When a steam locomotive of Museum Railway STAR prepares for a ride on Wednesday morning, the steam whistle announces this in all its glory, as always. A scene reminiscent of the past. Nevertheless, the Stadskanaal Rail Foundation cannot escape the harsh reality.
“But”, he continues, “there is an organization in the Netherlands that jointly purchases these kinds of things for museums. And luckily we were there in time. We now have enough until December next year, so we can still forward.” Nevertheless, the high coal price forced the STAR to increase the price of an entrance ticket by half a euro to one euro.
That price does not stop people from visiting the museum railway in Stadskanaal. ‘No, we have nothing to complain about interest’, says De Vries, who saw the number of visitors increase at a rapid pace since the disappearance of the corona lockdown. ‘It has been a bit less in recent days, but that is due to the warm weather. Other than that we are very satisfied.”
Because of that warm weather, one spark can already be enough to cause a roadside fire. It is a problem that STAR steam locomotives sometimes had to contend with in the past, but according to stoker Alex Everts, this has no longer been the case in recent years.
‘A while ago we made a new ashtray for the steam locomotive, a fairly large job. This way we know for sure that no glowing coals or snails end up on the track. In addition, we can use a sprinkler in the ashtray, so that is a reasonable guarantee that we do not cause roadside fires,’ says Everts.