Southwold Railway

Sadly, I'm at the other end of the country ... otherwise I would have engineered a visit.
Good luck !

 

Paid a visit first thing today to beat the expected rain - which still hasn't actually materialised here!
Biggest surprise was seeing a new signal post erected at the goods shed end of the site, as shown in the photos below........









The event seemed very well attended, so hopefully it was very useful for fundraising.
What strikes me most is how immaculately kept the whole site is, irrespective of the time of year you visit the place.

 

It really is immaculately kept, and the signal post is a very striking addition. Station building next?

 

I think they realise that would be a fairly big step to take with developing the site so they don't seem to be rushing ahead with that at the moment (I did actually ask one of the group about that yesterday).
There is the matter of Planning Permission that would be required to reconstruct the station building, plus raising the money to pay for it all. Would certainly make a good place to have a permanent exhibition on the history of the line though.

 

Very nice
I suspect going slowly is the order of the day round there. The locals need convincing it's not going to turn into a roller-disco or suchlike

 

Would be nice if relations between the Southwold and Blythburgh groups improved, and they coordinated their open days and had a vintage bus running between the two sites.

 

I thought they did have good relations with each other?

 

That would limit the total number of open days, prevent sharing of volunteers and add on the cost of a vintage bus.

What would they get in return?

 

There used to be a preserved Bristol SC single decker to PCV standard which was based in the area and the Southwold Group did use that on some occasions to transport visitors to their Wenhaston "outstation" where they own a bit of the trackbed, but that was pre-Covid, and the SC, as far as I know, has moved on elsewhere.
The next nearest preserved vehicles owned by museums that could be used are either at Lowestoft or Ipswich - and none of those are actually PCV hire/reward compliant, so you couldn't charge fares on them. It might be rather a challenge to find somewhere safe to turn a bus at the Blythburgh end as well, given the narrow/restricted turnings off the A12 and the roadside vegetation growth and trees......