First movement on the Aln Valley Railway

[52D]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpW-sgzemIY&feature=plcp
The first movement on the newly built Aln Valley Railway was the trip from the storage roads to the shed by the former Whittle coillery Barclay diesel yesterday. i have been following the guys on facebook and for a few good men they have made tremendous progress.

[Autocar Publicity]

There's a piece in the current issue of Heritage Railway, suggesting there may be trains this Easter.

[52D]

Gareth informs me that driver training has started and that the track in the station area(Lionheart) is approaching completion.

[60041]

As many of you will be aware, we have been running short passenger rides this summer using a Whickham Trolley and trailer, and running works trains with our resident Andrew Barclay diesel shunter, however a major milestone was reached yesterday when the first steam locomotive to run in Alnwick since 1966 travelled around the site.
Hudswell Clarke "Richboro" No.1243 of 1917 was successfully steamed for the first time since it came to the site late last year. Once steam was up, all appeared to be well so the loco and Brake Van made several trips from the end of the headshunt into platform 1 and back.
Once a few little outstanding jobs are completed, it is hoped that Richboro will be able to operate again in October.

[60041]

The rapidly developing AVR has received an award from the HRA; a nice bit of recognition for all the hard work that has been done this year.
http://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk/ ... -1-6334592