Below: Work continues on Road 4 – more rails are being brought in from store and placed ready for laying out and bending.

Below: Few visitors will have missed the developments at the east end of the town street. The former Hunters Tea Store, part of the building that came from Annfield Plain (and also part of the Coop structure) is being extensively rebuilt to become a bakery. The building has never been used, having been erected by a Manpower Services Commission scheme but which was subsequently deemed to be sub-standard. Work will continue into next year but will result in an attractive and operational building at this end of the town.

Below: Routine jobs – repainting the sweetshop frontage.

Below: The station volunteers have nearly completed the cobble path that will give an improved surface from the RMS to the station. This winter we will look at rebuilding the crossing gates and improving the clearance and fit of these. The Y7 is in the background to be lit, it being in steam this week for staff training. At the other end of the station a volunteer has begun the task of clearing the undergrowth that has become quite extensive with the warm wet weather of 2011.

Below: The benches…. Seen previously, the four benches rebuilt by the Friends are now in position to give weary visitors a respite at the top of the hill behind the Resource Centre. These had been built from castings, with all new timber and much work to prepare the metalwork.