Thompson Park Miniature Railway, Burnley, Lancashire UK.

December 2025 Newsletter

by Bret Harrison, Track Maintenance Dept.

An early newsletter this month as we have now shut down for Christmas holidays, My last newsletter in November was my 24th and it does seem hard for me to think that I have been writing these newsletters for 2 years now so here goes on the third year

Much of our activities this month have been directed at our Santa Trains weekend which took place on the weekend of Dec.6/7th. A lot of preparation is needed for this event and particularly in the period leading up to the event and again clearing up after the event. A new gazebo has been purchased to act as Santas Grotto as our previous one was damaged beyond repair in the weather as we were building the new shed complex. Gifts needed to be assessed and purchased, the coaches renamed as reindeers and fitted with decorative lighting and a myriad of other things not least being clearing the track from millions of leaves and broken branches shed from the trees. The leaves seem to collect between the rails but there are so many trees in the park clearing them is a thankless task, Surely there are better mechanical ways of achieving this leaf removal.

Anyway, was the event a success? From a weather point of view an emphatic NO!  Of course, at this time of year, we are always dependent on the weather, and it let us down this time, but we would thank the hardy souls who did turn out to ride our trains. The children of course certainly did enjoy themselves and we enjoyed taking them on this little journey pre-Christmas to Santas Grotto. We as Society members enjoyed the event despite the weather and the low numbers attending to ride the trains and we do especially need to thank Santa and his Helper and the Elves for turning out at this busy time of year for them. Everyone made the best of the weekend, and thanks go to all the members involved in the planning and running of the event.  As usual there was more than enough food left over and thanks go to the member who personally made much of the food and Christmas cake himself, Thankyou John,  this surplus food was donated to a local charity, The Gateway for the homeless and the balance of the chocolate box gifts were donated to our Charity for this year the Hub in Padiham and Burnley who help lonely people in any way they can and we do hope that those who did brave the weather had a really good time.

We as I alluded to previously have spent little time on the new shed build this month, but we have fitted 2 buffer stops we made in our workshop at the end of the storage roads in the shed. It remains to tidy up the trackwork, complete ballasting and levelling it and finally fit a roof and security doors to the low level profile. It is a low level profile as that is all that is needed to fit our coaching stock. The roof will be a seedum based one and the shed itself will be painted green, these measures to reduce its impact on the surrounding area

One unwanted thing about the new build was that the ballast pathway to access the back of the large garden area was compromised with muck and debris and the temporary logs laid at the time to define the pathway have been removed and replaced with concrete blocks. The garden now looks much better and tidier after cleanup and rechipping.

Regarding the gardens, all the gardens have been winterised and hundreds of bulbs planted which should provide a bonny show in the Spring.

So, we plan to enjoy Christmas holidays now. The steam locomotives have been winterised, and all the fleet now await winter maintenance before a busy new season.

One thing we wanted to do this winter was to break out the concrete apron surrounding the turntable, the part where the tracks from the table are laid and replace with a new concrete base as the existing concrete is life expired and breaking up. It remains to be seen if we will be able to achieve this as there is much to do in other parts of the Railway. 

So, it just remains for me to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Bret.

[ Webmasters note : I would just like to thank Bret for doing these for the past 2 years and look forward to many more. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. ]