Our Plans for the Future

[council's generous offer] [bitton site development plan] [skipton signal box] [restoration] [towards bath]

Council's Generous Offer

A meeting with senior officials of South Gloucestershire Council took place in February 2004 to identify the role of the Railway in the Councils plans for Tourism, Leisure and Public Amenities. As a result, following the meeting the Council formally offered the Avon Valley Railway a 99 year lease, thereby securing the future tenure for the site and providing a firm basis for long term planning. The Council also offered the Railway a Service Level Agreement which, in effect, means that, for providing various services such as the redevelopment of the site and better public facilities, the Railway will be charged a concessionary rate.

Bitton Site Development Plan

With professional help, a Bitton Site Development Plan is being prepared for the much needed new Buffet and Toilets, plus covered accommodation for restoration work. Following discussions between the Catering Department and the Architect, a site has been identified for the development of a new kitchen and toilet block on the area adjacent to the "Bitton Bears" coach and currently occupies by the Mess Coach. This, in turn would then offer the possibility of installing a new 64-seater coach, with tables, as a dining area where the Bears' coach now stands. The trust is also to looking into the possibility of increasing the outdoor seating and eating capacity on the nearby dock and picnic area.

Since it became a seven-day week operation, the Buffet has become a popular refreshment stop. A new and larger kitchen would open up the opportunities for a wider choice of food and clientele. Whilst not expecting to leap forwards to Michelin Star status (well, not immediately anyway), the possibility of a wider and slightly more adventurous menu would help to attract more regulars as well as groups looking for a place to visit for morning or afternoon tea and cakes.

The Station Buffet has already established a wide range of regulars, from the early retired to shift workers and cyclists to passing motorists. Coffee and Walnut Cake still heads the Sweet Tooth Top 20 and, not surprisingly, hot food is the most popular lunchtime request - though, during the depths of the last cold winter, one customer did come in and ask for 20 Ice Pops!!!!!!

Skipton Signal Box

Another of our medium-to-long term plans includes the rebuilding of a signal box at Bitton, to provide yet another feature of interest to visitors, and at the same time, enable us to control all the new track and point-work in the area. We hope also to be reinstating semaphore signals and other trackside features, and control them from the new box. We were lucky enough to save Skipton signal box from destruction in 1990, and were able to take the entire structure apart, piece by piece, before moving it to Bitton from its original Yorkshire home. Drawings and plans made at the time will help us to rebuild the box exactly as it was, but in a new home where it will be wanted, and loved, by all who see it. We hope to start on the reconstruction work now the Avon Riverside Project has been completed - but of course, we'll be keeping you updated right here on this website.

Restoration of Locomotives, Carriages & Wagons

Work continues apace on the restoration of all our rolling stock, though as always, time and money present much bigger hurdles than will and desire! Our locally-built Avonside loco, Edwin Hulse, is in the middle of its long and major overhaul, and it is hoped to return the rare, saddle-tanked 0-6-0 to traffic within the next couple of years. Our newest arrival, the blue 'Thomas-style' 0-6-0T RSH 'Meteor' is probably closer to steaming again, and work is about to commence on her very soon to replace the firebox. Other projects include the restoration of a Stanier 8F (48173), a 'Battle of Britain' class Southern main-line loco 'Sir Frederick Pile', and a host of other locomotives, wagons and carriages. You can read more about them all on our rolling stock page.

Onwards to Bath?

With the completion of the River Avon Project, money continues to be raised in order to fund ambitious plans for Bitton Station itself. Our long term aim is to restore the railway as far as possible towards the beautiful city of Bath, once the terminus of the old Midland Railway until the line's demise in the 1970s. Throughout the Avon Valley the line's route is still there, albeit in use as a recreational path for use by walkers and cyclists, and as such it's a feasible undertaking to restore at least part of it to railway use and a site has already been identified as a possible southern terminus. This would offer a return trip of some 14 miles through the scenic countryside of the Avon Valley. Beyond Newbridge, on the western edge of Bath, the line's original path becomes more and more difficult to find, buried as it is under various modern structures and minus some of its bridges. The original terminus, at Bath Green Park station (also the northern-most terminus of the famous Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) is still extant and a much-loved building, though it's now part of a large Sainsbury's supermarket complex. The supermarket company has built over a vast amount of the old engine-sheds, and it would be an impossible dream to think that we might one day return here.

For the time being, the eventual plan to return to Bath is 'on the drawing board', and 'the back-burner' at one and the same time! Now the River Avon Project has been completed, and providing the goodwill that we've experienced in recent years from councils, donors and residents alike continues, we hope to reach our goal.

last updated: andy stone, Sun 9th Jan 2005