It's quite shameful to admit that there's a preserved railway little more than an hour from home that I hadn't visited before, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway at the edge of Wirksworth, Derbyshire. I suppose it had been a little off the radar as not being the conventional steam-centred family day out type railway and I've done it a substantial injustice in thinking that way. Ecclesbourne is far more about the railway that I grew up with definite leaning towards some interesting DMUs. On most preserved railways these are very much the low cost early empty services early on in the day but instead they're quite a feature at Ecclesbourne, and that's a good thing.

Ben and I were there as a research visit and there was certainly a chance for me to capture bags of reference pictures for future projects. We were treated to a behind the scenes look at the stock and the workshops but first of all it was time for a spot of breakfast; again this was a little bit different with the kitchen set up in a Pullman-liveried Gatwick luggage van attached to Mark 2 TSO and FO, again from an earlier life on the Gatwick Express.

A trip up to the workshop gave us chance to look at the Severn Tunnel Rescue vehicles, converted in 2001 from Class 121.

 

55027 was selected, along with classmate 55031, for conversion into special Severn Tunnel Rescue vehicles. The modifications were extensive. Now wearing the departmental number of 977975, all but the cab windows and the guards door windows were removed and in their place a large opening ramp was installed to allow easy boarding if there was an emergency in the tunnel. The guards van had a generator unit installed which provided 240v ‘hotel power’ to the vehicle with strip lights providing solebar level lighting and 16amp sockets were also provided at the same level to allow for equipment to be plugged in to the vehicle. Internally, the vehicles featured equipment for dealing with injuries as well as areas for passengers to ride standing up.

Ben and I took the chance for a look inside the sister vehicle, thanks to our mobile's torches.

We had a run down to Shottle which gave chance to see the Pway team and the road-railer in action.

It's not often there's chance to see point mechanisms in such pristine condition; some more useful reference pics grabbed.

A dig under a few wagons, worthwhile for a future project.

The 108 DMBS headed our service back to Wirksworth with suitably nostalgic bouncy seats.

Although this was an out of school holiday Tuesday it was good to see services well used and so it was on the dining service down to Duffield. Their Crompton, 33103 'Swordfish' sounded very well on its runs and it was a pleasure to sit back in an FK on a fine summer's day with the familiar smells and sounds.

The railway is currently holding an appeal to build a traditional style booking office for the platform at Duffield - http://www.e-v-r.com/documents/duffieldbhproject.pdf. They're looking to raise £25,000 and they're well over halfway there, we've chipped in so hopefully we'll see that in use next season. If you visit the railway over the next week or so they're holding a raffle with some great prizes including driver experience days and railway membership.

The scenery is gentle but superb along the route with all the former station buildings occupied as residences, the train's third man operates the level crossings so there's plenty of chance to take the scenery in along the way and see the railway's operations.

Much as I enjoyed the Crompton I don't think you can beat the view from the front seat of a DMU so please take time to visit Ecclesbourne and relive your youth!