Steaming

 

Meetings don't always need to take place in meeting rooms. Keen to pin down some news for Garden Rail, I headed a couple of miles away to a local garden railway steam-up, on a Thursday afternoon. In my defence, I'd pulled a muscle in my back and sitting at the computer wasn't comfortable. 

Anyway, there was plenty to see, such as an old friends' Talyllyn Railway train. Initially hauled by No.2, he then hooked up No.1, which suprisingly (to me) struggled a bit on the curves with the coaches. 

Alongside it is a Riverdale Locomotives "Irene" which is coal fired. It looked stunning and ran really well. Coal firing is very fashionable, and the model certainly had the right smell, an important part of the steam loco experience. Watching it trot around at a very sensible pace with it's train was cracking. Riverdale are a new name to me, so the trip was also useful for research.

I'd brought my Merlin Mayflower along. The line disapears behind some hedges at one point and I was nervous about letting the manually conttolled Peckett loose. The loco performed perfectly - but reminded me I really need to replace the buffer beams with something that doesn't involve LGB couplers, so I can haul a train. There's plenty of power on offer, and I want to give the model a workout. 

Also on show is this lovely Roundhouse Bulldog. I've not seen a painted and weathered example before as far as I know, and the model does look rather special with a less than toy-like paint job. 

Finally, a bit of fun with a battery-electric Trotters van. I don't know where the body came from, but I rather fancy doing a similar conversion myself!