November 2011

It would be easy for folk to think that now is a quiet time at K&ESR. It most certainly is not.
We have just had our most successful October half term week ever and our “Fright Night” trains were wonderful. We have had so many e-mails and notes of thanks for enjoyable evenings. It is great to see so many of our staff in fancy dress for the occasions. Just four words – we all love it!

This is an important time for planning 2012, and I have started on 2013 which will be a momentous year as it is when we have to repay the Bodiam Bonds. These are £500k of bearer bonds issued to finance the extension to Bodiam in 2000. This has an enormous impact on our future finances both imminently and for the medium term future as we have to forecast what we will actually need to borrow to, cover the value of the bonds we have to redeem. Repayment is only 20 months away now. We have had a small number of bonds returned to us by owners who are donating them to K&ESR, and this is much appreciated.
On the subject of gifts, we have produced our new “Gifts and Legacies” leaflet. Legacies are incredibly important to us, and this year have had a significant impact on our financial reserves. I was talking to my parents about their wishes for funerals etc last night. Hopefully they will be still be around for a few more years, but it is an apt reminder that everyone needs to make arrangements for their estate, no matter how well they may be feeling.

We have had a good year so far and provided the snow stays away we should carry the highest number of passengers since 2000, which is wonderful news.

More great news is that for our May Gala we will see 4247, kindly loaned by “Bodmin & Wenford”. As the efforts on 4253 continue at great pace (and they tell me they are already on year 2’s work of a 10 year plan) it will be great to see what the finished loco will look like.
I hope to announce the other guest loco in a couple of weeks.

Remembrance Day sees the Cavell Van in a mixed SECR train with 3062 having its first public day out. This carriage has not been seen in service for 90 years. It was rescued as living accommodation by our Ashford Supporters Group and painstakingly restored in our Carriage & Wagon department. Throughout the country there are many carriages in alternative use, and is great to see them return to traffic in their original liveries and that is a credit to the Heritage Railway movement.

RVR continue to make great progress in re-building the bridges between North Bridge Street and Robertsbridge Junction station. You can follow their progress on their website.
We have a small construction site of our own at the moment as our volunteer team at Bodiam are building a new passenger waiting room. The base is down and that will be ready for opening next year.

We recently had a small filming contract here for a Pinewood Studios Production “The Last Passenger”. This involved a scene whereby a carriage was on fire. Although I am always delighted to welcome film crews to K&ESR I must say this one had me more than a little concerned. I did of course have no need to worry, the effects team were fantastic and the Director has gone away happy (as always).

I have just acquired a new phone and am getting to grips with the new technology as I try to manage en electronic diary. I am getting there! We embrace new technology here, and we can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. I haven’t adopted Twitter yet. At a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting their webmaster explained how she was re-tweeting our tweets and at that point I went for a good old traditional pint of ale. It is important to preserve some of our traditional past-times!