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5619 Renovation Project Update | Steaming to Ironbridge

Update 23/07/2008

Model Gala

After last years wash out, the day of this years show was awaited with anticipation. On arrival at 7.30, the sky was dry and the sun was trying to break through. By 10.30 all exhibits were in place, and the show started. Crowds had started to arrive before the first train and trade appeared good at the sales stands situated outside the main shed doors. Visitors were treated to displays of vintage trains, buses, lorries and cars along with collections of egg cups, Disney badges, Lines Bros. toys and dolls houses. A model fairground, stationary engines and miniature engines were shown, along with an incredible display of engineering from the Phoenix Group. Our resident model railway team added some dolls house displays to complement the occasion. Telford Bus Group again did brisk business with the link to The Narrow Gauge Show at the nearby Park Inn, this year again using their ex Greater Manchester double-decker. This must be one of the most unusual places to have a model show; where else do you have exhibits in a railbus, ticket office, engine shed, waiting room or on a platform? It does however appear to work, with visitor numbers significantly up on the last two last years. Reports from the Narrow Gauge Show, indicate they had a successful event and it appears we have to do it again next year. Watch this space.

Update 10/07/2008

This update is a long time overdue. Not that there was nothing new to report.

Lawley Common

Work is progressing well on the Lawley site, plant equipment and drainage materials have been sourced and point pre-fabrication is taking place prior to tracklaying. See Heath Hill Tunnel to Lawley Common page.

The photo shows Rocket waiting whilst ballast is loaded to be used in the drainage trench in the tunnel.

Annual Steam Gala

The weekend of May 3rd to 5th was a special one for those at TSR. The railways main steam gala featured its own flagship locomotive 5619, in steam at Telford for the first time in almost twenty years.

The Saturday was taken up with a private photo charter involving freight stock and passenger carriages. This resulted in a few pictures in railway magazines and many internet sites. As is now standard for our galas, the Sunday weather was disappointing, but not as bad as last year! 5619 shared duties with Rocket, the railbus and class 08 D3429. Again freight and passenger combinations were run, some featuring some interesting double heading.

Monday was a little more special as we had invited special guests to see 5619 officially returned to steam at her own home. Alan Moore CBE and Bill Parker made the long journey to see the loco and were treated to fine weather and exemplary performance by the star of the show. A small presentation was made to both gentlemen; - a mounted model of 5619 to Alan and a reproduction antique ‘Flour Mill’ factory sign for Bill. Hopefully, both appreciated as tokens of our thanks for their efforts in the loco's restoration. Flowers were also presented to their respective partners. A good turnout of visitors helped make the event a great success.

As is now standard practice, a group photo was taken with most volunteers on or around the loco at the end of the day. 5619 departed shortly afterwards to her home for the next two years; the Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway. Hopefully she will be back next year to open the Lawley extension.

Update 22/01/2008

New Way to raise money for TSR

Remember TSR is registered with Easy Fundraising to raise money when you shop on line.
Now you can use the Easysearch engine instead of your usual search engine to raise funds.
Just got to the TSR Search Engine and give it a try,
Easysearch is powered by Yahoo!, the world's 2nd largest search engine. It works just like any other search engine, bringing you fast, accurate results every time, but easysearch gives you something back!

When you search the web with Easysearch you'll generate around a penny for Telford Steam Railway with every search you make. It doesn't sound like much, but the pennies soon mount up and you can raise £25.00 a year - or more - just by switching your normal searching to Easysearch!

Update 15/10/2007

2007 Season Review

One word can describe our 2007 season and that of many attractions - Wet!!
We were fortunate not to be as badly affected as many places, especially our good neighbours the Severn Valley.
We do, however, have lots of great things to look back on this year:-

• 5619 went to the Flour Mill for its overhaul and is due back before the new season starts. Again we must thank Alan Moore for his support. We really can now look forward to our loco being back in steam and earning money!
• The Lawley project has taken massive strides forward, planning permission having been granted for our new terminus and the trackwork procured, but there are still a number of hurdles to cross before building commences.

We had some superb galas this year:-

• The Easter Bunny was well patronised but from then onwards, the attendance failed to meet the quality of the shows;
• Martello put in an appearance for our main enthusiasts gala, which also prompted us to undertake many jobs that would normally be put off "until tomorrow";
• Thomas and the model gala struggled with numbers but both shows were enjoyed by those who visited, the model show especially appears to be gaining a good reputation amongst enthusiasts;
• Our diesel show, cancelled last year, was deliberately kept low key, but was enjoyed by all who came and has hopefully done enough to encourage more support next year;
• We also ran our first "Champagne Steam Ride" to celebrate the wedding of two of our members!

On the operating side, much has happened:-

• We started the season with a new loco D3429 an 08 shunter;
• We have overhauled our Toad brake van and LBSCR open wagon;
• Our dogfish has been spruced up and will soon be going to help out with the SVR rebuilding work.

As usual, as at all preserved railways, continual upkeep of the trains, site and facilities has taken up much of our volunteer's time, but we are fortunate in having a hard core who are dedicated to this - would you like to help? See the membership page if you would. We now look forward to Christmas with Santa and Thomas. This is always the busiest time of our year when all the young faces come for their special day out - and hopefully will enable us to catch up a little on the season's low numbers!

Update 28/08/2007

Congratulations

Update 02/07/2007

Thomas

After the appalling weather for our May Steam Gala, surely it couldn't get worse? Thomas has now become a regular visitor in summer as well as at Christmas, with visitor numbers steadily growing, so we were looking forward to a very busy two weekends. How wrong you can be!

A last minute hiccup saw Thomas arrive from the Buckingham Railway Centre during the week before the event meaning everything was in place for the show. However, the weather, as we now all know, didn't want to join in the summer spirit. Torrential rain on the first Saturday saw an almost deserted station as most sane people waited for a sunnier day! The Sunday was better with people waiting for Thomas to depart and watch our popular plays that take place while he is away on the train and people again braved the tram (a relative of Toby) We had great hopes of picking up the missing passengers in the second weekend, but during the week, the weather tried its best to spoil everything.

So much rain fell that a number of track inspections were made before the weekend, to ensure all was ok - it was! We were a little concerned when we received several calls asking if we were still open after the track was washed out, its surprising how many people confuse TSR with Severn Valley. Thankfully the rain kept away on the Saturday and Sunday and the crowds re-appeared!

During the event the fairground organ again proved popular and Diesel made his first appearance at our Days out With Thomas events. Thanks to all the visitors who braved the weather and to Buckingham Railway Centre for the last minute hire of Thomas.

Update 30/06/2007

Steam Gala

After much searching for an available suitable loco, we were delighted to welcome ex LBSCR Terrier locomotive "Martello" to visit our railway for our main enthusiast event. The late confirmation prevented our usual photo charter being arranged for the Saturday, but as usual we managed to present our visitors with something new from the workshops. This year, our GWR Toad brake van was brought back into service after overhaul in BR Bauxite livery and the 08 D3429 was introduced to passenger service after its move to TSR.

However another highlight, which will surprise many, was the cosmetic overhaul and small amount of structural work to our "Spratts" wagon. In reality, this is an ex LBSCR 5 plank and so was returned to that livery to be paired with Martello and the CRC brake van for a demonstration freight train.

The weather wasn't kind to us on the Sunday of the event but Monday was much better. Those who braved the rain or waited till Monday were treated to some fine train combinations, with Rocket and Martello sharing duties with D3429 and RB004 railbus. "Top and tail" and double headed trains were the order of the day as our steep gradient was just too much for Martello alone.

We also utilised two passenger rakes, the 08 being used with one of our class 104 DMU cars and the steam using two MK1 coaches. An engineers freight train was also operated with the shunter, to give additional variety. All in all, a great event, although the incremental weather severely reduced passenger numbers. Our thanks to Bressingham Steam Museum for the loan of Martello

Update 20/03/2007

AGM - Chairman's Report

Welcome to the Telford Horsehay Steam Trusts annual report. Please take the time to read through and catch up on the highs and lows of 2006.

2006 has been another tremendous year for Telford Steam Railway, with both earnings and passenger numbers up again. Our events and Gala's continue to draw ever larger crowds, to the point that Christmas has now almost reached saturation point.

After the success of our first big enthusiasts gala in 2005, we continued the idea in 2006 with the hiring of the National Railway Museums Beatty Well Tank, with the event being more popular than the year before. Hopefully 2007 will build on this success and we can continue to hold such galas.

Support for our railway and its aims continues to grow:-
During the year a deal to restore 5619 to running order was signed with The Flour Mill and Alan Moore CBE, Alan loaning us the money to pay The Flour Mill to complete the work. Alan being repaid from the locos hire fee's when visiting other railways. This has also meant the setting up of a new company called THST 5619 Ltd. to oversee this operation. Many thanks to both Alan and Bill Parker for all their help and support for this project.

We continue to build our relationship with the developer at Lawley, to which end we have revised our plans and reapplied for planning permission for the site. The revised plans have made the project slow but will benefit us in the long run and have elevated our standing with our project partners. It is hoped 2007 will see major work start on site.

Lightmoor Signal Box and 'up' line from Ironbridge Power station were closed in October and we are now negotiating a lease for both, allowing us our long awaited access to the Ironbridge Gorge.

With Network Rail coming on board with the lease of Lightmoor, positive talks have been held with the local councils planning department regarding planning permission for the line from Doseley to Lightmoor, this will see a planning application submitted during 2007.

Many thanks to all who made 2006 the success it was and we look forward to seeing you all in 2007, when hopefully we can continue to build on our success.

Toad Repairs

The photo above shows our GWR 'Toad' in the workshop for replacment of the roofing felt which was dislodged in the high wind earlier in the year. At the same time the floorboards in the verandah area, some boards in the roof, parts of the running boards and the whole of one end are being replaced with new wood.

Ditch Work to aleviate flooding

Robin and his 'Merry Men' have replaced yet another panel of track in the section between Horsehey & Dawley Station and the yard point. However there was still time to spare before the start of the season so they then set to work in the cutting south of Horsehey & Dawley Station. This section doesn't see much traffic, just the occasional works train. Before Christmas it was noticed that the drain had become blocked and what can only be described as flood water was covering the whole of the trackbed width in one particular place. About 100yards of ditch have been re-dug and the water is now clearing. There is still the silt contamination of the tack bed to deal with and the buried pipes in one section of the ditch have been exposed to locate a collapsed drain. New piping is to be fitted over the whole length and new silt traps constructed.

Update 21/01/2007

New Arrival

2006 started with the departure of the Ruston Hornsby 0-4-0DE Class LPSE No. 544998 and the imminent departure of Ruston Hornsby 0-4-0DM Class 48DS No. 207103 'Idris'.

2007 again has stock changes with the departure of the Wabtec Sentinel and the arrival of BR English Electric Class 08 Nº D3429 / 08359. Privately owned and in full running order, except for minor work to the vacuum exhauster, 3429 will receive a new coat of paint and enter service later this year.