Over the past few weeks with the easing of lockdown restrictions (although these could change in the light of current developments) some construction activity has returned to Almondell.  Care has been taken to ensure Social Distancing, but a combination of an 11 acre site and staggering of working party days this has not been too Read more about The Loneliness Of The CoVid Worker…..[…]

ESME has shown itself very capable of recycling all sorts of materials.  Andrew has excelled at this, as over the last few months he has been working mainly in solitary repurposing 300 million year old Sandstone to form the portals to the Wallace Bridge.  Andrew recounts the story behind the headline: ‘Let’s start with a Read more about Recycling Old Sandstone……..[…]

The news on the BBC the Friday morning, 28th August was full of the flooding at Broxburn yesterday afternoon.  Broxburn is two minutes from our Almondell site.  James was still on site & sent the newsdesk this report……. ‘I was washing the digger and tractor (!!) with Andy when it became really heavy around 5 Read more about Rain Drops Kept Falling On My Head……[…]

Andrew N. dropped an email to the Newsdesk informing us why the car park at Almondell suddenly had pallets of used mono-blocks….. ‘The origin of this story was that James said the committee had decided to lay a second platform with mono blocks to match the other one.  We won’t mention the false start with Read more about A Chip Off The Old Blocks……?[…]

Cautiously working parties have resumed at Almondell .  With 11 acres of woodland, working outside observing the social distancing rules has been relatively straight forward.  Other guidelines for members to follow whilst on site have been briefed & implemented.  If lockdown continues to be eased then it is hoped to see activity return to pre Read more about Slowly Coming Back To Life…..[…]

During the lockdown phase of the Covid pandemic it was mooted that a competition be run to decide on a layout for the new workshop.  Four members took up the challenge & submitted their ideas. These were viewed and discussed by the committee and it was found very difficult to decide if one suggestion would Read more about Workshop Progress…..[…]

Some recent developments at Almondell since the limited lifting of CoVid restrictions.  Some of the local members ventured back on site to unload a generous donation from the now defunct East Coast Trains.  John Fallon’s son, Daniel secured for the club their hasty donation which had to be done in late November prior to the Read more about Wheel Seats……[…]

As a regular subscriber for many years to ‘Old Glory‘ which is an excellent magazine dealing mainly with Steam Vintage Preservation I was delighted to read an article about the Shale Oil Industry in our area.  Colin Tyson, Old Glory Editor, has kindly given permission for the reprinting of this excellent article ‘New Shale Trail Read more about New ‘Shale Trail’…..[…]

Before we all quite rightly entered the next phase of preventing the spread of this dreadful virus there was a final fling at Almondell. Andrew was working in isolation assembling the blocks for the facing for the Wallace Bridge. Using his initiative, Andrew had the signing in book down in the cutting & members were Read more about Last Organised Working Parties[…]

We have been fortunate (?) with the weather this year so far.  Okay, I know we have had flooding & high winds…… It has been mild with very little snow.  Just to remind you we had a flurry on Thursday and by 07:00 the site looked quite wintry. As ever faithful Rover was waiting patiently Read more about A Winters Morning…..[…]