Sunday 22 March 2009

Checking out the Battlefield Line again.

0 Locks, 2½ miles. Now moored at Shackerstone. Bridge 52.

North end of Shackerstone railway station and footbridge.

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day or so the song goes. The weather lady certainly got it right as we set off for a short run down to Shackerstone. Unfortunately by early afternoon the sky had clouded over and the wind whistling around had a real chill to it.

As the Battlefield Line Railway is running next week-end I rightly guessed that there would be some activity around the place today and would be worth another visit. When I arrived they were busy cleaning the carriages which obviously hadn’t been used since Christmas as they still had Christmas decorations adorning them.

My boiler is away in Llangollen for repairs. I'll be back soon. I'm an 0-6-0 saddle tank.

Sadly there was no steam loco’s as the 2 resident tanks loco’s are in bits with their boilers away in Wales for refurbishing and the LNER B1 4-6-0 “ Mayflower “ which is privately owned but stored at Battlefield is out on loan to the Poppy line in North Norfolk.

Class 25 diesel being run up for next week-ends opening run for 2009.

A privately owned class 25 diesel was being run up in preparation for next week-ends activities along with a DMU set. One gentleman I spoke told me that they are desperately short of volunteers and from what I could see there is a definite need for some under cover storage to help preserve what stock they have before it all turns to rust. There is one loco shed but it is totally inadequate for all the loco’s that are present on the railway.

1588 locks, 3365½ miles, 59 Tunnels, 44 swing bridges and 39 lift bridges since Nov 2006

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