Four more railways receive much- needed extra emergency grant aid
THE National LotteryHeritageFundhas thrown lifelines to three more railways to help themsurvive the Covid- 19crisis.
The latest handout from the organisation’s £ 50- million Heritage Emergency Fund has seen the Keighley& Worth Valley Railway receive £ 50,000 to facilitate the replacement of Bridge 11, work on which began in January but was halted at the outbreak of the pandemic.
The line’s chairman Dr Matt Stroh said: “Thanks to the National Lottery and its players we can now complete the work necessary to replace the venerable 115- year old bridge and will then be in a position to reopen the railway to passengers in the coming weeks.
“Without their support, we would have struggled tomeet the additional costs caused by having to pause and then recommence the work at a time when we have had no income from operations for over three months.
“As a result of their funding, we can look forward to reopening the railway to passengers shortly, albeit with continued restrictions to protect the safety of our volunteers and visitors.”
Resumption
Minorwork in preparation for the resumption of the bridgeworks has been undertaken mainly at weekends. Thesitewill be reopened on Friday, July17, with lifting- in of the new beams on the nextday. Installing of concrete reinforcementwill take place on July 19, and concreting fromJuly 20- 22, followedbywaterproofing and reinstatement of the track from Thursday, July23 toFriday, July31. Works trains have been operatedonan as- required basis.
The Bala Lake Railway has received £ 40,000 to assist with essential costs during closure, while running its own appeal ( see main story).
Its chairman Julian Birley said:
“We can nowhaveamuch greater hope of coming through these unprecedented times better and stronger.”
Also benefiting with £ 25,200 from the emergency fund is the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, which had already raised more than £ 50,000 from public donations to its Tracks to Recovery appeal to help it survive lockdown.
The appeal has nowbeen repurposed to ensure that Beyer Peacock 0- 6- 0T No. 822 The Earl is able to haul trains again in 2021. In mid- 2019 its was sent for its mandatory 10- year overhaul at the Vale of Rheidol Railway, allowing Llanfair’s ownworkshop team to tackle other pressing maintenance and restoration work.
Funding
Overhaul of TheEarlwasplanned to be fundedout of existing revenueand donations, including a large legacy of uncommitted funds. However, the closurebecause of the Covid- 19 pandemic willmean that the railway faces much greaterdemands on its existing funds over thecoming winter, leaving it needing to raise £ 95,000 to complete the overhaul.
The KeepThe Earl onTrack appeal has already raised more than £ 30,000.
Donations may bemade at cafdonate. cafonline. org/ 9557#!/ DonationDetails
Meanwhile, the Welsh Government has given £ 70,000 to the Llangollen Railway which had, as we closed for press, raised around £ 80k through donations to its llangollenrailway. charitycheckout. co. uk/ cf/ covid- 19appeal plus share purchases and other grants. However, chairman Liz McGuiness expressed concern that the money would quickly run out if services did not restart soon.
She said:“We are planning our reopening and starting to bring employees and volunteers back at the beginning of July with a view to opening in August.”
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