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THE ACTON FAMILY'S SHERWOD OAKS LIGHT RAILWAY: |
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I have to confess that I'd not been to a garden railway meeting at the Acton's new Sherwood Oaks Light Railway since it was laid down four years ago, so I thought that for 2013 I'd make an effort.........
SOME people (no names, no pack drill) thought it was Summer, but in fact it was a fairly chilly day.
The line's main station and steaming-up area.................
.......... is next to the operator pit..................
............... which at times got pretty full!
Some delightful grot around the loco shed.............
................... and a welder (who obviously hasn't heard of ptotective clothing) welding in the shed.
A delightful scene in the village............
............ and a general view of the gaggle of trackside buildings in the same vicinity.
Having bent round a corner, the main line arrives at Dolgoch Falls station.........
............. with a homage to the Nant Gwernol extension under the bridge, with a couple of slate wagons in the river.
Having passed over Hotham Grossing.............
..............the line enters another station (with a delightful abandoned coach body)............
...............where there is a passing loop for those who might want to pause here.
The line then bends through another ninety degrees before passing the beam engine house (with working beam engine)............
.............. and a GINORMOUS distant signal!
It is possible to get smoke out of the chimney, but the strong breeze meant we didn't get the full effect, despite the valiant efforts to make it work!
Having descended almost continually from where we started, the line passes under the access steps in a tunnel and then starts to ascend a spiral...................
............ which..................
............ in due course..............
........... brings us back to the station we started from.
Don't think anybody's used the Camping Coach for AGES!
Another delightful gaggle of buildings. Actually, The Rat does it much better, in only one minute 32 seconds............
Running started with Andrew Latham's Scrarab with a short freight train.............
..... whilst Neville contributed the first passenger train.
Ian brought his DJB "Robert" coal-fired loco, which needed a mild dost of tweaking to make it steam properly.
My own Darj went up its very first spiral..............
........... followed by Ian's "Robert" which ran very well once fettled.
Andrew Latham had brought is Millie and passenger stock...........
....... whilst Roger Coleman brought his Jack (still on 40 megs).............
......... and a rake of opens.
By now, the loco shed area was filling up nicely.............
Hot water for drinks was provided by Bob Newton's tea urn, which seems to have b ecome a wandering Urn, as it went from here to Nevillie's!
Andrew brought his Scarab out again with a short rake of FR workman's coaches...........
............... and the afternoon's running concluded with a Roundhouse Diesel.
Dan brought his 2" scale (1/6 full size) Burrell road roller - a model rarer than Dan originally thought............
It unfortunately disgraced itself by scattering smuts all over the coffee mugs - hence this lashed-up smut deflector.
He later took it out for a run on the road..............
Our host had to be scaped off the seat - I think he wants one, too! |
