One could be forgiven for thinking that all recent activity at Apedale has been on a certain cartoon-dog named Ruston. This is far from the truth. Today, a fairly large civil engineering project saw the workshop headshunt line extended further north. "Headshunt" is rather a misnomer, since this will ultimately form the access to the lower level industrial demonstration railway. However, we are stuggling to reach consensus on what this bet of railway is actually called. Aurora North 4, The Ramp, Aurora Bypass and the Headshunt have been suggested. Someone else did suggest we called it Brian, but we don't think he quite understood the question. Anyway, the Hayfield coach is off on a short holiday to the Amerton Railway next weekend, and this is the only place where we can end-load vehicles. So, we needed to get this finished. So, the gang extended the line by another panel, finished off levelling and aligning what was already there, and then ballasted the whole area. The final product was compared to a Network Rail main line, which we were rather offended by. Marking Armed Forces Day, we did see a brief dress parade by the 2nd Batallion Apedale Volunteers Company - a body of men not to be trifled with. You can come along and see Brian the Railway next weekend with Steam Traction - a special event in aid of the Douglas MacMillan Hospices. What better reason for a train ride down the valley? Get in touch here.
