Weekend Update

This weekend was good for the railway; mostly sunny & warm. Had two extended afternoon steam-ups, running both Mortimer & Cackler (and with both steaming nicely). I also had time to do some track tweaking, re-laying the front part of the loop. This has helped sort out the last of the problems due to the spring bulb explosion! There have also been a few recent problems with track coming apart during running (particularly with running the heavier steam loco's), so a session with the pliers has helped sort this out!

I also had time to sand down the partially completed freelance coach I abandoned some time ago, so hopefully the lines' first passenger stock will be running in the near future! (a Henrietta for Toby ;-)

Outstanding jobs now include improving / aligning some of the recently laid section to the terminus (a bit of a 'hump' to even out), and reworking the end of the terminus. It's difficult to access locos in the cuttings, so this will likely be opened out & re-layed onto a slab.

Still, with warming longer summer days & evenings ahead (assuming that we didn't have the British summer this past weekend), there's plenty of time for relexed running & tinkering!

Lappa Valley Railway

On holiday in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago, we took the family to the Lappa Valley Railway, near Newquay. The highlight was the steam hauled 15" gauge line, but there were plenty of child friendly things to do and we all had a nice afternoon in the spring sunshine. The staff there were very friendly, and we'd recommend it as a fun & relaxed afternoon out. Pictured is Zebedee, the 15" gauge loco that was in steam.

The garden railway has a name!

Well, after about 9 months of existence, I finally have a name for the line in my garden:

The Worthies & Littleton Light Railway

The name reflects pretty well where the line is, and also shares initials (W&L) with a rather better known narrow gauge prototype: http://www.wllr.org.uk/. It remains to be seen whether this convenient similarity will be sufficient to warrant purchase of the forthcoming Accucraft "Countess"!

Spring steam up [video]

Here's a short video of a steam-up yesterday evening, featuring Mortimer running over the newest section of the line. The video gives a pretty good impression of the line in it's present state.