The latest change to the Weardale skyline is the disappearance of the cement works chimney at Eastgate. It was blown up (or should that be down) at 10am this morning. The entire production area of the site is now just rubble awaiting clearance.

  A busy day at the depot - Two locos left today. Met has been stored with us for several years on behalf of Darlington Railway Centre & Museum, but has now moved on for refurbishment. We also said goodbye to 20 189 that hauled the Santa Specials last year. The following coach movements allowed a "before / after" comparison between a Mk1 nearing the end of refurbishment and one just beginning the treatment:

 The latest arrival at the Weardale Railway is a Class 37 diesel loco, the type in use as motive power to haul the cement trains from Eastgate until the line's mothballing in 1993. No 37414 is owned by BRE Ltd, owners of operational 37198 & 37275 at the Wensleydale Railway. The loco will be restored by volunteers from The Class 37 Locomotive Group. The C37LG own operational 37003, also at the Wensleydale. 
37414 arrived at Wolsingham Station by low-loader on Monday 10th October after an eventful four day trip by road from Wigan Springs Branch depot, where it had been stored and partially stripped since its arrival there over four years ago. The delay in its arrival did not deter the C37LG team though. They even managed to hold two working parties before it landed at Wolsingham, one at Washington Motorway Services on the A1, and one in a layby on the A689 outside the village itself. Once the loco was lowered onto the temporary spur at the station, several more working parties were held there during which 37414 received a thorough clean inside the nose ends and in the cabs. Tarpaulins were used to protect the engine bay, which is missing its roof. On Thursday 20th October, the loco was moved to its new home at Wolsingham Depot.
Regular working parties will be held to restore the loco to operational status. As mentioned above, the loco was partially stripped by its previous owner EWS, but BRE Ltd and the C37LG have already sourced 80% of the missing parts. If you would like to know more about the project or would like to become involved, please contact BRE Ltd MD and C37LG Techncial Officer, Phil Lynch via email at phil_lynch@btopenworld.com or Michael Ratledge at rugbytown@tesco.net . The C37LG's website can be found at www.c37lg.co.uk . Both BRE Ltd and the C37LG would like to thank the North Eastern Heritage Diesel Group for introducing them to the Weardale Railway Project.

The new Weardale Railways Management Team. 

Although the Company has not yet exited administration it has been decided, by the Weardale Railway Trust Planning Group and ECT, to set up the planned management Team in anticipation. The main benefit is to “hit the ground running” in order to have a functioning organisation at the exit. 

The structure of the team is shown below. The new business plan caters for a small full time staff: a Maintenance Manager and Permanent Way Team Leader; and two part timers, an Administrator and Infrastructure Engineer.  In addition agreed and potential grant funding for projects has allowed us to retain a Project Manager post. Existing employees have been transferred to the new structure where jobs are similar in scope. In the case of the volunteer posts, where volunteers have been active in a particular area, they have been appointed directly to continue their existing work. The remaining posts are open to volunteers and anyone interested should e-mail steve.raine@tinyworld.co.uk  giving details of their experience. The appointments will be made by a panel of up to four directors of the planned new Board, three Trust and one from ECT. Please reply by October 21^st 2005.
All the volunteer appointments are for an initial term of 12 months after which a review will be carried out. The posts available are: Commercial Manager; Marketing Manager; Volunteer Co-ordinator; Safety Officer and Duty Managers (6).

To view brief job descriptions and the proposed management structure click here.

Appointments for 2nd tier posts will follow.

No further progress to report on the hoped-for CVA of the operating company unfortunately. Work continues to try and reach the point where the administrator is able to put an offer to creditors, but the timescale is starting to put the Christmas running season at risk. However there is still time if a breakthrough can be made soon.

Last Saturday night a "Folk Music" concert in Wolsingham Town Hall was well-attended by our supporters. I use the quote marks because the music ranged from comedy songs through country & western to unashamed '60s nostalgia. Everyone left demanding to know when the next night would be held, and the £150 profit was donated to the Weardale Railway Trust.

The Weardale Task Force are the body entrusted with the task of overseeing the development of the Eastgate cement works site of Lafarge (formerly Blue Circle). The geology of Weardale is rather special, and Eastgate had been identified as the most likely site in the UK to be able to benefit from geothermal energy (hot rocks). A trial borehole yielded sufficiently encouraging results for the Task Force to consider the development of a renewable energy model village with the railway terminus as a major part of the attraction. A public consultation document has been distributed in Wear Valley. A couple of excerpts are below, the full document (in pdf format) can be downloaded on the Document Download page, but it's a huge file (2.4Mb) so be patient!

Artist's Impression	Plan View

Note - this is a plan, not a decision. If it goes ahead it will take several years, but would eventually attract an estimated 400,000 visitors per year. How many heritage railways have something like that sitting at one end?

Apologies for the late update - dead computers can take a long time to revive, but a hard drive transplant seems to have done the trick.

"The Dales Diary" if you live in a Tyne-Tees Television area includes a piece about  our depot fitter, Steve Race this week. Broadcast is 7pm on Thursday.

A Barbecue at Stanhope Station will see the place busy again on Saturday 27th August from 2pm. The cost is £6 each - hope to see you there. In fact the station will be manned throughout the Bank Holiday weekend if you want to call by for a chat and a browse in the shop.

Stanhope Station canopy now has the funds secured for the materials required. Work should start around the middle of next month and be completed before services recommence - volunteers required!

One North East has agreed the necessary funding to enable the administrators to present a Company voluntary arrangement to the creditors in the near future. If this is agreed and is completed successfully, preparations can be made for a re-launch of services before the end of the year.

The full press release:

"One NorthEast’s Project Executive Panel today (Tuesday August 16) approved an application for funding from the County Durham Economic Partnership to support the Weardale Railway. The Partnership’s successful application for an additional £130,850 - on top of the £46,275 already invested this year - of funding from One NorthEast will help relaunch of the rural County Durham rail link.

Weardale Railway was mothballed in January following substantial cash flow difficulties, One NorthEast Director of Regeneration and Tourism, John Holmes, said: “The previous problems of Weardale Railway are well documented, but we have worked incredibly hard with our partners to ensure that the new business plan is robust, sustainable and will deliver for the people of Weardale.

”We are confident that the new arrangements that are being put in place will mean that a viable heritage line can now be operated, attracting tourists and providing a link to existing and future visitor attractions in the dale.”  

Durham County Councillor Brian Walker, Chair of the County Durham Economic Partnership said: "We are delighted with today's announcement. It is the culmination of substantial work over recent months by the Railway and its funders."

"We can now progress towards what has always been our prime objective, getting the railway operating again. I believe that in the long-term the railway and the visitors it brings to Weardale will be good for local businesses and help with our shared plans for the on-going regeneration of one of England's loveliest Dales." 

Since Weardale Railway went into voluntary administration in January, One NorthEast has provided £46,275 of interim funding to facilitate the viability of work carried out by administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The purpose of the funding is to secure a not for profit partner, which will manage the operation on a day-to-day basis and cover any future deficits, reducing the risk to all other partners involved in the project.

The partnership will lead to a long-term future for a heritage railway in Weardale."

The first of the Trust's Open Members' Meetings was held at Witton Park on 2nd July. The main facts to emerge were that:

• the funders will support our revival enough to get operational again, then assess our performance after a year or so before any further commitment;

• ECT are serious about taking a major role in the revival of our project. They will give an immediate cash injection as a funder and will guarantee to cover all losses for the next five years. (If you did not look at ECT's web site when first mentioned in March, you can visit now by clicking here, or go directly to their Dartmoor Railway site here.)

• the creditors are likely to agree the offer made, as liquidation of WRL would generate far less;

• this process is likely to take one to two months but cannot start until 2 hurdles are cleared - completion of the line purchase and resolving the lease dispute at the Wolsingham depot.

The "best guess" is now that services will run again in Weardale from late October using our own diesel stock as far as possible and operating principally with volunteers, the company employees being kept to the minimum possible level.
If we have a successful winter season, we can consider the re-introduction of steam next summer.

You can read the full minutes of the meeting on the Document Download page.

First indications are that the Charity Supper was a great success. In excess of 100 people attended and the profit raised for the Trust is in excess of £2500. More details to follow next time. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos taken by John Askwith:

The Great North Walk took place on Sunday 10th July in blistering temperatures. The hundreds of walkers were accompanied by The Northern Echo and TyneTees Television. TTTV interviewed Weardale Railway volunteers and will be showing the programme Life in their Stride, Great North Walk 2005 on Sunday 17th July at 6pm.

Our charity supper at the Locomotion Museum, Shildon is on Friday, July 8. There may still be a few tickets available - see news entry for 3 June for details. We have extra items for the auction: Three framed presentation LP's, one each from Diana Ross, Neil Diamond & Meatloaf. Each consists of an original LP, signed original album cover & a certificate of authenticity. If anyone is unable to attend the supper and would like to place a sealed bid for any of these please contact sibgard@aol.com a.s.a.p. (The current market value of each is in excess of £1400).

Important announcement

Weardale Steam Transport Festival 2005 - this year's festival scheduled for Saturday and Sunday 25 and 26 June has unfortunately had to be cancelled.

The following statement has just been issued by our organiser Dave Foxton:

The Weardale Railway Steam & Transport Festival Organisers regret to announce that the Festival for 2005 is now cancelled.
We have only heard today that our co-organiser has pulled out without notice leaving it impossible for us to re-book a few essential components at this late stage.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused to exhibitors, advertisers, volunteers and our supporters. 

Steady progress.....  is being made towards the re-launch of services in Weardale. It now appears likely that Weardale Railways Limited will come out of administration once the purchase of the line is concluded with a totally new board of directors, equal numbers from ECT and the Trust plus some representation for contributing government agencies / local authorities. Unfortunately this means that most of the summer trade will be missed as it will probably be late August before services are able to start. Hopefully the maintenance and training being undertaken by the volunteers will keep the lead-in time to a minimum. If you want to be part of it, get in touch.

Our charity supper at the Locomotion Museum, Shildon on Friday, July 8 - Tickets are selling fast. If you want to be there, you can get further information or book your place by contacting Arthur Temple on (0191) 5226184, but you will need to act quickly. I now have more information on the football shirts. There is one from each of Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough and all are signed by the first team players. A fourth shirt has been donated by Steve McClaren. These shirts will be auctioned on the night, along with a variety of "railwayana".

No news is good news?  The re-opening of the railway is still not quite 100% certain, but it is highly unlikely that a satisfactory conclusion to the uncertainty is not reached soon. Some new partners in the project have still to make a final commitment and the structure of the new operating company is still to be settled, but a summer service is expected to commence to coincide with the school holidays, i.e. Late July/early August. As soon as a timetable is ready it will be publicised on this site.

The Weardale Railway Trust continue their fundraising efforts. They have organised a charity supper at the Locomotion Museum, Shildon on Friday, July 8.  Entertainment will be provided by comedian and ventriloquist Ward Allen, while raffle prizes/auction items will include signed Premiership football shirts and limited edition Weardale Railway prints. Tickets for the supper, costing £25 are selling fast. If you are interested you can get further information or book your place by contacting Arthur Temple on (0191) 5226184. There is also likely to be a weekly lottery. Again, up to date information from Arthur.

Eastgate Cement Works - the reason for the line remaining intact is starting to disappear. Contracts for its demolition were finalised last year and its removal is now progressing in earnest. The expectation is that work will be completed this year, and that the line from Stanhope to Eastgate will be in use again in the autumn.

Go shopping!  The Trust's shop at Stanhope Station has been gradually building up stock over the past few months. If you are unable to call in person, why not buy articles by mail order? You can see examples of our lines in the new Shop area of the main site. Although we are not yet using a full "e-commerce" system, we will soon accept credit and debit card orders by telephone. In the meantime you can post an order to us.

The other development available is a route into normal internet "High Street" shopping. If you log onto a retailer via our link http://buy.at/WeardaleRailway any purchases you make generate donations to the Trust. This is additional to any savings you make through special web offers. The number of participating retailers is around 100 and continues to expand. If you shop on the internet, please take a look and spread the word - this is one source of extra funding that could become a regular benefit to our cause. Examples of donations and a link are provided in the Shop area of the main site. Also downloadable posters and flyers if you can help promote the scheme.

Light at the end of the tunnel?  We will still have to wait a while for definite news of the project's future, but there is progress. Firstly, both the creditors and the original funders would prefer to see Weardale Railways Ltd trade out of its difficulties and move forward. Secondly, there are a number of potential new funders willing to take a stake in the project. One such is ECT Group Ltd a not-for-profit company that runs the Dartmoor Railway. If they like what they see in Weardale theyare likely to become a major partner in the "new" Weardale Railways Limited. If all parties agree a way forward the railway could be up and running again in 2 or 3 months. There will inevitably be changes to the original timescale of reconstruction and perhaps a greater emphasis on diesel traction, but the important fact is that it is looking increasingly likely that a service will be operating this summer.

The Weardale Railway Trust intends to take a financial stake in the recovery plan and is raising funds by asking supporters to sponsor "Yards of Track". A growing list of people have already done so giving that fund a healthy start. If this method of support appeals to you please contact the Trust office (01388) 526262 requesting a leaflet. Alternatively you can download the pdf file here 

A Weardale Railway discussion group has started recently. It is not an extension of this website, and is in no way controlled by any of the project partners. However, if you wish to contribute to any of the discussions you can find it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WeardaleRailwaySupporters/

Please remember that you will read opinions, not necessarily facts and that its creator is hoping to see constructive discussion from supporters of the project.

If you are in Weardale over the Easter weekend call in at Stanhope Station. Trust members will be there to man the shop and will be happy to chat about the development of the project.

Cashflow problems for Weardale Railways Ltd, the operating arm of the project, have marred the celebrations for our very successful 2004 running season. Just after the New Year it was necessary to call in an administrator to help the company find a secure way forward to the next phase of the project.
The decisions to be made by the administrator and our funding bodies will not be known for some time yet, so an Easter start to the 2005 running season may not be possible. We do however intend to run services as soon as we can. Immediately the future becomes clear it will be reported here.

The support charity, the Weardale Railway Trust, remains a vibrant, financially healthy body of almost 1,000 supporters who are continuing to maintain and refurbish the infrastructure and vehicles in our care ready for the next running season.