THW WHELDON WAGON AT STONELEIGH

In 1999, Rob Kuhlman in the USA built a number of coal wagons as replicas of a Jack Wheldon coal wagon which had made its way to the USA. One of these was sent on its travels as a tribute to Jack: the full story is on the web site HERE

As I was the current holder of the wagon, I (stupidly) suggested it should go to Stoneleigh and run on as many railways as possible in one day. Me and my big mouth..........

The first line I stopped by was Port Able, a mobile 45mm gauge railway, where The Wagon is seen behind Nick Midgeley's Accucraft Wrekin "Rockall"

Quite possibly the highlight of the day was seeing The Wagon at the tail of a rake of Jack's own Border Counties Railway stock, hauled by the original Archangel "Brick", now owned by Steve Bell, on the heritage layout at Stoneleigh, Phurcombe Hall.

One railway it couldn't actually run on was Merioneth Town which acts as a display for the late Don Boreham's 2-rail electric locos, but I did pose it with Don's loco "Strider" which is a model of a Festiniog & Blaneau 0-4-2.

One of the problems of asking to tack The Wagon on the rear of a train is that sometimes, the picture doesn't always work............

............ but you can always take a rear end shot! The layout was Nant Mawr from Huddersfield - the loco was Paul Jobber's Roundhouse Katie.

Another problem is that sometimes, people run long trains.................

..... VERY long trains.................

........... but we get there eventually! The layout is Indian Hills and the loco is was Eddie Bull's Peter Angus-built DHR Garratt. The Indian buildings, music and scent of insense make this layout somewhat different to the norm.

For one day only, the Yorkshire Group's layout "Mount Dowd" was re-named "Jack Lane" and was used to display and operate some of the 100 model Hunslet locos that came to keep the full-size Edward Sholto company. The loco here is Dave Best's Merlin Sierra Leone Government Railways Hunslet 2-6-2

Ttarrag Shed is another line which features long trains, hauled in this instance by Bob Kirchner's Peter Angus-built model of Ferrocarril Austral Fueguino No 2, an Argentinian Garratt - and yes, The Wagon IS on the back!

On the Birches Barn Extension Railway, The Wagon was hauled by a brand new loco - Peter Johnson's new Regner Fanny. Somebody had better have a word with Herr Regner......... he's now done a Willi AND a Fanny!

The rolling stock was very nice, too!

Another layout which presents a photgraphic challenge is Timpdon Sheds, where Chris Mackenzies Peter Angus model of the FR's "Prince" headed up a long rake of slate wagons..........

............ with The Wagon bringing up the rear on the other side of the layout!

On Ridgemont, the Bedfordshire Gruop's layout, The wagon was hauled by Graham East's Regner Lumberjack, which is OK!

.......... which (just in case you didn't get it) is a Monty Python reference!

On the G Scale Society's demonstration layout (which doesn't have a name) Roy Pedder's Bachman "Lyn" provded the traction.

.......... and finally, on the County Donegal layout The Wagon got added to a consist hauled by Neil Ramsay's West Clare railway Diesel which does at least have connecting rods!

So, there you have it! One day, no less than 13 lines and I didn't get to them all! My thanks to all the layout managers and train operators who made this mammoth exercise possible.