Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

The Santa Trains were a success this Sunday, despite the snow. A very few people decided not to come and we have done our best to give them alternative bookingsWe would particularly like to thank our neighbours at Richard Lester transport who cleared the snow from our carpark. The bookings continue to roll in steadily, we are now well up . on last year and with three weekends still to go.

The timetable for the New Year Gala is still in preparation, the commercial staff are a bit busy at the moment. It will be worth keeping an eye out for the breakfast trains which I expect will be on the Friday and Saturday mornings. A Full English in a steam heated LMS coach, with a proper pot of tea will be an excellent start to the day. The Wirksworth Co-Op is offerung a competetive price for petrol at the moment, currently £1-43.99 per litre.

The overhaul of Bagnall 2746 The Duke is moving steadily towards the final testing programme and there is a definite chance that it will be in steam around the station at the New Year.

 

The Santa season is drawing to a close, it looks like it will be about 30% up on last year. The next event will be the Winter Steam gala on 31st December/1st January. I'm pleased to say this will feature Bagnall No.2746 The Duke, which has passed its boiler test and on 20/12/23 made a successful trial trip down the line.

 

The Winter Gala timetable has been added to the EVR website including detains od which locomotive will be working which train.

As trains are not able to call at Duffield Station due to still being affected by the recent landslip we have arranged for a free connecting minibus to run from Duffield main line station to Shottle Station and back allowing passengers to still arrive at the railway by main line train if they wish to. Provided courtesy of Vallances Coaches.

For details pleas see: Winter Steam in the Valley – Ecclesbourne Valley Railway (e-v-r.com)

 

Looking forward to making my first visit to the line; having not been before, which way are locos facing? Hoping for a few good photos amid a trip or two.

 

All four running face north .

 

News from theEcclesbourne Valley Railway.

As predicted the Santa specials broke the record set the previous year with an increase of about 30% over the 2022 figures. The catering and commercial staff put in tremendous effort and have been left full of enthusiasm for 2024. I gather there are some new ideas in the pipeline, including a very special guest special guest for the 1940s weekend.

Immediately after Christmas the kitchen car was withdrawn from traffic for the fitting of a new kitchen to increase capacity and build on the improved results for 2023. Ben, Sam and the Carriage team are hard at work already. The other major component in the plan is the second LMSCA coach, which is prpgressing well and is hoped to be in traffic in about June; at the moment the LMSCA team are busy making seat ends and are surrounded by dining table tops and other seat components. This coach will be going into the shed as soon as a slot appears in the programme, after the pre-season checks on the running fleet.


Bagnall 2746 "The Duke" entered service at the new year gala and has run very smoothly. The overhaul has taken 14 years and cost £300,000. The locomotive will require the fitting of a fire cement arch before it can go back into service for the half term trains on 17th to 25th February; the cement is due to arrive on Tuesday 23rd January. The 2MT has gone back to the GCR.


We have been very pleased to welcome Graham Bilby as our new permanent way manager; until very recently he was fulfilling similar duties for Network Rail and used to maintain the track on our railway when it was still part of the national network.


There has been some progress with the insurers who will be dealing with the lunch slip at Champion Lane, Duffield. At the moment our insurers are talking to the insurers of the neighbouring property and it looks promising though there is still some way to go before contractors can begin work on the slip. The Board are considering a particular course of action and we may have some further news shortly.

 

Well done indeed with The Duke, very impressive. I remember it fondly on Peak Rail when I volunteered there and before 'things happened' causing your move away. Who knows, maybe The Duke would like a future holiday on the other side of the hill now that different people are running the show!

 

As far as The Duke is concerned, I am open to offers from over the hill, which the EVR will handle on my behalf, subject to their own requirements.

Meanwhile the railway has launched "Operation Duffield" to deal with the slip. The insurers are dealing with the claim, but there are two of them involved and we are not prepared to wait while they sort it all out.

Fortunately the railway has a double track formation, so the aim is to slew the track over to the other side, probably starting next Tuesday, to complete by the end of April; fortunately the slewing machine we bought from the Foxfield Railway just before COVID is now in full working order. We calculate this will cost around £30,000 and preserve many times that figure in income and operating reduced costs over the Summer, one big item is about £15,000 for ballast. Mick Thomas is champing at the bit and talking about Easter.

We have launched a Gofundme account which has raised over £3,000 in the first 48 hours. All contributions will be very gratefully received, details at

https://www.gofundme.com/f/operation-duffield

 

Here is a picture taken by Jack Enwright showing the current state at the top of the cutting; clay, water and retaining walls do not mix well. This is a classic clay slip where the clay cracks, water gets into it and the crack spreads downwards. When it gets deep enough the clay at the base of the slope becomes saturated and the ground gives way. The plane of the slip was just about vertical; I examined the slip myself when it first happened and the material at the base of the slip was like porridge, you could not even stand on it. The flow of water down the slope will have to be diverted away before anything can be done and it is going to take time. No speculation about blame please, it is more complicated than it looks.

 

The appeal has now raised over £9,000, which is a very encouraging start. On Saturday we had a visit from the BBC, and the clip can be seen on the Wyvernrail plc facebook site. The general idea is to clean out the ditch on the Down side, improve it with pipes laid in pea gravel and then slew the track across onto a new bed of clean stone on terram sheeting. Inevitably a significant number of sleepers will need to be changed, rail gaps re-made etc, to be followed by ballasting and tamping. We will rebuild the retaining wall further away from the slip with the existing concrete blocks and some others. The insurers can then fix the landslip in their own time.

 

If I can help with aggregates please get in touch it’s what I do and will do the best prices I can to help the railway out and I’m local to your railway

 

The Gofundme appeal has raised just over £11,000 in the first week, so many thanks to any members of this site who have contributed.

We have had a further boost from Volker Rail who have brought a tamper to the railway for a weeks operator training. Our staff and volunteers have been transporting ballast down the line to make sure it has something to work on. I hope to be in touch with the gentleman who submitted the last post shortly.

 

The railway may not be running, but we are very busy with the preparations for the half term trains. These will run to Shottle for nine days, from Saturday 17th February to Sunday 26th February, using The Duke and a class 14.

The Gofundme appeal has now raised just over £15,000 in less than 2 weeks, enough for work to begin. may thanks to all who have contributed, but there is still some way to go. We are also getting practical offers of help from the railway community and business. We have recently received the donation of a new railsaw and will shortly be collecting 20 tons of rail. I gather we are in touch with Wooley who posted above and with other suppliers of ballast.

Last week Volker Rail spent a very useful five days with us training tamper operators. I don't have the full results yet but our staff were very busy shifting ballast down the line in preparation and several P.W. slacks have been removed.

 

The EVR will be operationg for eight days over Easter, the four days of the Easter weekend and the following Thursday to Sunday. The trains will run from Wirksworth to not-quite-Duffield. The Duke will be in steam for all eight days.

Meanwhile the Great Ditch of Duffield has been advancing up from the outflow towards the slip area and is nearly the full length. The gofundme appeal, Operation Duffield, is now just short of £2o.000 so we are able, for example, to purchase drain pipes and geotextile which have arrived.

 

Is the Duke top and tail or on its own this weekend please? I see D1842 is also rostered

 

No run round loop at Holloway Road ,outside Duffield so top and tail .The Duke on north end .
D1842 Easter 4 days ,D9537 following Thursday to Sunday on south end .
Brick arch now fitted to The Duke .

 

Thanks for the update.

 

A further attraction for visitors to Wirksworth is the Farmers and Artisans Market held on the first Saturday of each month, which is flourishing and has a wide range of stalls. This may suit any companions who are not completely fixated on trains. It is doing so well that we are considering running an early morning DMU from Duffield once the slip has been dealt with. The next market will be on Saturday 6th April.

 

The Duke was in action again over the Easter holiday, a good trial of the new concrete arch, something not often photographed when in heat. The new kitchen in the restaurant car has now been commissioned following some intense work over the last few days.
The effect of fitting the arch is that The Duke is now rather more than a mobile steam heat generator and says so when coming uphill.

 

I was very pleased to receive an e-mail this morning informing me that the fundraiser for "Operation Duffield" has reached its target after a very large but anonymous donation was made to the fund.