Some days ago I bumped into builder Richard Kilburn (the Kilburn of Kilburn and Johnson Ltd) who told me that the wagon was the talk of Settle. I keep being buttonholed by local people, many of whom I do not know by name who tell me how good the wagon looks. Pat went for a dental check-up the other day and the dentist said the same. So too the trolley man at Booths supermarket.
This is very pleasing. The truck was an almost total wreck when we got it and three months on it looks like new. A recent visitor is a volunteer on one of the preserved railways and his group had just spent £15,000 restoring an identical truck. Our restoration - and transport - costs are nearer £2,000 thanks to a tremendous amount of local support and help in kind.
Coal trucks were the most commonplace, unremarkable and least glamorous of railway vehicles. Even in Thomas the Tank Engine stories they are 'troublesome trucks'. I think it all the more important that some examples of them are preserved and we are glad to have done our bit.
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