There has been a lot of “puffing” going on at Craigtoun Country Park over the last few weeks.
This is not only because volunteers there have been overwhelmed by the numbers of visitors to the park but due to excitement at a plan being hatched to reintroduce the famous “Puffing Billy” train.
Anyone who visited the park in its heyday will not forget the “Puffing Billy” “Billies”, in fact, as there were two of them at one time.
The colourful tractor-drawn trains trundled around the park from a terminus just outside the old tearoom and were enjoyed by tens of thousands of visitors, young and old.
The Friends of Craigtoun, which now runs the attractions at the park, was given on permanent loan a 1950s tractor similar to the one used to pull the original “Puffing Billy” carriages. And that is just the start.
Friends chairman Kyffin Roberts this week appealed for help with the project in the form of any old photographs of the original trains and is also asking anyone with specialist knowledge of vintage tractors or anyone who might know what happened to the original carriages pulled by the tractors to email friendsofcraigtoun@gmail.com.
The “Puffing Billy” project is just one of several new ideas that have been boosted by the success of the park since attractions were re-opened at Easter, reaffirmed by a visitors’ book bulging with comments about how great it is to see the attractions up and running.
While full of praise for and thanks to the volunteers, Mr Roberts said it was time for more “Friends” and volunteers to lend support.
The plan is to operate at weekends through to the end of June and recruit a core of paid staff to assist over the main summer holidays, when the attractions will be open seven days a week.
Meanwhile, the summer season is set to get off to a flying start with a fun weekend on June 29 and 30, rescheduled from the Easter weekend when the weather forecast forced its postponement.