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Thursday 1 Apr 2004

CELEBRATE A RAILWAY REVIVAL - WHITEMOOR COMMUNITY OPEN DAY -

Region & Route:

| Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

| Southern

Come and help us celebrate the reopening of the Whitemoor depot, March on Sunday 23 May 2004.  Network Rail is opening its gates and inviting the local community to come and see how the derelict site has been transformed into a 21st century railway supply depot. The event is not just for the local community as people with a railway interest from all over the country will be welcome. The event, which starts at 13.00, will reflect on both the old and the new.  Whitemoor, in its hey day, was the largest marshalling yard in Europe, but with the decline in freight traffic the site was eventually closed down.  Network Rail has now revived the site and turned it into an engineering supply depot which will serve the whole of East Anglia’s railway engineering needs.  Exhibitions at the opening will detail the site’s history, with photos and memorabilia of times past while today’s experts will conduct tours and explain the operation of the site now. Along with new locomotives, specialised engineering trains and machinery, we are lucky to be the home to a 1912 restored J15 Great Eastern steam locomotive, number 65462, for the day. The highlight of the day’s events will be the naming of locomotive 66701 to “Whitemoor”. - more  - Revival – 2 Network Rail would also like the local community to become involved and host stalls in our marquee.  We would like to hear from local organisations about running cake stalls, tombolas, raffles, second hand book stalls, face painting …. Any funds raised will be kept by the organisers. There will be a children’s Thomas the Tank Engine raffle, with every entrant a winner; a railway raffle, to win the ‘Whitemoor’ locomotive nameplate; and the main raffle with fantastic prizes. There will also be entertainment on site with the Theatre of the Wheel performing their railway musical.  A ‘Happy’ land train will be running up and down the site and not just content with Thomas the Tank Engine, children will be able to visit one of Bob the Builder’s friends ‘Scoop’ for sit-on photos. Any proceeds will be donated to a local charity. COME AND BE PART OF THE DAY! For further information, look out for posters in local shops and schools or call Jenny Sacre on 020 7904 4043.