The West Somerset Steam Railway Trust AGM was held on 23rd of April 2016, at the Gauge Museum, Bishops Lydeard.

There was a very pleasing turnout in terms of numbers of people attending to this meeting.

Turning now to the West Somerset Railway Spring Gala 2016, which has been widely acclaimed as being the best Gala ever, (see the many excellent videos on YouTube, together with comments concerning the event) , the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust played a significant part, succeeding in manning the Blue Anchor Museum, and the Gauge Museum at Bishops Lydeard on all six days of the Gala, and 6705 at Williton on all but the Thursday of the Gala on which day the shed was not open to the general public. This included the bringing in of the N-Gauge model of Burnham on Sea station (photos of this are as below in an earlier posting), which was much admired both for its accuracy and it’s running.

With regard to 6705, work being undertaken currently centres extensively around varnishing the internal panelling, . If anyone is either proficient at scumbling, or would like to learn how to do this, then we would be particularly pleased to see you at Williton. Also underway is exploration concerning the restoration of the seating, and its necessary upholstery.

Finally, we are taking steps to endeavour to make the West Somerset Steam Railway Trust website more visible. To this end, Steve Edge and myself are jointly exploring ways of improving the website and access to it. If you have ever googled West Somerset Steam Railway Trust you will find that it does not produce a direct link, amongst other things, what we are trying to achieve is that if one were to put in “West Somerset Steam Railway Trust”, it would come up with a direct link to the Trust website as either the first or second item in the list.

Claire Sheppy, 25 April 2016.