In last years autumn we had still hoped to be able to finish the restoration works on the societie's own SKL before the end of 2020, but Coronavirus also messed up the time table of this project.

The restoration works could indeed be resumed in May 2020 and also led to some visible results, but since the repeated increase of Corona infections and the related restrictions the works have mostly stopped again. Luckily, the district government of Cologne prolonged the execution period of the sponsored redevelopment measure until Dec 31st, 2021. We hope very much not to receive further bad news and to be able to resume the works again this year as early as possible.

As it happened, the refurbished driver's cab could be fitted onto the base frame by way of trial last November. It is a replacement driver's cab which our c-ooperation partner RSE (Rhine-Sieg-Railway - Sorry, German only!) provided for us. The old driver's cab could not be refurbished in an economical manner. The next step will be that the driver's cab goes back to the bodyshop again where it will be brought to completion. It will get another prime coating and then will be finish-coated with paint.

We had bought an SKL utility vehicle back in 2018  from the HGK (Sorry, German only!), which proved not usable for our purposes due to official restrictions, so it was sold to a Luxemburg museum railway after several visual inspections and examinations. The Skl was carted away by the customer with a low bed trailer and is already in use again. In contrast to us the colleagues in Luxemburg don't have official restrictions for the use of the vehicle. Purchase and sale of the utility vehicle could be processed cost-neutral for our preservation society.

Note, HGK is the company operating the docks and internal railway system in Cologne