The Vintage carriages Trust formally opened their new display on 16th May, to mark the 60th Anniversary of the closure of the Great Northern line from Keighley, via Queensbury, to Bradford and Halifax.
Besides their two Great Northern carriages, BCL 2856 of 1898, and BT 589 of 1888, and their wall mounted collection of cast iron signs, the Trust has prepared a cabinet display, in partnership with local enthusiasts, led by Mark Neale, reflecting, through smaller exhibits, the range of services provided by the Great Northern, and its contribution to our locality.
The exhibition will be available to visitors until September, including access to the carriage in the workshop when VCT staff are present. Further information may be found on www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk or www.kwvr.co.uk.
Drewry Car OLIVe, from the Middleton Railway, is visiting the VCT workshop, for repairs.
B998901 was built by Baguely of Burton on Trent to an order from Drewry and worked as an Overhead Line Inspection Vehicle, earning it the nickname Olive.
Originally ordered by the Londern & North Eastern Railway in 1947 for use on the Woodhead route. The nationalisation of the railways just a month later saw the order put on hiatus and it wasn't delivered until 1950, by this time going to British Railways' Eastern Region at Shenfield. After a number of years out of use it was handed over to the BR Research Department at Derby in the early 1970s. It was then used to maintain the overhead lines on the BR test track at Old Dalby in Leicestershire. It was purchased by the EM2 Locomotive Society and transferred to Middleton Railway in November 1997 where it has been converted to passenger use. With fairly limited capacity it comes out on quieter days and events.
Planning permission for the extension was granted in December 2013 giving us 3 years to make a start on the work, which we have just done by clearing the site of small trees and brush. A large number of write-ups and drawings have been done to define the project. The Project Development Study and the main drawing at this stage have evolved into 7 sheets, drawn on 13 Dec 2014 and agreed by committee as the desirable solution.
These drawings were discussed at VCT committee meetings and agreed that, other than the obvious development of the design to enable work to commence on the foundations, the concept shown on these 2 drawings meets the requirements for the extension. The Architect and the structural engineer have been asked to proceed both with the balance of the detail design and to proceed with discussions to place contracts for the diversion of the Storm Drain overflow pipe and its flap valve and for the extension of the culvert for Gingerbread Clough which are conditions of the Planning consent. Both of these items have been agreed by West Yorkshire Developer Services ( Flap Valve) and Bradford Met ( Drainage Services )( Culvert) but, of course, both these items need to be integrated with the overall design.
We have also made progress with the modification to the lease agreement with the landowner (KWVR Ltd) for the area to be used for the Extension.
Our neighbours British Thornton have been kept up to speed with these developments. Their interest is that there is a fire escape route at the rear of the existing workshop which needs to be rerouted.
Discussions have taken place with The Heritage Railways Assn & KWVR fire advisor about the fire escape from the storage room under the workshop floor level.
Bellerophon appeared at the ELR Small Engines Weekend on 18th and 19th April. In the Saturday sunshine at Bury, Bellerophon looked magnificent and sounded superb, easily pulling three coaches. Thanks to David Halsey for sending photos of the event.
There is a video of the Anniversary Train on YouTube, by Kenneth F Baker.
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These have been kindly sent to us by Robin Lush.
Saturday 10th January saw a special train running on the KWVR to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the preservation of our Manning, Wardle 0-6-0ST “SIR BERKELEY”, which arrived on the KWVR back in January 1965. The locomotive was then owned by Roger Crombleholme, who subsequently presented the engine to the Vintage Carriages Trust. The 1891 built engine normally lives on the Middleton Railway in Leeds but has been made available for use at VCT for the next few months to celebrate this and other significant anniversaries.
The loco hauled a special train comprising Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire 4 wheel coach No 176, built in 1876 and South Eastern & Chatham Brake 3rd no 3554, actually built by the Southern Railway in 1924. Both these vehicles first appeared on the Worth Valley in 1965.
And to cap everything the VCT has now been in existence for 50 years in 2015, so the special train celebrates this as well!
The train ran three round trips from Ingrow to Keighley & return at 1200, 1330 and 1500 and many people both rode on the train and enjoyed this wonderful sight.
It is intended to use SIR BERKELEY on the KWVR Gala in February and also at a Model Railway Exhibition at Ingrow on 15th February this year.
Keighley Mayor Graham Mitchell and VCT Chairman Trevor England are shown immediately above.
Photos by Andrew Dennison, Ian Smith and Paul Holroyd
