Our recent Friends of Thomas the Tank Engine Weekend went well with good attendance throughout the weekend, reasonable weather and excellent performance from trains and crews. The only drama of the weekend occurred when members of the local rugby club drove a car and trailer down our line to recover equipment and were quite offended that we should chose to drive our train where they wanted to work. But it was pleasing to see the line working to capacity with trains filled with happy passengers of all ages.

The societies recent investment in a belt sander has speeded the job of preparing box wagon K610's roof considerably, although we doubt the manufacturer intended a domestic tool to undertake smoothing such a large and uneven surface area. Some areas need a bit more filler and sanding but the end is in sight on this stage. The early stages of rot have been repaired in the ends of the roof timbers as well. The moldings that support the edge boards have now been fitted, and a replacement curved board that runs under the No.2 end roof timbers has been made but still requires sanding, filling and painting. Making a molding of this radius and thickness with such a deep bevel proved challenging with our limited equipment base but the end result should be quite good. The No.1 end molding is receiving extensive repairs as both ends were split and it was out of position.

The latest batch of Cattle Wagon floor boards have been bolted into position on T175 and the next batch have been sanded and primed, with the goal of completing the northern end floor in the near future. The steel framing on the north end that was effected by rain on the fresh paint has been cleaned back to bare steel and primed again.

Further trackwork has been undertaken, this time replacing some old sleepers that may have disintegrated as a result of trucks using the railway for access to the Marlow Courts development. The track crew have also dealt with some of the weeds that were engulfing part of the track.

Both tanks on the Kerr Stuart steam locomotive are now in storage as the 10 year survey progresses. Some scale on the inside of the boiler has been removed and we continue to be optimistic about the condition of the boiler.

A67 has a new boiler ticket after a recent visit from the boiler inspector, and the locomotive has been used extensively over the Christmas holidays.

Work is continuing on the refurbishment of the former Katiki station. The entire building is now secure and the rotten internal partition has been removed. Finance has been secured for having the T&G cladding made for the interior of the tablet office and this timber will be machined and delivered in the near future.

The carriages have had their annual brake inspection and they were found to be in excellent working order. Some tie rods in the frame of carriage A193 that were removed many decades ago to allow for the installation of the gas tanks have been reinstated since the vehicle hasn't carried the tanks for many years.