Spot the difference? Too easy this one the two former cooling towers affectionately know locally as "Salt and Pepper" were demolished at 3 am on  Sunday 24th August 2008 after many attempts to save them and have them listed, because of them being a local landmark for travellers by road and rail to the Meadowhall shopping complex and Sheffield. There are many images on YouTube of their demolition. Copy and paste this into your search engine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo3bkdYHp_M&feature=related
No such major happenings alongside our railway in the park. A couple of years ago the winding equipment for the Thorne Colliery was demolished in a similar manor, again this was a land mark from the road and rail users or for the walkers on Thorne Moors.
The photograph with the tram and the towers was taken on the Saturday the last full day they were stood. The photograph on the lower left shows the remaining stumps being removed. 

Tuesday  9th September 2008  Our Summertime table draws to close this month then the railway go onto the Winter Timetable of operating every 1st Sunday in the month. For more details click here  For our operating day on Sunday 7th September the weather turned out better than the forecast. This was to be the day of the first Farmers Market held in the Old Folks Centre because of the poor weather of this year.

Above left is a view of the hall where the Farmers Market is being held because of the continuing bad weather that has prevailed during the summer months. Above right John Stokes brings the locomotive that is named after him into the Thorne Central Station with the locomotive "John L Stokes" . This locomotive is to undergo a major overhaul shortly including a repaint.

From time to time I feature trolleybuses on these website pages including links to various museums where you can see these in operation. Great Britain closed the last public service trolleybus system at Bradford in 1972. There was a failed attempt to bring them back to Doncaster and Rotherham in 1987, however with some minor set backs the trolleybus continues to develop elsewhere in the world. In 2007 a new system opened in Rome and now in 2008 we have the latest developments in Spain where brand new trolleybuses are back on the streets in Castellón. The last Spanish trolleybus system closed on the August 31st 1989 at Pontevedra, but they are back once again in Spain oddly enough being called trams!
On the left we have typical British trolleybus on this line drawing coloured in by Connor Bragg Age 5 years. In the middle we have an ex-London trolleybus (London's system closed in 1962) operating at the East Anglia Transport Museum one of three such museums in Britain. On the right hand view we have one of the brand new trolleybuses in Castellón. They have a guidance system using a sensor mounted on the front of the cab roof which looks down and identifies the white line markings on the road.

Sunday 14th September 2008  Blue skies and some late sun shine enabled the members and the visitors to enjoy an afternoon in the park. A variety of locomotives were out on the tracks including the Stannier Jubilee Class locomotive No 5699 "Galatear"  that  Mike and John are presently building.  On the left Matthew takes Jacks visiting locomotive "Aerial" around the outer circuit that has the 5 and 7 1/4 inch gauge facilities. On the far right David takes a train around with the visitors enjoying the warm sunshine and a train ride.

For almost six years our portable track and a coach has been in storage at the back of a private house (formerly the Station House) at Thorne North Station stored on a trailer that was used to take it to events. I believe the last time the portable track was used was on the 2nd June 2002 for the celebrations in Hexthorpe Flatts of the 100 years of Municipal Public Transport in Doncaster. I hope to show some photographs of this event shortly. After this event it was taken to Thorne North Station and their languished until just over a week ago when after making room in the railway shed in the park the track and the coach were moved back to their original storage location.   

Above left shows the track and the coach after six years of storage and disuse, the brambles were gradually encroaching. On the right shows the coach back on the tracks at Thorne on the 14th September after quick clean up.

In May 2000 the steam locomotive "Remus" with David Stubbins driving and Ted Robinson as guard takes the two original coaches that were used at the park until being replaced by another two new coaches built by the society in 2001 for operating in the park. These two coaches were then put into storage in the shed with one of them being used for portable track events. On the right on September 14th the coach was taken for a test run around the circuit.  Two children wanted to have a ride on this coach but were disappointed to find that it was not possible as the coach will need repainting and then approval by our engineering team as suitable for passenger service.

Sunday 21st September 2008  Electric and steam operation for the last but one of the operating days on the Summer Table saw blue skies and brilliant sunshine to greet the visitors to the park. We issued 197 fare paying tickets and 50 under 3's free tickets. Our volunteers were kept well busy including our new member Jordan.
We have a schools visit on the 30th and will keep the railway open for a further hour on Tuesday 30th September if there is demand and good weather. The weather here after several good days has disgraced itself today (22nd Sept) as a cold north easterly wind has swept rain in from off the North Sea.

Sunday 28th September 2008  Last day of the Summer Timetable saw a full turn out of staff, visitors and visiting locomotives, plus the prize giving events. Click here for more photographs.

Well wrapped up and with raincoats on a group of Children made the way into the rather cold and wet park to ride on the miniature railway. The children enjoyed many trips around the circuit whilst their teacher Miss Sanders and assistants watched on taking shelter in the gazebos we had put up because of the rain.  On the upper left photograph the children are all set for the first ride. Lower left we see them lined up next to the station sign "Thorne Central". Most of the children had we found out had ridden on the railway before, just a few not, but what they had not seen, was their teacher driving a railway locomotive  before. It was time for our member Stuart Lamming to be the teacher! The children and staff enjoyed their and I am sure the notice board in the school will be displaying many photographs of their visit to the railway Click Here for more photographs