Of course, the joy is none of this is particulaly urgent, and most can wait for lighter, warmer evenings...
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. 
The Luscombe Valley Railway, a 5" gauge line in Sandbanks, Poole had their Christmas open day today (in aid of Julia's House). My sister recommended it (they visited in the summer), so we took the little ones & met up with them. Now this is very much the serious end of garden railways, real engineering rather than modelling (though I tend to think that my 16mm stuff is somewhere in-between). Very impressive though, quite a number of routes; computer signalled throughout, & a fair bit of civil engineering / earthworks to achieve a level run on a sloping site. I think it made my family realise my line is fairly 'low impact' on the garden by comparison! 
They were very busy today, with half-hour queues for a ride. There were something like half-a-dozen locos running; mostly diesel-outline electric, but there were two live steam locos running. We had an enjoyable run hauled by a class 59 diesel-electric. We look forward to going back to the next summer open-day - recommended!
A crisp & clear winters' day today, so finally a chance for some running after all this rain. Mortimer was chosen, as apart from anything else, with the single fill system you can just set her running & pretty much let her get on with it (and with a little one toddling around the garden, this makes life somewhat easier). After raising steam & clearing the cylinders, she set off running light at a nice steady pace. It was lovely to just stand back & watch her gently run round the circuit, and with a nice plume of steam in the cold air - magic! Although I've only run her maybe half a dozen times, I am finding her very consistent and enjoyable to run.
