During 2005 the railway operated on 51 days and carried 5,670 passengers. During August trains ran on every day bar two.

In May took Joan to Cleethorpes and to Evesham, then the Cagney to Ireland. These adventures are described below.

Work proceeded on our new tramcar. The end panels were removed to take the vehicle back to its original 'Pullman' appearance. A new seat was provided for the driver and a new footwell at the back, then the whole vehicle was repainted outside and in.

It operated successfully under its own power using temporary batteries, then we removed the drive chain and latterly have been using the car as a passenger coach - our only enclosed vehicle.

Behind the scenes a great deal of effort was put into our station building and museum project. In May the Heritage Lottery Fund announced that the scheme had received a Stage One pass and awarded funding for the development stage. Further details are on the station building page.

During July Messrs Ian Farmer Associates were on site to conduct a survey of the ground conditions. Their drilling rig was the first physical sign of the scheme taking place.

Thanks to Richard Shaw for the use of his Gala photographs.

Trains ran continuously for 100 hours - a brave endeavour!

Our engine seemed very at home here, working trains alongside Sutton Flyer, Sutton Belle, and Red Dragon from the Windmill Farm Railway. All four Atlantics are seen in these photographs, together with Chris and Debra Shaw of CCLR. 

Our friends from the Sherwood Forest Railway brought their engine Smokey Joe to join in, and the CCLR home fleet of 24, Effie, and Toby were also running. Monday was tremendously busy - the railway carried over 5,000 passengers during the weekend.