This week a major clear up of the stockpile of track fittings and rail behind the town commenced. This is to clear the area to enable the planned locomotive shed (a single road traditional corrugated iron clad building 100ft long plus storage/mess facilities) to be built. The first stage will be digging trial pits, this being uneven and poor ground. A pit will also be part of the facilities and is likely to be the first stage of the project.

In previous years there had once been a fan of sidings here, and a shed known as the Poly-shed, all long removed except for one siding (seen with the NER stored van parked on it in the first photo). A large pile of rail appeared, was added to and seemed to attract further piles of railway track items – not an ideal store! It has also been a bit of an eyesore to passengers on both the railway and tramway. The area will become the basis for a steam contractors yard, housing road locomotives and older plant items, probably also featuring a re-erected Westoe Netty and various other items that suit the ‘behind the town’ nature of the site. As the area is also our loading/unloading area for Rowley Station, this needs to be considered in our planning.

Below: The first stage has been removing piles and piles of rail, a mix of tramway (in two different sizes – BS8 and Ri60 – the latter being our passenger standard, the former for depot lines etc.) and railway track/turnouts of flat bottomed and bullhead variety. This sorting has enabled a major stocktake of what we have and also enabled us to clear out any material that is life expired. It is amazing what has been hidden away all these years! This work will continue into the next few weeks, leaving enough rail plus one turnout on site to form the new shed road.

Below: A separate, temporary, store has been created for the tram rail, and all lengths will be gathered to this one site as part of our spring clean. To the left of this view are spare lengths of Ri60 and to the right is the BS8 so far recovered and which will eventually be used in and around the tram depot to create much needed additional space undercover as well as renew the very tired looking depot fan. This is a great start and the track lads, Darren and Mark, have been working with a contractor on this project, moving and sorting tons and tons of rail in the process.