The W & L Lt Rly - in Brio

OK - Just a bit of fun whilst we were waiting for the kid's bath to run... Here is the track plan of The Worthies & Littleton Light Railway, faithfully rendered in Brio! Has an almost 'Beck-ian' feel about it, with those nice straight lines and 45 degree bends (no prizes for guessing what's coming next ;-)

Steaming Cackler

A busy day in the garden today, and despite the weather threatening to rain it stayed mostly dry. We found time to steam Cackler for the first time in a while. Ended up having a good session with over an hour's run - certainly the most gentle & consistent run I've managed with this loco for a while - very pleasing!

Bankside Miniature Railway

We spent a very enjoyable hour or so this afternoon at the Bankside Miniature Railway in nearby Brambridge. The line is 8 1/4" gauge (is this unique?), and we were hauled by 2-6-2 Carolyn, built in 1924.




The line is an out-and-back, the station throat being a turntable, used to turn around the entire train between runs. They are open weekends, 10-30 'til 5, with trains running every 15 minutes or so, and are definitely worth a visit (with a pretty decent garden centre on site too).

No-Wheel Drive Toby!

Despite doing stirling service with an audience of several kids at our barbecue last weekend, a bit of a dull moment today as Toby's plastic worm drive stripped :-( Just wondering whether I'm better off getting a brass replacement from Cambrian models (answer: yes , if it's a drop in replacement...!)
Otherwise slow but steady progress; the lines' first coach is shaping up nicely (an old project started a few years back but never completed); just a final coat of paint and some detailing to finish.
Got a steam up of Mortimer Tuesday evening, and he was running very nicely too in the gentle evening sun.

Hollycombe Railway Weekend

A change to the advertsised programme this weekend, as we all went off to Hollycombe to their railway weekend on Sunday. The lure of Jerry M & Palmerston won over the O&K at Twyford (and we can always go Twyford another Sunday, and to Amberley another time to see the O&K ;-)

A good time was has by all, our little girl enjoyed the fairground in particular and was very excited about going for a ride behind a traction engine(!) Her daddy however was much more excited to see a prototype of his model 'Cackler' for the first time - and fantastic she looked too; the lining after last years' overhaul is very smart indeed (if ever I got Cackler 'lightline-d', I think it would have to be this paint-job).

It was nice to see Jerry M & Palmerston running regular services (including a short goods wagon rake) from the station, and at the end of the afternoon, double-heading the last run of the day.







The only down side was we didn't have enough time to see everything - sadly we missed the 16mm layouts! (never mind, there's always next year)