Over the past few years I've communicated about the Royal Arsenal Railway's 18 inch system with several members. There's now a real chance that the RAR will resume, in a most appropriate place.
Thanks to the good offices of the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Trust the surviving RAR equipment is being loaned for a generous restoration and operation period to the Crossness Engines Trust.
The Crossness site is adjacent to the Royal Arsenal and all the rolling stock would have worked well within sight of its new home. On 18th May Avonside 0-4-0T 'Woolwich' was the first item be transferred. She was briefly displayed within the Royal Arsenal and former employees were on hand to re-aquaint themselves with her. She'd been away for 53 years. Excellent press coverage was obtained including several minutes on BBC TV news.
On Sunday June 26th Crossness pumping station will be holding a rare public steaming day.
All are more than welcome and this will be the last chance to see 'Woolwich' before she is dismantled for overhaul. A visit is worthwhile as the pumping station houses the four largest rotative beam engines in the World and the interior's decorative ironwork is utterly remarkable. Many visitors gasp when they enter the engine house for the first time. There's information about the open day here...
http://www.crossness.org.uk/
... click the 'visit' tab.
The railway project has its own 'blog' containing both news of current progress and RAR history. The author Mark Smithers is currently contributing a history of the Avonside 0-4-0Ts. See...
http://www.therailwayproject.blogspot.com/
There are additional photos of the move from Waltham Abbey back to South East London here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianbullsph ... 767521099/
This will be an exciting and worthwhile project and there's a great deal of local public support. We also have superb engineering facilities but, we do need new members!
I hope this information was near enough to Gn15 to be of interest.
All the best
Ian Bull
