Dear all
An amazingly productive day given its proximity to Christmas with the PWT enhancing the harvest of redundant assets at Shottle for sale in the New Year that will aid us to achieve the projects we have set ourselves when there is little alternative income. Saturday's final Santa train has been serviced including a check on the heaters that are all now working efficiently. With some difficulty LJB has been shunted to the pit road and work has commenced to strip down the area of the defective water pump. As ever, this is proving a complex task which seems to involve the oil pump, alternator and errant water pump. LJB seems to have not designed ease of maintenance when he put the locomotive together!
After a false start yesterday due to weather conditions John was able to apply the umber undercoat to the Buffet Car's east side today and, conditions permitting, will apply the gloss tomorrow. All being well, the interior fitout can commence in January presenting quite a challenge to John Birkinshaw.
The Bubble Car is also coming on in leaps and bounds with the floor in the Guards compartment receiving attention today.
The VCT tended to an area north of DJW6 before retiring to the luxury of The Railway Hotel at Shottle for their Christmas Lunch. This unique team has achieved tremendous work and well deserved their annual celebration with a full turnout of 10 members. They really do ensure our passengers have delightful views of the Valley and that the sightlines at our many accommodation and footpath crossings minimise the risks of incidents. Their continued efforts to repair some 18 miles of fencing using the minimum of bought in materials does not go unnoticed. A delightful team that just gets on with it!
The Booking Hall dealt with the remaining Santa bookings for this Saturday and there is a gentle take up of advance sales of our Day Rover as a stocking filler for Christmas.
Another good day.
Martin
