Burnley & Pendle Miniature Railway Society
Burnley, Lancashire UK.
January 2026 Newsletter.

January was a short month for us Railway wise as we returned to the Railway from Christmas and New Year holidays on the 14th nevertheless much activity has been carried out on the Railway since.

A lot of work has been directed at the track where recovery from some winter ravishes have been carried out. The soft earth persuades ballast in places to sink into the ground leaving sleeper ends in particular exposed. This in turn can lead to the track kinking out of alignment which had happened in 2 places. These kinks were straightened and a programme of building the ballast back up begun, we still have a lot to do but the following photos show areas that have been dealt with. Multi loads of ballast have been dropped so far in conjunction with John continuing his work trimming track edges back from grass encroachment. This work will continue.

Work has also been carried out on the station approach turnouts where the hydraulic rams which operate the turnouts have been attended to. One needing a complete replacement and the other new rubber gaiters fitted in order to stop leaks of hydraulic fluid.

In addition, a new switch mechanism has been fabricated to switch over the spring-loaded turnout which gives access to the yard from the outer main line. This has proven necessary when we have been continually returning to the ballast bay to reload the wagon, it will make life much easier. It also gave one of our young volunteers some welding practice, as did some modifications to the turnouts for the new shed area. Good job Lewis.

One of our members spent some time over Christmas making a model train to act as a feature below our station sign seen from the carpark. It also helps us locate the holes for the sign which we have to take in after each running session for security purposes. It is a lovely little model made 95% from scrap wood. Well done John.

Mike and Lewis have been working on making switches for the 2 turnouts to the new shed area. They have completed one, the method of which will form the basis for the second one. Also, work has commenced on the roof construction of the shed ( No 8 ).

Work has also started on refurbishing the concrete apron on the turntable apron, The rails have been removed and we are presently addressing the best method to use to replace the surface of the concrete which is starting to break up. Power washing has taken place in this area.

Andrew has continued working on producing a new matrix indicator for the station approach signal. It promises to be something completely different but enough said of this project at this point, More to come later.

Andrew and Paul also carried out some electrical work on the hoist elevator in the carriage storage shed. The electrics had failed in there so that was another job ticked off as we prepare for the new running season which commences at Easter.