30th May 2010

A totally different weekend weather wise. In the paddock Dave has continued installing the new wiring and sockets whilst Stephen and Brian has just about completed the shelving (the last has to wait until the wiring is tested and commissioned by the railways sparkie). The Palvan is slowly changing colour as its repaint progresses. Much of the metalwork has been cleaned down to bare metal where the rust has started to come through and the paint has been scraped off, where loose, back to bare timber. The bushwood cut down the Junior Volunteers last week has been collected and brought back by the Community Payback team to the fire pile. All we need now is a dry evening to dispose of it! Malcolm and Geoff has been busy laying new lino in the Tea Hut ready for the 60’s weekend as well as making a new can bin timber shroud. Our rusty unpainted road bins has finally been cleaned off and repainted into orange. Richard has now planted the runner beans and other seedlings in our vegetable patches, hopefully the frost will not come back and kill them. Tony has lettered and continued painting his notice boards. Some of the Goathland ones have been delivered there ready for erection. Andy is working on the CCT still making new framing for the rotten corner.

23rd May 2010

Wow what a scorcher! We had the Junior Volunteers come and help us on Saturday and they painted more of our yard fencing; cut down some bushes on our lineside; dug out a trench in front of the cottage for a new wall; packed and spread ash on the north end siding and sanded down the side of the Palvan. Elsewhere Stephen has continued tidying the workshop coach and labelling storage bins, the General room had its cream gloss completed (bar the windows), the Palvan has been primed, undercoated and masticed and the cottage trench has been filled with concrete. Tony has continued with his notice board construction and was helped by Steve and Steve from Goathland who were also given a tour under our weigh table to see how it is constructed so they can see what needs doing to their own. On the line we have had one or two small lineside fires but nothing which required the services of the fire brigade. I am wondering if I should ask for a 4x4 from the railway instead of using my 2 wheel drive family car on the lineside. Will this week be the week for a new small Womble, watch this blog to find out!

16th May 2010

All back to ‘normal’ this weekend!? As the last weekend of the Gala it held lots of promise, as it was it was an exciting weekend but for all the wrong reasons. Failure of several locos did not help and Saturday was memorable for a large lineside fire in Newtondale. Although several of us attended the site we were unable to contain it and had to call in the fire brigade to help – in all 6 fire engines attended. This did lead to many stranded passengers at the stations for our staff to deal with. Weighbridge Teas did very well though!
At the station the Warehouse received its new copper beech top coat paint, the lamp posts a repaint and several table tops were spruced up ready for the special events. The new cast letters for the noticeboards have arrived and received several coats of primer and undercoat. Thanks to Kevin, Stephen, Alexa for the painting. The palvan has had its repaint begun with the cleaning down of the metalwork on the dock side and the sanding down of the timber. Brian undertook the clean off and priming of this. Our VEA stores van has been further tidied under the supervision of Storeman Stephen and more has been transferred into the paddock hut.
The back wall of the coal shed has been rebuilt in blockwork and strimming has been carried out around the station area. Malcolm and Tony have completed the new timber litter bin housings and these have replaced the unsightly 'modern' plastic ones we had.

9th May 2010

This last week has been the Annual Womble Boating holiday. This year a group of intrepid Wombles led by Uncle Bulgaria, Orinoco and Bungo undertook the Avon ring with additional forays around Birmingham. A mixed weather week was realised but good fun was had by all, even by Stephen who came down with Shingles and spent a day in Worcester hospital!
Don’t worry though, work did still proceed at the station.

2nd May 2010

Tony and co have continued on with the noticeboards whilst Stephen and Brian have done the same with the paddock hut fit out. The marquees, poles, pegs etc together with the A frames or our display stands are now all securely in store. The GE van has benefited from a tidy up by Gary whilst Tony 3 painted the roofs of the location cases behind the signal box. Malcolm and Horace have continued building the new timber litter bins.
The weighbridge team had a good weekend including selling out of the Belgian chocolate Tiffins (all 32!!!) by Saturday afternoon and Brian was gutted!
Brian, COOKED a lovely Sunday breakfast (he doesn’t normally cook ever!).