Heating Up!

Yesterday's steaming had to be one of the hottest! Despite the good weather we had a good number of visitors. Normally when the weather is too good (if there is such a thing) the visiting public would rather be at the beach but they turned out to see the 25+ stationary steam engines running even if the volunteers would have preferred the beach themselves!

The new box van made its first appearance on an open day and was put with the Ransomes piling winch and the Lister locomotive and was providing rides to our members for the day. All of the comments have been positive, the only improvement to make is to reduce the softness of the suspension that tends to make it roll a bit when getting on and off. Some modifications will no doubt have to feature some damping but we aren't sure how to achieve that yet.

And as the railway is progressing I will mention the recent purchase of 200 second hand steel sleepers for use in relaying the railway. Although as mentioned many a time in this blog we have been producing concrete sleepers, the offer came along and the price was too good to resist. The steel ones cost half the price of the materials for the concrete versions and without the effort! Not all is lost though as the concrete sleepers will work well under the ground where the rail is at ground level, the steel ones being used on ballasted lengths of track work.

The picture below shows the first 60 having been collected.

If anyone feels like helping make up track panels please get in contact... jason.keswick@wzlet.org