Moreton Pit Light Railway

The Moreton Pit Light Railway was completely shut down today due to the severe weather.  So much snow fell overnight that it was impossible to find the station!

Who moved the station?

Unfortunately, no trains could have run anyway as Red Bridge was impassible.

One of the biggest problems was lack of power due to the lines being pulled down by the weight of snow!

Power lines down at Lavender Hill

Luckily the old water tower which last year was caught by high winds, managed to withstand the heavy snowfall.

And what about the birds on the reserve, we hear you ask?  Well, you don’t need to worry about them, Mr Bill Goodie the Reserve Manager has valiantly gone out in thick snow to fill up the bird feeders!

Starling having his fill of fat balls!

Casting your mind back to October (see Archive for details), you may remember that a couple of the intrepid Essex Pot-Holing Club discovered a new system of caves and had called a halt to their explorations due to some boulders that had to clear before they could get any further.  Well, Trev and Slim did go back and clear the way through.  They then made a rather amazing discovery, which we can reveal to you.  It was a very old and rather dilapidated Kerr Stuart 4415!  It had been taken down the old tunnel during the war for safe keeping and totally forgotten about!  Trev and Slim obviously didn’t know what they were looking at but having called out the lads they soon got it out of there and into the workshop and here they are!

Considering how long it had been there it was in remarkably good condition as you can see.

Stan is very impressed!

It will need a bit of tlc and a good bit of greasing up etc but it all seems to be there.  Even Sooty the cat took to it!

We expect to see it out and about the MPLR this summer and if you want to know more about its discovery, you will be pleased to know that Pits Productions have got it all on film!