Epping ongar railway reopening
 

A date for your diary for next year - the EOR is set to re-open at Easter 2012.

Being near to the London area, could well be a real 'force' sooner rather than later, good luck to ALL at the Railway

They soon gather a crowd on open days and have a good mix with heritage buses as well.
But that London connection is really tempting when you consider that they still run up to the buffer stops and red light on the Central Line. Re-connecting the line is a massive challenge but you never know these days!!

Please note that NO reopening date has been announced for EOR, as progress depends on both the number of kind volunteers who come down and assist, and how kind the weather is to us over this coming winter.

The more people coming down and helping, the sooner the date will be, and there are volunteering opportunities available in all manner of areas, whether that is helping restore coaches, signalling, period stations and buildings, working on the track or learning how to get involved within the operational departments (steam and diesel driving, fireman, guard, signalman, porter, ticket clerks and inspectors, working in the shop or catering etc).

As part of "Phase 1" we will run a steam and diesel locomotive hauled trains from Ongar to North Weald, with a diesel shuttle towards Coopersale, and connecting heritage buses to Epping tube station as part of the heritage transport experience. As klordger1900 highlights, the track is all still in place and we hope that, with the support of the authorities, we can look towards once again connect at Epping, but we have to focus on Phase 1 first.

We have a very friendly and welcoming teams, drawn from people of all ages, from 18 to 85, and no previous experience is required!! More details on getting involved is at www.eorailway.co.uk/howyoucanhelp

Thanks for your support, and if you are in our area, please do consider helping out as part of our friendly teams in this rewarding volunteering experience.

Simon, GM, EOR

Sorry about the mis-info, I was only quoting what was reported in the Essex Chronical - dont say they got it wrong, what a surprise!!

re-opening is 16 days away
 

Take a look at the countdown clock on the eor website
theres also some interesting news about a weighbridge.

What an achievement! This "new" railway has worked its socks off to get this far in such a short space of time. A real credit to all and I will be paying this line a visit, hopefully this year when it opens. I am looking forward to that day!
Good luck to all
Regards
Phil

Great news. Will try to get down sometime in the not too distant future.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Fantastic achievement and the website is now counting down 13 days. I always wondered how they'd get under the M11 bridge which was (as always) built to provide the minimum headroom possible, i.e. just enough for the Central Line stock which was used on the branch to squeeze underneath. Congratulations to the EOR for converting the line back to main line gauge at that point by lowering the track by 3 feet.

Pitchford hall and a pannier tank
 

It was certainly impressive to see those two locos sitting on the same road at North Weald and certainly a sight I never expected to see. I waited up the line at Blake Hall to catch a sight of the pair topping and tailing the first train of the day as I was told by the station staff that the diesel was first train out of North Weald going west to Cooper Sale - so what turned up, the class 37 followed by the class 31. Then I had to depart so thank goodness for you tube and the clips uploaded on to that.