Having explored the workshops, running shed and carriage shed, we caught the empty stock working down to Wharf Station (starting point of all Talyllyn trains) where we caught up with Keith Theobald, who gave us a guided tour of the new Narrow gauge Railway Museum, including railwayana, locomotives, signalling, and even a replica of the study (complete with book collection) where the late Reverend Awdry wrote his many Thomas the Tank Engine stories.
The facility and machine tools are part of an incentive by the railway to attract and train apprentices in restoration and maintenance of steam locomotives and other railway equipment, funded in part by a Coastal Communities development grant.
4, one of the Menzies Creek museum locomotives, and the day happened to coincide with the SBR’s family day. The event, put on by the owner of Statfold Barn Farm, Graham Lee, is a thankyou to the employees and volunteers that run the farm and railway, including the locomotive restoration business. Parking at the main farm, we took the train which skirted the crops until it reached the grain store.
