29th November report

Well what a wet day – it’s been steady all day since about 1am this morning. The rivers are all up but within their banks, just. The stream at the back of the paddock is overtopping itself but seeing as the paddock is now waterlogged with its own large lakes it will not matter much.
It has not stopped us working elsewhere though. We now have all six CCT doors manufactured although the last three are waiting their planks – these are now in topcoat and will be ready for fixing next weekend. They are currently in our winter warm store now passenger trains have finished.
Talking of trains, there has been delay and disruption to our services today due to a lubrication problem with Repton. At one stage Repton was placed in our siding for a while, to rectify the fault, whilst the two diesels maintained the service.
The S&T have continued running in wires and connecting up the block instruments as part of the HD link work. Some of this work is very easy whilst some wires involve tight spaces underneath the floor in the locking room – not a space for tall persons.
We cleaned out the roadside ditch up the hill on Saturday where it had become blocked. This is a vital task to ensure that the water stays in the ditch rather than all over the road, particularly at this time of the year as both Friday and Saturday evenings were frosty with the temperature below freezing.
The Weighbridge Teas is now closed until 27th December after a fairly busy day here.
We now have a selection of notelets available for sale. There are eight different scenes showing the trains and the seasons at Levisham. They are 60p each or 8 for £4.25. They are on sale at Weighbridge Teas or, all being well via our website (plus post and packing).
The Community Payback team have been down again and continued excavating the paddock for the Black Hut base which will store the marquees and some Special Event materials once it is moved from next to the level crossing, hopefully during Christmas week.

22nd November weekend update

A productive week and weekend was achieved with two further door frames and planking prepared for the CCT – 5 down, 1 to go! We are still having a problem with the end doors closing properly but this is a design flaw on the original van. We may need to make a top horizontal bar to keep the sides apart as the weight of the end doors is too much for the body.

We have been helping in the railway archives as well, moving their stores from the existing room into the new, much larger archive room in the new Train of Thought building. The quality of the finishings in there is excellent with a good working environment. If you have any time then I am sure the Archivist team would welcome some further help.

Wiring work for the HD link for the new signalling system is progressing well with many new wires run in together with others identified ready for the big changeover.

Excavations in the paddock for the new marquee store are ongoing with help from the Community Payback team. The opportunity is also being taken to level other areas when settlement or dips have occurred.

15th Nov 09 Weekend update

Welcome to our first blog. We will try to keep you up to date with our activities at the station week by week.
This weekend the major project has been continuing the door renewal programme on our CCT. We also had to deal with a tree which fell across the line about half a mile north of the station and was found by Repton. The trunk is now keeping the home fires burning whilst the brush made a lovely bonfire tonight. The Weighbridge Teas continues to open at weekends selling hot and cold wares. Don’t forget Ware House Art is still open daily and our hot and cold drink vending machines are available when Weighbridge Teas is closed. The S&T Department are also working here, installing additional kit for the HD Block Signalling link which they hope to commission next spring.