The Alderley Edge Station Volunteer group has organised the two digitally created art montages installed on the wall of the Manchester bound Station platform ….

Group co-ordinator Kelvin Briggs commented ‘ We want to make the station a more welcoming gateway to the village and this is our first project. Hopefully local residents, visitors and rail passengers will enjoy the images and the future plant displays we have planned .

The montage boards are the work of Stockport based digital artist Eamonn Murphy . They depict landmarks close to each station on the Crewe to Manchester line. Each of the boards features an iconic Alderley Edge building.

Kelvin said  ‘We chose the Queens Court building frontage because it was once the old Queen’s Hotel with a railway heritage going back to 1844 when built by the London and North-Western Railway Company.’

Artist Eamonn Murphy commented ‘Alderley Edge Community Primary School is a splendid building, with some interesting variations in brickwork patterns, lovely tracery, prominent bell tower and delightful ornamentation. It’s a hidden gem!’

The boards have been funded by donations from group members , a contribution from the Waitrose Community Matters green token scheme and support from the Crewe to Manchester Community Rail Partnership.

Northern Trains and the Department for Transport will be helping fund future platform planters and flower displays.

The Station volunteer group are to donate a framed print to the Community Primary school to support their fundraising for improved sports facilities.

The Station group are currently raising funds for future projects including more art works, and new volunteers are very welcome to join in.

Contact Kelvin Briggs for more information kelvinbriggs@btconnect.com

Journeys – a new display at Goostrey Station ….

The current restrictions mean that people are making fewer journeys by train.

To make sure that we don’t forget the excitement of travelling, Becky Cowell, deputy headteacher at Goostrey Community Primary School, has produced a new display at Goostrey station called Journeys.

Our local children are helping us to remember places we visited before the Covid-19 pandemic, both real and imaginary.

As you approach the shelter on the Crewe platform, there’s a large model of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct  complete with boats. This was created by year 2 pupils as part of a school exhibition called Water. Inside the shelter are colourful press print images of trains which were produced by the same children.

In the corner of the shelter there’s a huge model of Big Ben made by a pupil from year 1 when the class was studying megastructures.  It stands beside a superhero car complete with comfy cushions that was designed and made by the Reception class.  It’s ideal for very special journeys!

The back wall of the shelter is covered with writing and illustrations about journeys. Year 5 drew pictures inspired by Henry Moore’s drawings of people waiting in the underground stations during the bombing in WWII.  Year 4 read a poem about journeys and then wrote about all the places that they would like to visit.  Here’s an example :

I would travel to Denmark to see the LEGO factory.  I would fly to Hawaii to see the lovely healthy palm trees. I would love to see cute baby turtles in Hawaii. I would like to go fishing to see the vibrant coloured fish.

The Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson stimulated year 3 to create their own poems.

Faster than horses, faster than a dog running for a bone
Passing the meadows, passing the shadows
And charging along like Usain Bolt
All through the towns, all through villages
Hills and houses, dips and nature
And all of the time, rain pouring and soaking
In the corner of my eye I almost see 
A station flashing right by me 

Year 1 complemented these poems with colourful collages of views from a train window, including some cute sheep! The children have also been studying Well Being and they made collages of peaceful places that you could visit if your day was not going the way you wanted it to.

Not to be outdone by the younger members of our community, adults have been busy too. At the moment FOGS members can’t have their monthly working parties but the tubs of flowering plants still need to be tended.

And the memorial plaque to Cyril Caulkin, our first Chair, has been repositioned on a less exposed wall beneath the Wild About Goostrey Gold Award. In addition, workmen from Network Rail have repaired some fencing.

The Friends of Handforth Station are pleased to announce the arrival of the Bug Train on Platform 2 ….

This traditional steam locomotive with its two carriages is not going to any destination; it is instead built of wood and intended to be a home for all sorts of insects and other invertebrates for the next few years.

The Bug Train was built by young members of the FoHS (with help from their parents), and installed in early July. Three separate families produced the train, and its installation observed strict Social Distancing guidelines.

The Bug Train represents a non-specific steam “shunter” locomotive of the 1910s, with two open carriages.

Following the design principle of a Bug Hotel, it is stuffed with brushwood, twigs, leaves, some bamboo and a couple of old bricks. This material is designed to shelter creepy-crawlies during their autumn and winter hibernations; installing it in high summer gives it time to become part of the natural landscape and easily accessible.

Hugh Everett, Secretary of FoHS, commented:
“The Bug Train is part of two commitments of our group: to support nature and the environment, and to provide a welcoming and friendly environment for users of the station (human and non-human !). It complements our Hedgehog Hotel next door.”

He added, “We’re proud that we managed to assemble it in three separate places in Handforth, under lockdown conditions, and then install it once we were allowed back onto the station platforms.”

The FoHS Bug Train has not yet formally been named.

It can be seen behind the fence next to the Stockport-bound platform at Handforth Station