heritage railway makes progress on extra coaches to support services to Leek

2020 saw the North Staffordshire Railway company take the lead on acquiring more coaches to support the future expansion of Churnet Valley Railway services into Leek.

Whilst the first COVID lockdown disrupted both the NSRC and the CVR, the project still proved to be a relative success, and come early summer railway volunteers and staff from Batt Holden Limited were able to make extensive progressive with the first restoration - TSO E3809.

The plan had been to have the coach ready for the Santa trains, but sadly time just ran out on the team and combined with low volunteer numbers due to the ever changing restrictions,this didn’t happen .

Currently staff are semi-furloughed, and volunteer numbers controlled as part of the third lockdown, so further progress is still limited and yet slowly but surely efforts continue to have the vehicle available for service in the 2021 season (whenever that is able to commence).

The railway is looking to have E3809 re-enter service during this year.

The railway are still £1500 short of the £14,000 needed to cover the purchase of this and two other vehicles.

The railway are currently accepting donations through their crowd funded appeal.

https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/appeal.co.uk/appeal/cvr_coaches