This week (22nd-28th January 2024)

Busy, busy, busy!

There’s a lot of work being carried out during the Work Weekends. Last week saw the arrival of a metals skip, so on Saturday, the big task was to fill it with the scrap collected over the last year or two, you’d be surprised how much scrap we generate!

Work has been progressing on Coach 204’s rebuild, preparing it for the arrival of the new doors, and Coach 647 is being refurbished – it looks airier than usual without its side panels!

Currently in the Engine Shed are ‘Superb’ & ‘Triumph’ at the back and ‘Leader’ & ‘Premier’ at the front. ‘Barton Hall’ and ‘Melior’ are being stored outside, in front of the engine shed. ‘Barton Hall’ is in service, all the steam locos are in hibernation for the winter.

Work has been progressing on the refurbishment of the shop and kitchen.

If you have any skills or a trade and you would like to offer help, please email info@sklr.net – all help gratefully received!

Work Weekends

Next weekend is the third of our fortnightly Winter Work Weekends. We will be working from 10am until about 4pm.

If you require picking up from Sittingbourne National Rail station, Sittingbourne Viaduct station or Kemsley Paper Mill car park, please email info@sklr.net by 5pm on the Friday before to arrange a lift as there will not be a Works Train.

Full information can be found here and you are reminded that you will need to bring your own food as there are no shops close by when we are working at Kemsley Down.

Work Weekend dates are as follows:

  • Saturday 3rd February – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Sunday 4th February – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Saturday 17th February – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Sunday 18th February – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Saturday 2nd March – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Sunday 3rd March – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Saturday 16th March – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed
  • Sunday 17th March – Kemsley Down – to be confirmed.

Our volunteers are feverishly working at the Railway between Work Weekends. Typically, different teams work on regular days:

Other teams work as necessary, usually on a Wednesday or weekend.

If you are interested in volunteering with one of the teams mentioned above please email info@sklr.net and we’ll put you in contact with that team.

Photo of the Week

Here’s a photo from last Saturday – Platform 1 is hosting the wood wagon, a container on a wagon, a passenger train rake and a further wagon at the far end whilst Platform 2 has the PWay train of two wagons and a coach with diesel locomotive ‘Victor’ leading (although not running on Saturday) and all of this was under a gloomy sky – must be January!

Find out more…

To find out more about the Railway – visit our website (www.sklr.net), see our page on Facebook, or find us on X (formerly known as Twitter), Threads or Instagram or Tumblr as @SandKLR. To contact us, email info@sklr.net