Special day planned for season’s start
BOOSTED by a record attendance and ticket sales during December’s Santa weekends, Yeovil Railway Centre officials are preparing for a special Train Day on March 30 to reopen its season.
The event will focus on the return to traffic of resident Peckett 0-4-0ST Pectin following a lengthy overhaul. It will coincide with plans for the withdrawal of 0-4-0ST Lord Fisher, owned by the late Barry Buckfield, who moved the engine from the East Somerset Railway to Yeovil for overhaul, the saddle tank return to steam in 2013, and subsequently providing cover during Pectin’s overhaul.
Both 0-4-0s will be in service until midsummer, when Lord Fisher is stopped for overhaul.
At track level, the proposal to extend the former GWR Clifton Maybank branch, known locally as the Wilderness Branch, have been approved by Network Rail and Somerset County Council.
To this end, 16 lengths of 40ft panels of bullhead track has been recovered from a disused siding that once served an RAF fuel distribution point near Chichester and probably nearby Tangmere airfield, which is now a museum.
More lengths are required to complete the extension, with work starting later this year.
Chairman Paul Gould reported that that the centre’s Conflat wagon is ready for use on demonstration goods trains after being fully refurbished, while work on a GWR ‘Toad’ guards van continues. Another vehicle, a LSWR (Plymouth) dock wagon partially restored to look aged, is available for use.