Salfords Light Railway

To say the weather started out wet is an understatement, however it dried up and we got about an hour's running in the dry. Notice driver in necessary waterproof clothing!

This is a particularly good example of a 5" gauge Talyllyn Railway DOLGOCH - even with 4 passengers on the back she had no trouble producing ample steam.

This is a picture I nabbed form Paul's own site.

And would you believe it, the batteries in my digital camera went flat (with no warning) just as I got steam up!! Here's the last shot I got out of the camera before the battery died on me. You'll have to take my word for it that I did get up steam - even if it didn't last long.

Not having a raised steaming bay is a real pain in the neck - and knees, back, etc. Between us, Robin and I had a ponder on this one, and we came up with the following:

I had real trouble with the Halfords own-brand paint covering - especially the green. I resorted to Plasti-kote lawn green in the end as it covers better, but it is a bit light.

I also noticed I forgot to put the RoR badge above the radiator - it is picked out in red - looks nice.

On this shot you can see one of my "not sure if it is a good idea"s. Many industrial locos are rather crude in design and to replicate this I have attached the vented side panels (bought in a DIY store) with small wing-nuts. Many full-size industrial diesels have wing-nuts like this to make it easy to get to the "innards". If you don't believe me, go and have a look through some of the photos I took at the Amberley Working Museum. I am not 100% convinced, and in this photo the strong sunlight makes them stand out against the shadows - up close they are not quite so prominent. A friend has since told me in no uncertain terms they look terrible! Oh well. Perhaps I will look at making some sort of replacements.

I am still contemplating some kind of exhaust, probably directly up in front of the cab window.

My TROJAN (aka No. 1) is shown here with 2 of RoR's new V-tippers. I have ordered a total of 4, but have only received 2 so far as Paul says they take up too much time and is only building about 1 per week.

Still not fixed a date for my "grand opening" but the ground is pretty water-logged at the moment so I guess I don't want a couple of dozen feet turning what bit of grass I do have in to a swamp. I'd also like to make some progress on the station area, so perhaps the opening will wait until about March - we'll see.

I have had a re-think about the coaching stock. I am still going to build what I planned to build, it is just when I will do it. At the moment the 2 chassis are standing on end in my shed and taking up next to no space. However, if I build the bodies I will have a real storage problem. The 4-wheeler might be OK, but the bogie coach will be too big. So, for now, I will leave the body(s) until I have built my combined loco and carriage-shed.

On the subject of loco maintenance and inspection tracks... I didn't mention that Robin turns his hand to all sorts of mechanical and metal fabrication "problems". We were having a natter on the phone (as you do) and I said that something nearer the locoshed would be preferable. We don't like the idea of a pit as it'd have to go down a good 30" and flooding might be a problem - and a conservatory is planned for the current site of the patio, which might cause problems with foundations. A hydraulic lift as you find in a garage is out of the question (it'd be interesting though!), but a scissor lift might be possible. He's gone away to have a think, but if anyone can design it Robin can. Watch this space.

Robin also admits that he got bitten by the "bug" the other day (the garden railway bug that is, not something I cooked for him), so perhaps he'll be building a 5" gauge line too. He has got the space, there's about 4 acres of land behind his house, he just claims he is "too busy" - which is probably true actually.

The weather news after the event reckons it was -10°C.

Although the club stands put on a good show, I couldn't find any competition classes or "display" locos. Plenty of tools and materials for the model engineer, not many models.

Here's a picture of the combined Polly Model Engineering and Ride on Railways stand which was right next to the entrance.

Still, there were a few things that caught my eye, so I have set up a small gallery of the pictures I took.

Image courtesy of the Moseley Railway Trust and used with permission.

[ author: - last updated 25th Feb 2003 ] [ HOME ]