THE author inspired by the Kirkby Stephen station cat officially opened the new railway shop at the Stainmore Railway Company’s old East Station in the town.

But ‘Rabbit’ the cat, who has been immortalised in the Rev Alan Cliff’s storybooks The Station Cat, was not at the event, and has not been seen for many days.

Mark Keefe of Stainmore Railway Company, the charity that run the Kirkby Stephen East Station, said: “Sadly, ‘Rabbit’ has not been seen for a number of days and we fear the cat has gone away to die. Rabbit is at least 17 years old, and this cold weather hasn’t helped.

“Rabbit has been a very important part of the team here over the years and is greatly missed, but we do have a younger station cat, Quaker.”

And Kirkby Stephen East Station on the former Darlington to Penrith railway line is a popular place for young railway fans to find the award-winning Jack the Station Cat storybooks.

Author Alan is a retired Methodist minister who now lives in Rhyl, North Wales, with his wife Rosemary. He has also written extensively for the model railway and railway press. From 1993 to 2006, he was ‘Lock’s Siding’ columnist for British Railway Modelling magazine. To date, there have been 11 ‘Jack’ books with eight still in print. ‘Jack’ is ‘Friend Number One’ of the international charity ‘The Railway Children’. Alan most generously donates 50 per cent of the royalties from all the ‘Jack’ books to various young people’s charities.

The new Kirkby Stephen East Station shop is based at the eastern end of the building in two rooms that used to be the Motive Power Office and the Porter’s Room. During the days when the building was in industrial use, following closure of the railway, the doors and windows facing the Darlington platform were removed and blocked up, the two rooms were knocked into one and used as the fitting shop for the Bobbin factory.

Now, following a grant from Cumbria County Council’s ‘Community Regeneration Fund’, almost a year’s work by volunteers and contractors has resulted in the two rooms being transformed into a retail outlet with three new sets of double doors and four new windows. The two rooms have been completely re-plastered, rewired and finished off with a big paint job.