The first of the three Volks Electric Railway vehicles which have undergone restoration in Ross-on-Wye has run once again with 4 undergoing its commissioning runs on Thursday 22nd March – just over a week before the new season began.
Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund the Saving Volks project has progressed well over the past couple of years and included in this has been the restoration of three cars which hadn’t run for a number of years. The restoration of these was undertaken by Alan Keef Ltd in Ross-on-Wye and the first of the trio to return to Brighton was 4 which was delivered back to the south coast on 11th October 2017. Further commissioning work was undertaken on the car over the winter and this was completed in time to allow the commissioning runs to take place on 22nd March. 4 made several runs between the Aquarium and Black Rock and should now be available for service throughout 2018.
The other two cars to be restored are 6 and 10. Of these 6 returned to the Volks on 14th February with 10 remaining in Ross-on-Wye for its restoration to be completed; it is expected to be back later this year.
The Volks Electric Railway reopened to the public on Good Friday, 30th March, with 4 the first car in service and TV newsreader Nicholas Owen the driver, and will now run through until the end of October. Trains run every 15 minutes with the last service at 1715 on weekdays and 1815 at weekends. Full details of the service can be found on the Volks Electric Railway website.