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Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway:SUCCESS
OF LCLR’S FIRST OPEN WEEKEND IN 20 YEARS BOOSTS PLANS TO REOPEN RAILWAY
IN SKEGNESS Preparations
to reopen the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway on its new site in the
Skegness Water Leisure Park have been greatly helped by the success of the
Railway’s first Open Weekend for 20 years. The event was part of the Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days for 2005,
(Saturday and Sunday 10 and 11 September, 2005), which was in turn, part
of Heritage Open Days held all over Europe. The theme in the county was
appropriately “Transport in Lincolnshire.” It enabled the handful of volunteers who have been rebuilding the Railway
at Skegness Water Leisure Park to show what they have achieved in just
over 10 years’ determined work on the site. Despite torrential rain on
Saturday which prevented many of the historic trains from being moved out
of doors, visitors from as far away as Lancashire, the West and East
Midlands and West Yorkshire made the journey to Skegness for this first
chance in 20 years to see the unique collection. Many were so
enthusiastic, they arrived an hour before the official opening time. On
the Sunday drier weather enabled most of the exhibits to be moved outdoors
and to be displayed for photographers and visitors. The result was many people volunteering to help with restoration, track
laying and preparation for opening the railway, as well as donations and
offers of materials and support. The LCLR’s volunteers were always aware that a static collection of very
specialised railway items on display on a weekend when there where many
other railway events competing for attention around the country and the
county, might limit the number of visitors: they had privately agreed that
50 would be a great success – however to their great delight, they got
triple that number.
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