More Cranford and other stuff

The Cranford weekend running with Bellerophon was fairly succesful, visitor numbers were steady, thanks to the weather in some respects as a late snow fall on the Saturday and then overnight freezing meant that many people probably stayed indoors. Sunday was a fabulous day though with the snow still on the ground and the sun out all day, it almost made me wish I was on the ground with a camera rather than on the loco, but then again was lovely to be on the footplate in those conditions. We have also been in the local paper again, The Sentinel running a small article about the success of the filming. Besides this there are a few online reviews and blogs featuring Cranford, one of which can be found here, and I, for one, am searching them out so we can let everyone know where they can find the railway that featured.
However on a slight down side, Bellerophon continues to bemuse and keep us on our toes and came on shed on Sunday with the suspension all to pot. Further inspection is required but it seems that in the efforts to level the loco out by lifting her on the tranverse rear spring something is not happy and the loco is now sitting further down at the back than she was before! What with Wimblebury out of service since last year's gala waiting for ashpan repairs and very little maintenance carried out, or even planned, on the other two servicable locos, for various reasons, we are currently not well situated to start the 2010 season at Easter motive power wise. More important than that is a planned 3 day inspection by the Railway Inspectorate in early Jan, the results of which, no doubt, will dictate much of the work required over the closed season to ensure we are fit and able to start the 2010 season.
Finally I was able to sample the Santa trains from the other side this year as the son and heir was taken to visit Father Christmas and the one thing that stands out on the photographs on the train is.... the awful panel under the window in the BSK compartment. It is full of holes where the table has been attached, repeatedly and unsuccesfuly by the looks of it, and for the sake of a piece of varnished ply spoils the compartment. Ok I know the seats are a little faded and the effects of years of kids scratching in the existing panelling is evident, but as this panel is formica covered it don't half look bad (I have added a pic to show what I mean!). I must also point out that this is in no way intended to decry the sterling work of the C&W department, rather one of the things that you might not think about until you see it like this and trust me, the visitors will. So how about it chaps, a couple of sheets of 6mm ply and some varnish.... would be well worth it!