Exeter Garden Railway Show

Saturday 25th October 2008; looks like it should be good...

Drive a Quarry Hunslet!

On the subject of Kew Bridge Steam Museum, I see they are advertising for volunteer drivers on their waterworks railway. Unfortunately I don't think abandoning the family two weekends a month is an option; although driving a quarry Hunslet would be fantastic!!!
Never mind, I shall have to be content with the Kew Live Steam Model Railway Show, on November 15th & 16th.

Twyford Waterworks Autumn Open Day

As the weather brightened up this afternoon, I decided to drag the kids out to the nearby Twyford Waterworks Autumn Open Day. Although the site isn't the most pushchair friendly I've been to(!) we had a nice hour or so there, mostly looking at the small industrial railway that services the works lime kilns.

There were two Lister loco's there; one of which was shunting a few wagons - looked like fun to drive!





The waterworks feels a bit like a more rural version of Kew Bridge Steam Museum, with some obvious similarities: former waterworks, a narrow gauge industrial railway, and both with a Hathorn Davey Triple Expansion Engine. That said, I guess Twyford doesn't Kew's unique large beam engines!

Summer 08 Video

Here's a new YouTube video of summer activity on the line. This shows the line since the reverse curve at the rear was eliminated, and features Mortimer, Cackler, Toby & the Baguley-Drewery.

A Station Building

I finally got round to starting construction of the W & L Lt Rly's first building tonight - a Lineside Delights Small Halt Kit which I bought a while back at Merstham.
Whilst I love lines that have the full scenic treatment, I don't really have any desire to turn our garden into a model village (though I love those too; especially Bekonscot). The main purpose of the line is to allow me to run live steam loco's & some trains, and I can live with a garden that isn't planted 'to scale'! That said, I think a few railway related structures are quite in keeping...
So the first structure is a modest halt, which will actually go at the terminus at the end of the line! The plan is to make a small platform (probably from timber and some offcuts of roofing felt) for it to sit on. As the picture above shows, I managed to get the basic structure assembled tonight; there is some detailling remaining before painting. Watch this space...!

MMS Back in Service

Glorious weather this weekend, so a great opportunity for some running in the garden, with Toby, Mortimer & the MMS all doing a turn. But first a quick strip down of the Baguley-Drewery as it's not been running so smoothly of late; lurching a bit & some groaning from the connecting rods. The strip down & rebuild seemed to do the trick & she's running smoothly again.

I also switched the MMS cyclinders back to the original ones, to see whether last weeks' fettling problems were cylinder related. Turns out they must have been, as she was happily running in on blocks Sunday morning, and running very nicely round the track on Sunday afternoon with two wagons in tow. The precision regulator has made her much more controllable, and with the wicks properly adjusted there's no shortage of steam. As she is now running well I may indulge in a few more cosmetic improvements from Dream Steam...!

So - all of the motive power on the W & L is now back in service - just in time for the rain ;-)

Fettling the MSS

Well, after the Model Engineer show yesterday, I came home & steamed both Mortimer & Cackler, both running nicely in the afternoon sun.

I then decided to get the MSS back into service, having now received the recently ordered lubricator. BTW, the service from Dream Steam was very good, and as there were a few days delay due to a PayPal issue, they threw in a brass chimney cap - very decent of them. I'm also happy to report their lubricator design is an improvement on the IP version, as the pipe to the reversing block is longer & as a result I didn't have to file anything at all! The loco has been running in on blocks this evening, but there seems to be a problem with the replacement IP cylinders; lots of steam leaking from the piston rod glands, and no packing behind the gland nuts either, so something to sort out this week. The old cylinders weren't all that bad, so I may just go back to them for the time being to get her running on the track.. The Dream Steam centre buffer replacement buffer beams look very good too I think.