Above Left: James Newton with the locomotive on test Sunday 25th August 2009. Middle: Perhaps for one last time on Saturday 11th April 2010 may be seen on the tracks at Thorne (photograph by Stuart Lamming).  Right: Silver Link is loaded ready be taken away by the new owner who lives in Doncaster so it may reappear on the tracks in Thorne (photograph by Stuart Lamming). 

Sadly our member Ron Smelt died on Saturday 5th September 2009.  The steam locomotive "Koppel" which he started to restore for the railway, but due to his illness could not quite finish today received had a special plaque fixed to the cad of Koppel commemorate his services to the railway. Thank you Ron for everything you did for the railway in the park and the many other projects you denoted such a vast amount of your voluntary time. To the left we see Ron on one of the many trips he made to Darlington to work on the new standard gauge steam locomotive Tornado.   

Sunday 18th April 2010 Sadly train services had to be cancelled due to illness and no staff. The children's drawing facilities had to remain unused in the campervan so no more drawings of ducks or trains. The paper the prizes will be brought again for the May Day Sunday & Monday.
I could not operate the train service by myself and that applies to a member who turned up earlier then after I had left. However I spent some of time preparing the boiler from the steam locomotive Remus that is awaiting a major overhaul.     

The first Sunday of the new Autumn/Winter Timetable saw brilliant warm sunshine something not forecast a few days previously. This was the second Sunday that the Farmers Market was held in its new location in the Old Peoples Centre on Church Street in Thorne. There is good positive feedback about the indoor location. There is room for several outdoor stalls if required.

Plenty of clouds of smoke as the fire is light on the locomotive "Koppel" brought along for the afternoon steam service by Mike and John. The electric locomotive "The Duke" last used for the Summer Festival Event in July has had a new set of batteries purchased enabling it to see some service for the Autumn and Winter service. 

Above right the younger members of the railway carry out some repairs to the roof of the former air raid shelter. During the last few days of the heavy rain has leaked into the building via what was the chimney for the stove that once kept the  shelter warm during the war. The stove was removed many years ago.  I am sure we have now made the remains of the chimney watertight again. No doubt this weeks coming bad weather will put it to the test!

Sunday 26th October 2008 All quiet in the park until our members arrive to carry out some much needed maintenance  work on the rolling stock. It was time for Remus's tender and boiler to be flushed out plus some cleaning out of the boiler tubes.

David and Matthew working with the tender, whilst some Brasso makes the copper pipes and boiler lagging brass bands really gleam in the morning sunshine so that the locomotive would look its best for the next operating day on the 2nd November for the Farmers Market Special.
Also on Sunday Keith tells me both of the Societies coaches have were fitted with multi-height coupler. We are now looking to possibility of fitting similar couplings fitting to the Sandtoft Miniature Railway Groups coaches that are on loan to the D&DMESL.

A Day out in Barnsley Taking advantage of our over 60's Travel Passes a day out in Barnsley is an attractive proposition in true Yorkshire Tradition "anything for nowt" is not to be missed. A train journey from Kirk Sandall Station and changing at Meadowhall for Barnsley was not be missed on Friday 10th October. We were very impressed with "Sailor Sid's Sweet" in the market. An excellent market with a huge range of stalls, but be quick the planners have ideas for a new market! The miners underground tub is one of two on display in the town centre.
The rest of this article along with others have now been transferred to the return feature "Out and About" Click here to go to this page.

Doncaster Weather Webcam   At last Doncaster has its own weather station and webcam not too far from where I live. Not only does the website give you the current weather for Doncaster you can view the weather charts for Britain and Europe. It also shows lightning strikes, cloud cover, flood maps, satellite images. So before making that journey to Doncaster if you want to check if its sunny or snowing then this is the website to have a look at first. As the railway website is updated I will be adding more links on, just look for the "Weather Station" logo and click onto it and you will be taken straight to this new and very informative website. You can click onto the image here to the right to have a look at the website.