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THE FAR RIVERS & EAST DERBYSHIRE RAILWAY |
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After a long and illustrious history, The FR & ED Railway has closed as the owners have moved to Blythe Bridge in Staffordshire. The Railway had been the venue for the East Midlands Group's monthly evening meeting, which now takes place at the track in Butterley Station yard. The last meeting took place on April 13th 2005: this is my record of the occasion.
The first loco I saw running (bearing in mind the Railway had been open since lunchtime) was Roger Coleman's scratch-built Diesel hauling a pair of nicely painted Brandbright panelled coaches. 
The next loco out was "Peter Sam"............ 
...... whilst everybody partook of tea & cakes in the rapidly gathering dusk. 
The MDLR's contribution was "Magrat" (whose second home the line is, having been repaired here so many times)........... 
....... with one coach and a suitable wreath on the front. This latter was made for me by a visitor some years ago: it's got a proper soldered wire frame with loops to hang it on a lamp bracket, but I'd put it in a "safe place" and had a devil of a job to find it for this evening. 
Everybody was watching something going on............. 
............ the "something" being a Shay! 
It found one spot on the track which suddenly began to give trouble, calling for a visit from the Flying Track Gang! 
Everybody else stood and watched..... 
....... and the Shay negotiated all the rest of the circuit in the usual way of such locos. 
"Who planted THIS bush HERE??? 
The end of an era.............. |
