After its excursion to the Steam Fayre, 6705 is now back at Williton. See the photo showing it being shunted back into place by class 33 diesel D6575.

(Photo courtesy and copyright Allan Howles)

6705 and sleeping car 9038 attracted an estimated 500 to 550 visitors throughout the two days of the rally. Also, a significant amount of money was collected in donations, this amounted to £320.

On 2nd August, the Western Morning News carried a comprehensive article on the heritage carriages project coach restoration, this article was more or less a resumé of everything that the board and volunteers already know or can find out from our website etc.

Behind-the-scenes, discussions continue over a number of important future matters, including possible developments of the site at Williton, where a project manager will be being sought (on a voluntary basis) to work on this. A person specification will be going to be produced in due course for this role.

As part of continuing preparation with regard to a Heritage lottery fund application, a review of the contents of the Bishops Lydeard Gauge Museum is being undertaken, to try to assess whether it would be possible to make it more interactive, and also more educationally relevant. The Heritage lottery fund places great emphasis on education, (as is only right), and we need to see if we can make better use of the resources that we have in this direction. The two items which are present in the Gauge Museum which can be considered to be totally interactive are the Powderham signal box, and also the sleeping car, but both of these really only come to life if there can be stewards present, to show how the signal box actually worked in the former, and to be able to show people around inside the sleeping car and to explain its relevance with regard to the latter.

Claire Sheppy