Burnley & Pendle Miniature Railway Thompson Park, Burnley UK.

February 2026 newsletter. Bret Harrison, P Way Dept.

Another month and another newsletter and once again we have been very busy preparing our Railway for the new season commencing at Easter.

Most activity has been directed at two aspects this month. the new shed build and ballast spreading over much of the Railway.

The new shed progresses and now the structure has a roof on. This has taken some time to complete with each roof section`s concrete having to set before the next one is fitted. Metal sides have been fitted to hold the living roof which it will be fitted with, and it has been partly painted. A metal door has to be fitted yet. The surrounding trackwork has been completed and ballasted and switch mechanisms for the two turnouts have been completed.

I have no idea of how many tonnes of ballast have been dropped around the railway, but John D and I know it is a lot for sure. There were a lot of gaps around the railway as the older ballast settled and this task was essential. We loaded the ballast wagon so many times it became necessary to construct a switching mechanism to one of our sprung loaded turnouts in the main line in order to facilitate passage of the Works train to make things easier for us???

We are presently getting up to speed with replacing worn sleepers and turnout crossing timbers.

John M has been continuing with cutting the grass verges back from the track alignment and tells me he has completed now, no doubt for the time being but we have been working with him with the ballasting being done as he completes each section.

As alluded to last month Andrew has completed building his Theatre matrix signal indicating to the drivers which platform they have been allocated to in the station. It is a big improvement on the old indicator and should work very well.

( The above video was taken to show the signal in operation – Webmaster )

Once again, we have been visited by vandals who have caused mindless damage to our properties and two padlocks have had to be ground off and new locks obtained. What a pity these “people” cannot apply themselves to anything useful.

So, it will soon be Easter when public running commences, and we still have a lot to do. but as they say, it should be alright on the night (day)