Some photos of progress this year at the Museum I'm involved with here in the UK, despite it being about 135 miles from where I live!
The Mountsorrel Railway Museum is part of the Mountsorrel Heritage Centre in Leicestershire, a non-profit operation that has actually only been in existence for around 6 years. It is physically connected to the Great Central preserved line between Loughborough & Leicester by a reconstructed quarry branch line. with the rail museum being located in one of the disused granite quarries. Due to Covid, the site has been shut for the best part of 6 months out of the last year, but considerable progress has been made on various items.
During 2019 a new restoration workshop building was constructed, increasing the floor area by 50% and by the start of 2020 it was in this state...

and awaited tracklaying into the building. This was duly acheived by mid-year, delayed by the first 3 month Nationwide lockdown, though sourcing suitable short radius switch components was a bit of a challenge..

and a concrete floor was installed.....

The building also incorporates an upstairs office cum volunteer messroom at one end as well.
By the Summer, their latest item of restored rolling stock was completed as well, a four wheel tar carrying tank wagon.
When it first arrived it was in this condition..
http://www.ws.rhrp.org.uk/ws/WagonInfo.asp?Ref=6530
and now looks like this...

With the new workshop now available for use, the latest restoration job is this 1934 4-wheel LMS box van, which has aleady been stripped of its rotten wooden bodywork...

New wood has now been sourced for its rebuilding, with shortages due to Covid in sourcing suitable material being experienced.

Last, but not least, the Museum was able to purchase its own fully operational steam loco during October, a 1911 built Andrew-Barclay 0-4-0ST, funded entirely by donations from supporters. It had been overhauled during the Summer for its previous owner and actually has a full 10 year boiler "ticket" on it.

It's not very large, but an ideal size for demonstration runs at the Museum. There isn't a lot of room on the footplate though!

2020 has certainly been challenging for the Heritage Centre, given that no admission is charged to the whole site and funding for the operation comes from the on-site Cafe and things like plant sales together with Public donations, but Covid has not stopped progress being made. There is a large Volunteer worker base and the whole project receives considerable support from the local community in the area. The Centre was a recipient of the Queens Award for Voluntary Service during 2020 in recognition of this.
As a thank-you to the Volunteers, a special trip was operated in March for them (just pre-lockdown here) using the recently restored 1903 built NER gas-electric (though it's diesel-electric now..) railcar that was visiting the GCR at the time.
The train is shown at the Museums platform on the rebuilt quarry branch line...

The B&O museum is almost finished with the restoration of B&O 51. I saw a photo of it today and the paint is fantastic!

Progress on the C&NW #1385 continues for Mid-Continent Rwy. Museum including repair of the superheater header, installation of the dry pipe, header and superheater units and also successfully running the air compressors on steam. All the holes to attach the smokebox to the cylinder saddle have been drilled and are in the reaming process and making the tapered bolts will not be far behind.

At the Museum proper there has been Buildings & Grounds improvements and the Restoration Department has made great progress also but I'll let those better acquainted with the facts comment here.

Here's to a safe & healthy '21!!!..........mld

Although somewhat slowed to protect the volunteers, the restoration to operation of Alaska Railroad #557 continues at a steady pace. 2020 became the year in which we could apply more of our resources towards putting things back together after years of dismantling, cleaning, inspecting, fabricating, and fixing.

The good news:

We’ve kept up with grounds maintenance and outdoor improvements by doing projects that require few people that can maintain social distancing easily outdoors.

We’ve added crossing lights at one of our access road crossings that are remote radio controlled. Next year we may add IR detectors to make them fully automatic.

We’ve managed to keep a small track crew busy this year with the installation of close to 1,000 donated relay ties since the project began. The bridge over Sugar Creek was stripped, inspected, right of way and banks cleared of vegetation, a new deck installed and a BMP put in place. When approach surfacing is finished the bridge will be back in service.

We’ve stripped and painted a 50’ flat car to turn it into an open air passenger car.

Our operable motor car fleet has grown from one to four via donations with a few more slated for repair. We’ve also picked up a few more trailers.

The not so good news:

I figure I’ll add these in for those that keep score. The Pullman sleepers Parkesburg and Trenton are on the scrap docket. These cars are too far gone and are a dangerous attractive nuisance. Also on the docket are two 250T steam wreckers unless a last minute savior pops up. We’ve had some offers over the years but the costs and logistics to move them has killed every potential deal. We are keeping the 250T diesel wrecker and it will be restored to operation.

Positives of 2020-
My kids spent more time outside enjoying our backyard including some “camp outs”.

We had two great family vacation trips, one to Myrtle Beach and another to Daytona.

My five year old has been IN school since September.

My immuno-compromised wife is healthy.

My children are healthy.

I am healthy.

I’ve been vaccinated.

And finally, the best positive of 2020 is that there haven’t been any positives in my family. All tests negative.

I am thankful.

Happy New Year. Take care, be safe, and be well in 2021.

Events at National Capital Trolley Museum are summarized here.

https://trolleytime.blogspot.com/2020/1 ... w.html?m=1

Wesley

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum wrapped up the four-year Fairgrounds Siding/Platform reconstruction project with the completion of a canopy over the inbound end of the new platform. The canopy is supported by three riveted steel "Tee" columns saved from the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie station in downtown Pittsburgh. The reconstructed station is adjacent to the Washington County Fairgrounds and, in a normal year, would have been used by about five to six thousand people riding PTM trolleys to and from the Fair. Hopefully this year!

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.
Director of Engineering
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Inc.

The T1 group is saying that 2020 was their best year ever in terms of both fundraising and parts acquisition. It seems that groups not dependent on large numbers of patrons to finance work did moderately well in 2020: https://www.facebook.com/t1locomotive/p ... 8476542104

Old Pueblo Trolley has sold our former car barn property located on East Eighth Street in Tucson, Arizona. The deal is currently closing and expected to be completed very soon. The money from the deal will put us within $50,000 of paying off the mortgage on our new restoration and maintenance center in South Tucson. Our street railway volunteers are currently engaged in clearing the property in preparation for handover to the new owner-O'Malley's Bar. The owner of that property had previously expressed interest in our property, but was ultimately moved to make a firm offer due to the impact of COVID dining restrictions-they need to expand their outdoor seating.

Work on our historic vehicle collection continues. We are sending the steering column of our 1928 Model 40 Twin Coach to a shop to have the steering column mounted controls installed and work on Old Pueblo Transit Company No. 135 is ongoing. I hope to complete the interior work on it this year, so that it can be sent out for display once the car shows and community events are permitted to resume. As far as I know, we have not lost any members of our museum to COVID and hope to keep it that way.

Watching the progress on the Mark Twain Zephyr has been been very interesting. New windows, very nice finishing work in the Tom Sawyer end car build out of a siding for the train set. A very active multi-media presence on social media.

https://www.facebook.com/MarkTwainZephyr/

Bob