Tolworth Part 2

hospital brick
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

Sometimes at a show you can be standing behind the layout and someone comes out of the crowd to surprise you.

In this case the surprise was in the form of a couple of brick remnants in a plastic bag and some bad news. It seems that the most important surviving survivor of the Hellingly Hospital railway, the engine shed, has been burnt down by vandals.

Until recently the shed had been in use by a garage as a workshop. It featured the original trolley wire in the roof and embedded rails outside the front doors. I had always dreamed of retrieving some or all of this for preservation. The idea of stringing some of the wire across the top of the model seemed good. Of course living 200 miles from the shed meant I couldn’t visit nearly often enough to try and arrange this.

Now the shed has gone but at least, thanks to the generosity of a visitor, I have a small part to display with my model railway. For the rest of the exhibition I merrily told the story and allowed others to examine my precious artefacts.

Coincidentally, my benefactor is a volunteer at the excellent Amberley Chalk Pits Museum. This is home to one of the engines from my favourite railway – The Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man. We spent a good while chatting about this as well.

This sort of meeting makes getting up at 5:30 in the morning, driving half way down the country and standing on a very hard floor for eight hours a day.

Oh, and the answer to everyone who asks, “Do you have your layout set up at home ?” The answer is most definitely no. I just can’t enjoy operating without someone to talk to !