May 4th 2008 Looking at a cancelled membership form for the 1 May 2000 (Monday) that is still taped up on the inside of a cupboard door gives a reminder that it is now the eight years since our demise from the museum at Sandtoft was about to start. Having done battle to try and ensure that the once very important visitor attraction would not be lost, we were now about to enter the final phase of considering our future. The bitterness, the vandalism against our members and railway infrastructure reached a crucial point on May Day Monday 2000 when a former SMR member turned against us  and threatened to get the railway closed made us realise the end was approaching. A week later on Sunday May 7th 2000 an action by a manager and a director at the museum finally sealed the future of the railway at Sandtoft.  An E.M.G was called that was confirmed of the demise of the railway after 15 years of operation and for us to transfer to the miniature railway in Thorne Memorial Park that opened in 1998
However we do have a huge selection of photographs of the railway at Sandtoft in better times some of which I thought it might be appropriate to just have a look at a few.

Steam always played an import role on the railway. Left: Our member  Stuart Lamming and his mother booked the  for a day for his friends and family and friends for his 11th Birthday.  Right: Wilf Hawden is about to depart from Sandtoft Central in the summer of 1996

Driver Ron Hawksworth and Guard Rose Hawksworth (his mother) with train hauled by the electric locomotive "Mufta" at the new developing Haxey Halt station. Raymond Nowells approaches Sandtoft Central with his passengers. This photograph illustrates that the railway was also very popular with adults too.

SMR member Martin Hulks gives a talk to a school group on how the "Wheel" changed our way of life not only in transport but the many other aspects of life. To the right there were times when we had our work cut out to keep the queues down on . A very busy scene at Sandtoft Central prove that the railway was a very popular attraction. 

Eight years earlier "Remus" was operating on the tracks at The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. May Day Holiday Weekend. David Stubbins in 2008 is getting ready to take "Remus" round the circuit at Thorne for the first steam train of the day. James Newton (to the right) is one of the new drivers to qualify for the 2008 season at Thorne. On  Monday 26th May 2008 we are planning to celebrate the first day of "Remus" operating at Thorne some eight years earlier on the Late Spring Bank Holiday Monday.