Full steam ahead for the Alford Valley Railway

Months of dedicated work by volunteers to bring the Alford Valley Community Railway back into full action for visitors saw a soft opening weekend take place and now trustees have confirmed that the railway site will return to full weekend openings.

A spokesperson for the charity explained: "Saturday morning saw all the drivers getting a briefing from our maintenance manager to make sure everyone was aware of oiling and maintenance through the running time.

"In the station our new payment iZettle arrived and was set up and sorted and at 1pm train left on time and full of our first carriage of eager passengers.

"This has come from one year and four days of hard work by a great group of volunteers and local supporters which made the day worthwhile. "

Trial runs were repeated on Sunday to a large crowd of visitors and this week following a meeting of the trustees on Tuesday after a thorough review of what went on over the weekend no concerns were raised.

Accordingly the station will be open for the rest of August and September weekends with the first train at 11am and last train 4pm.

Trains will run on the hour from Alford station and on the 1/2 hour from Haughton station.

Last train from Haughton will be 4.30pm.

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