 In its time the Supporters' Association has undertaken many supportive projects on the railway, from the basic painting and maintenance of level crossing gates (which were controversially replaced with automated barriers in 2001) to more menial matters such as the general tidying up of stations along the line, at one time their input ranged all the way up to providing volunteer operational staff such as station masters and train guards each summer during the 1970s.However, by 1978 when the railway was nationalised the role of the group decreased somewhat with volunteer-based workers causing difficulties within a government-run organisation.An ambitious attempt to fully restore a steam locomotive (No.9 "Douglas", built by Beyer Peacock at their Gorton Foundry in 1896 and withdrawn from traffic in 1953) was aborted and so after much deliberation of other major projects (and having used some the intended funds to re-tube No.