Open Days at Ongar

We held two very successful Open Days at Ongar. The first was on 22nd June, which was held to coincide with the Ongar Carnival. This drew a fare size crowd and people milling past the station saw our sign to say we open to the public. Lots of people, enjoying the good weather, streamed in and had a look around the station. There was a lot of interest shown about what’s happening and when we are likely to open. What we could tell them is that we are working towards reopening and possible dates muted are spring 2009.

Another Open Day followed two week later on July 6th that coincided with the bus rally at North Weald Aerodrome. The was a special bus service laid on by London Bus Company (nee Blue Triangle) and the collection of vintage buses that went back and forth to Ongar (two Brewers) and stopped outside the station. Most of the passengers alighted for the station Open day. This produced a flood of people at the station and made for a busy and successful day!

...Last year!.....

Santa kept busy at North Pole station

Santa is taking a well earned rest now after a busy christmas, some of which was spent at the Epping Ongar Railway at North Pole (Weald) station. He said that he had a lovely time meeting all the children (and adults) too and hopes that you liked your presents and had a very merry christmas. He'll be back next year to see you all again.

As featured on

Volunteer members Mark Dewell, Sonia Germain and Simon Hanney were interviewed on Monday 3rd December live on BBC Essex's morning programme. They spoke about the hard work already achieved at the railway, plans for the future, forthcoming events including the Santa Specials and promotion of the new 'sponsor a tile' project.

North Weald Signal Box Sponsorship

Stuck for an idea for a christmas present for a railway enthusiast? Want to contribute towards the reinstallation of the North Weald signal box? Or are you a corporate company wanting to invest in the railway? Then why not consider sponship of a roofing tile, lever or signal: Visit the Sponsor a tile page for more information.

Haunted Halloween Specials

The wizards and witches returned to Epping Ongar Railway to travel on our Pumpkin Express. Marco Majicko was on hand to entertain and prizes were awarded for best fancy dress on each train trip. Bigger 'monsters' enjoyed the real ale whilst the Witches Pantry kept evryone happy feasting on Ogre's fingers and bat burgers (sausages and burgers) Apple bobbing and other scary games were available too.

10th October: World Mental Health Day

World Mental Health Day was on Wednesday 10th October this year. It is organised by the World Federation for Mental Health and has been commemorated for 15 years. Action in Mental Health (AIM) organised two events for World Mental Health Day. A quiz evening was held on Saturday 6th October at Epping Hall and a Balloon Race was held on 10th October at Ongar Station.
AIM is a local charity proving support to both adults and younger people in the Epping Forest area. The Balloon Race was only possible with the support of Epping Ongar Railway who provided a lovely venue for the race and have also very kindly donated one of the prizes”. The 3 balloons to travel the furthest distance in 7 days will each win a prize and the person that finds the winning entry will also win a prize. First place wins £100 of shopping vouchers that can be used in Curry’s or PC World.
After release the race balloons headed south in a gentle wind. Anyone who finds one of the distinctive balloons is invited to contact AIM to report the balloon number and the location it was found. Contact details are on the special balloon labels. Hazel Fox summed up the benefit of World Mental Health Day “ Raising the awareness of mental
health issues and combating the stigma associated with them is a major challenge. World
Mental Health Day is important as it helps to promote awareness locally, nationally and across the World. We are delighted to participate and are very grateful to all the businesses, organisations and individuals who have supported us this year”. Further information on the work of AIM is available by contacting the charity on 01992
576307.

North Weald Flower Beds

Thanks to Peter & Ros Collingwood for planting the flowers on the flower bed, by the path opposite the Goods Shed and around the platform at North Weald.
They cleared and redesigned the flower bed as well as planting a lovely array of plants. Also they added some more half barrels of plants along the platforms. The effect looks stunning and was admired by passengers waiting for the train at North Weald. Thanks to also to Walkers Nursery of Roydon for donating the flowers

Track Donation

The Epping Ongar Railway is very pleased to have received a donation of 200 yards of track, a 60ft switch and 800 tons of second hand ballast from Carillion and Rail Link Engineering. The track was originally part of the old Midland Mainline Up & Down Slow line on the approach to St Pancras station. Changes on the approach to St Pancras station to accommodate the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link had made this track surplus to requirements. It is good to see that in these times of increased environmental awareness, major companies such as RLE and Carillion, are willing to go out of thei way to ensure that any redundant materials are reused; and what better wa than to donate them to a heritage railway where they will benefit not only that railway, but also the local community by attracting more visitors to the area and possibly the reintroduction of a commuter service. The donated track will be laid into the old bay platform in North Weald goods yard and is the first step in developing what will become our main engineering base. We will still need several sets of points and more track to achieve our ambitions for North Weald. A major objective of which is to reinstate the original run-round loop in preparation for an eventual loco hauled service (preferable steam!)
We are very grateful to Peter Collingwood, an EORVS member who also works for Rail Link Engineering, for all his work in arranging this donation, it
would not have happened with out him. We would also like to thank Brian
Dennis of Rail Link Engineering for his generous support.
We are also grateful to C.J.Pryor for the very favourable rates they gave
us for the hire of a crane to unload the donated track, and the mechanical
shovel which was used to load the stockpiled ballast into our hopper wagon
for distribution along the running line.

Scout Jamboree

The 21st World Scout Jamboree was held in Chelmsford, Essex (Hylands Park) from July 27th - August 8th. Every day, 4000 people left Hylands Park to work on a community project. One such project was assisting on the Epping Ongar Railway. On all except the Wed & Sun, we had 43 scouts (and their 2 leaders) visit us
to carry out a variety of tasks, including:
* Line clearance - cutting back foliage and picking up isolators and
other debris etc.
* Wood cutting and loading the tender for the steam locomotive.
* Cleaning the car park and station area at Ongar.
* Stripping the rotten wood floor from the flat wagon.
* Cleaning, t-cutting and waxing the DMU.

On arrival, they were welcomed by Bob Sell, who gave a short safety talk
before introducing them to the EOR staff who were supervising the various
tasks. The scouts proved themselves to be very hard working, enthusiastic and
keen, while still having fun doing their assigned tasks. We greatly
appreciate their help and hope they found their time on the EOR both
enjoyable and educational.

Teddy Bears Picnic

If you went down to Ongar on Sunday 5th August you were sure for a big day out. Goldilocks was on board the train handing out gingerbread men to all the children and teddies could be seen picnicking in the woods. A magician and real ale train provided additional entertainment. There were childrens' competitions with teddy treasure - don't forget to send in your colouring sheet! Back at Ongar the barbeque was sizzling and there was plenty of other entertainment- bouncy castles, face painting and teddy bear hospital.

May Bank Holidays

The weather wasn't on our side for the two bank holiday weekends in May, however, the barbecue kept people warm and the steam train was running alonside the DMU on it's observation line. Pete Twitchett, folk singer, provided musical entertainment.

Finnish Loco from the DMU window

Steam loco and DMU leave Ongar

Pete Twitchett, Folk Singer

Epping Ongar Railway Grand Spring Draw Results

Congratulations to the winners:

1st prize Sue Green, St Paul’s Cray, Orpington won the Barbecue Set
2nd prize Mrs Anne Thorogood, Ilford won the Hornby Freight Set
3rd prize Mr Steve Poynter, Hornchurch won the Plant irrigation Set
4th prize June Whymark , Pilgrims Hatch won the £20 meal voucher

A Huge Thanks to everyone who took part in the raffle. We had a wonderful response and all proceeds go to the EOR Volunteers Society and the work that goes on to keep the railway running by the volunteers.

Thanks for your Support

St Georges Day

Passengers enjoyed real ale and a hot beef roll barbeque whilst listening to the sounds of Fairkytes Accordian Band. A Steam Roller display was also in operation. A colouring competition for children was held. The winning picture is shown below:

Easter Celebrations

This years Easter specials attracted a record number of visitors to the railway. Passengers met the Easter Bunny onboard the train and enjoyed hot cross buns and chocolate eggs. Whilst waiting for the train or enjoying the barbeque passengers could watch the Finnish Class TK3 2-8-0 steam train on its demonstration line.

Mixed Traffic

October 2006. The Mixed Traffic quarterly articles are now avaliable online at http://ukhrail.uel.ac.uk/eor/mixtraf.html

All opinions and statements on our web site are that of the volunteers and not Epping Ongar Railway Holdings.

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