Congratulations to our corporate member the Mid Norfolk Railway Preservation Trust whose bid to buy the Wymondham-Dereham line for £100,000 has been accepted by the BR Property Board.
Trust Chairman John Hull predicted that a commuter service from Dereham to Norwich would be running by the turn of the century. Meanwhile, the trust is continuing to run shuttle services at the northern end of the line at holiday times and hopes to extend these in stages over the rest of the line.
For details of services, send an SAE to Publicity Officer Horace Wilkinson, 83 Norwich Road, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR18 0SH.
The founder of a company which now produces 12,500 freezers a week, 70% of them for export, told the Rail Freight Group's Scottish conference that both rail and road had let her down. She had used rail when her company first opened at Castletown, Caithness, in 1971 but was so unhappy with the service that she established her own road fleet of 148 semi-trailers and 45 lorry tractors.
As a member of Greenpeace, she wanted her products to go by rail. "It is pointless making the world's most environmentally friendly fridge freezer only to road-haul it nearly 300 miles to the nearest rail freight facility for a journey of only 600 miles," she said. She called for more grants to be made available for rail freight facilities and private sidings.
Professor Bill Bradshaw urged action to safeguard railway land "before it's too late."
"Welcome to London" is what we shall be saying to members of our French sister organisation, FNAUT, when they come by Eurostar to London for the weekend of 5-6 October. It is hoped to arrange a social event where members of RDS and FNAUT can get to know each other and discuss matters of common interest. If you would like to attend, please contact general secretary Trevor Garrod.
RDS is holding a special general meeting, on Saturday 30 November to discuss in detail the future of our society and to consider any constitutional amendments that may be required.
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or e-mail Lloyd Butler at butler@argonet.co.uk with comments about the Railwatch Web pages
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