From the 'archive'...

Well, although the weather hasn't been too bad this weekend, other commitments have kept me from running or working on the railway, so here are some pictures from the 'archive' instead. Jane & the MSS locos, both pretty much ex-works on my previous line in Surrey.

New Year's Resolutions...

Perhaps not so much a set of New Year's Resolutions as a list of last year's outstanding 'to-do's, and if for no other purpose than to remind me, here we go...

1. Complete track laying for the spur round to the rear of the garden.
2. Flatten out the 'rise' at the rear of the circuit.
3. Complete outstanding rolling stock projects: freelance coach, Perfect World Talyllyn gun powder wagon & mesh sided coach, Brandbright planked wagon & freelance tram loco (painting; she's been running since the summer)
4. Tweaks to Mortimer (coal load for rear bunker, some touching up - must order paint from Phoenix...)
5. Tweaks to Cackler (improve slow speed running)
6. Finish Baguley-Drewery battery conversion (cosmetic finishing touches; she's also been running since the summer)
7. IP Engineering regulator for MSS
8. Proper nameplates for locos (Guilplates?)
9. Gardening!
10. (re)Join 16mm association
11. Garden Rail subscription

Of course, the joy is none of this is particulaly urgent, and most can wait for lighter, warmer evenings...

Steaming in the New Year

As the weather has been fairly mild on this first day of 2008, it was definitely time for a steam-up! I decided to steam my MSS loco, as she hasn't been run for a while. The MSS loco is the basic Mamod design, though mine has had a few modifications: narrower chuff pipe, IP Engineering steam lubricator, plus meths burner & uprated safety valve from PPS steam models. The MSS is the only meths-fired loco on the line, so makes a nice change to run. Although suffering the standard Mamod characteristic of 'scalded-cat' like peformance, this is reduced somewhat by the narrower chuff pipe, and a rake of a few wagons will tame her, even on the sharp curves of my line.

She put in a good performance today, though even my two year-old daughter commented un-prompted: 'Skarloey very fast engine' (as previously noted, she relates to all trains via their Thomas the Tank Engine equivalent; all of the (by chance) maroon steam locos on my line are therefore Skarloey!).

All in all, a pleasant way to mark the New Year!