Bournville open garden 2026

After the loco maintenance, it was time to give them a proper test on Andy and Louise Christie's Olive Branch Tramway. This extensive line in Bournville is opened up every year for the Open Garden festival, which means a group of us running trains, and a lawn full of visitors eating cake and watching us work. 

So, how did the locos work? 

Ragleth - Still a problem. Once it gets hot, the regulator servo stops working. That said, I drove on the reverser, and when working properly, the engine was very smooth and powerful. It's also quite chunky, and caught a few plants on the way around. 

Roundhouse Lady Anne - Aside from needing to clean out the burner twice, the model ran very well. The new battery box in the cab roof did its job, but I'd really like to relocate it to the side tank so the roof fits properly. I could look at replacing the four AA pack with something smaller up there, that would solve the problem too. I had the chance to try out a safety valve cover, and it looks very nice. Another item on the shopping list. 

Merlin - This also needed a gas jet clean, but once fired up, it ran a little too well. A reasonable train on the back is a good idea, especially as there are some tight curves on the line. 

So, not a clean bill of health. I really need to work through each locomotive and try to build a bit more reliability in. That's the trouble with second-hand models, they need fettling, and that takes time and expertise I don't have. 

One change I will be making though - propane/butane gas mix. You are supposed to run these models on pure butane, but since starting that, reliability has fallen off. More blocked jets,  and a feeling that none of the models is quite as powerful as I'd like. The gas tanks are all fine with the extra pressure, so why not go with what works? 

I've put a few more photos up on Flickr.  

Saturday Film Club: An Interview With Brian Johnson (1939-2026)

Football focus. This is why Germans are better at penalties.

 

There is football knocking around at the moment, and from my limited knowledge, the one thing England are scared of is a game against Germany, going to penalties. We always lose, because the Teutonic player is simply better at these. 

It can now be revealed why -Märklin Tipp-Kick Fußballwagen.

In the box, we have a Tipp-Kick player, a non-round ball, and a railway wagon. The wagon has two holes in the side, and the basic game is simple. Haul the wagon along your layout, and hoof the ball into a hole. 

This is, to put it mildly, incredibly difficult. 

Now, I should be honest, and say that there is not a single sport that I am not rubbish at. Give me something involving a bat or a ball, and I'll show you just how badly I can attempt it. At school, I was always the last person chosen for a team - in fact, normally not chosen at all, I just ended up in a team after everyone else had been picked. 

You will have noticed that for my attempts, the wagon is not moving. Despite this, I score no goals. 

So, we can conclude that the German teams are all expert at this, and through lack of practise, English teams aren't.

Come on Hornby - time to wheel out the big boots, and give us a UK equivalent! 

Skipton's Apple Crumble tugboat

Wandering around Skipton, I spotted something a little different. Yes, the canals are lovely (more photos in a future post), but there is a tugboat serving crumble!

Of course, I had to know more, so once I'd walked my lunch of Yorkshire pudding, sausages, mash and peas down, dessert was to be from the towpath. 

At a guess, this is a converted Bantam tug, although the superstructure seems more boxy than normal. 

Food is served through a hatch in the side, presumably it used to be the side window. 

The photo above is from a bench where I sat scoffing the crumble and ice cream. All the time pondering the modelling opportunities. I've built a Bantam in the past, so the upperworks don't worry me, and hopefully I can buy another hull. The toughest job is all the lettering. You can't really avoid it if you want the model to look right!

To be honest, this isn't going to bother my workbench for many years, if ever, but I hope the photos will inspire someone. Looking online (search "the ice cream tugboat skipton"), there is no shortage of information, apart from a history telling us what the boat was before it became a crumble dispenser. 

 

Test running the steam locos

 

 

Did all the servicing make a difference? There was only one way to find out. A dryish Thursday evening saw me at the L&WMRS outdoor track with a box full of gas and water. 

First out, the Lady Anne. She fired straight up, was soon in steam, and ran very nicely for a few circuits. No worries there, and the batteries didn't fall out of the cab roof. 

Next, the Merlin. I lit it up with a bit of fuss, and the model was struggling to raise steam. I could hear the burner, but it was very quiet. 

After 10 minutes, I decided all really wasn't well, and wondered if the gas jet was partially blocked. As it happens, access to this is pretty easy. The unit pokes through a hole in the back of the cab, and, with a single banjo bolt undone, lifts the pipe off the unit. This them pulls out, and the jet can be unscrewed from a brass block. 

After squirting some WD-40 through the jet, all seemed to be OK, so I reassembled it, and this time the loco lit straight up, with a good, loud burner.  

After that, the loco ran perfectly. Plenty of steam, and a nice exhaust. 

Finally, Ragleth. 

I hadn't spotted that the loco was set to 32mm gauge, but that was quickly changed. Then I lit it up, and a few minutes later, the servos stopped working. Yes, like an idiot, I'd not charged the receiver batteries!

I packed everything up, and then took Ragleth into the railway club, putting it on charge in the workshop. An hour later, suitably refreshed with some tea, custard creams and plenty of chat, I took advantage of the light evening for another go. 

This time we lit up, the servos operated, and off the loco went. Sadly, the regulator servo stopped working again, but it turns out, you can drive on the reverser alone.  Which is what I did for a few minutes, and the model seemed quite happy. This isn't so odd, the Merlin works the same way. 

So, more work to do with Ragleth, but it's usable for now. The others are spot on. Until something else happens, I'm sure...