Fri 12th, Sat 13th & Sun 14th: This week saw a very large fire in a field just over a mile away from the railway at Shottle which was attended by eight fire engines to get it under control. Whilst this incident is not related to the railway, it does remind us all of how dry the vegetation in the local area is. We are naturally concerned that operating steam trains causes a significant risk of line side fires. In addition, the continued high temperatures over the next few days will contribute to worryingly high temperatures on the footplate for our volunteer crews who already work in hot conditions. We have therefore taken the difficult decision, in line with many other heritage railways, to replace our steam trains with heritage diesel trains on the above days. Thank you for your understanding