BMES: Snow...

 

Evening all...Wow its been a while since I last did this. Today saw me once again back down at the Riverside Miniature Railway, although todays visit didn't see us doing much and the reason for this is quite visible in the photos...yes thats right, I woke up this morning at around half 7 to find it snowing outside, by half 9-10 o'clock time, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground, which made for fantastic photos.

Arriving on site at around 10am, I wandered down to the club house passed the ground level track which was pretty much covered in snow...No running trains today! Before long I was in warmth of the club house, after signing the trace and trace form, I sat down and got chatting to Mike, Brian and David who were also on site. We were soon joined by Adrian and his son Michael as well John B.

With todays work party spent mostly inside chatting, as well as discussing plans for the future...with the possibility of more public running days as well as volunteer driving training days... hopefully 2021 will be a better year.. 

At around 12 o'clock I decided to bid the others farewell as well as wishing them a Happy New Year and headed back outside, managing to grab these four photos in the process before heading back to the site entrance to meet my dad. As always thanks to those down at BMES for their company and for making me feel a apart of the club and thanks to my dad for dropping me off and picking me up. Until next time.. Cheers all...Jake...

BMES: Summer Steam Up...

 

Evening all...Wow its been a while since I last did this.. Today saw me back down at the Burton Model Engineering society, the 8th time that I'd been down since the lockdown restrictions were lifted in June, however today's visit was for the annual 'Summer Steam Up' held on the bank holiday weekend in August, today saw a total of 7 engines in operation throughout the day, with a mixture of both steam and diesel outline battery locos.

My day started at a slightly later time of 9am, waking up and getting dressed before collecting my lunch that was in the fridge, before getting ready to cycle into town to the club, however just 10 minutes away from home, I noticed I had a flat tyre and had to ask my sister to bring the bicycle pump to me, so I could pump the tyre up.. Tyre pumped up it was time to set off once more. I managed to misjudge how long it would take me to cycle down to the club and arrived a little earlier than planned at 11am, which meant a 30 minute wait till someone else came to open up the site. 

At around 11:30am, one of the other members Mike, who turned up to unlock the gate before driving onto the club site, with me following on my bike. After a brief chat, I began helping to open up the club house and containers, fetching hose pipes out that we'd require for the afternoon, we were quickly joined by Mike's wife closely followed by the club secretary David.

After helping Mike to unload his two locomotives and riding trucks onto the ground level steaming bay, David began helping Mike to light up his new steam locomotive which he bought before the lockdown. With several other members now also onsite including: Jim, Will, Roy, Howard, Adrian, Michael & Phil, and with several other engines now slowly being steamed up. I decided to get out my video camera and start filming ready for another YouTube video, the link for the video can be found here.

Locomotives of interest to me were the BR Blue Class 37 owned by Adrian and his son Michael, as well as a LMS Ivatt 2-6-2 tank engine, both can be found in my video, other locos that sadly aren't featured in the video are a 2-6-0 tank engine 'Rosie' & a GNR Stirling Single 4-2-2 tender locomotive.

After a few attempts to raise steam and now with the assistance of Roy, Michael eventually steamed his 'Sweet Pea' locomotive and spent roughly an hour running it on the ground level track.

After several enjoyable hours down at the club, with people now slowly beginning to pack away their engines, I decided to call it a day and after saying various good byes to people, I headed home. Thank you to everyone who made the day enjoyable. Cheers all.. Jake..

Please note any views or opinions expressed in this blog are merely personal and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person, group or organisation. 

Steam Gala: Keighley & Worth Valley Railway

Evening all. Today saw me and Jenny out on our travels once again, this time in West Yorkshire, to visit The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, during their spring steam gala event. Our day started as always with a 6am wake up, catching the 6:50am service to Leeds via Derby and Sheffield. On our arrival at Leeds, our train to Keighley was delayed resulting in a slightly later arrival into Keighley...Just our luck.... Before long we were sat on a KWVR train bound for Haworth to visit the engine shed facilities.

On arrival at Haworth, we waited with several other people in a big group, for a tour of the locomotive sheds / workshops. While on the tour I took the opportunity to get a photograph of 75078, the railways resident BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 engine, which can be seen in the photograph below. Alongside the 4MT several diesel locomotives could also be seen in the shed including a Class 20, and three diesel shunting locomotives.

After a look round the main shed area, we were taken outside into the yard, where the railways resident USATC S160 2-8-0 Locomotive No.5820 'Big Jim' and LMS Black Five 4-6-0 No.45212 were sat simmering awaiting their next duties.

We were then taken into the other shed / workshop area where another diesel shunter could be found, this one was in EWS livery and has a slightly lower cab than normal Class 08 diesel shunters. After the tour we decided to go into the local shop to buy drinks and snacks before splitting up, while i waited to film 4144 & 78022, Jenny went off to buy us both lunch...Thanks Jen..

"Class 08 Diesel Shunter." (Pic - J.Davies)

On her return we decided to head back to the station to eat our lunch while waiting for our train back to Keighley in the form of 45596 'Bahamas', our train took us as far as Oxenhope where 45596 ran round her train before retracing her steps back to Haworth where 45212 joined the train for the journey to Keighley. On arrival at Keighley we decided to get off the train in order to film the double headed train formed of Red Ivatt 2-6-2 tank No.41241 & 4F 0-6-0 Tender engine No.43924 bound for Oxenhope.

After filming the pair depart we decided to head up the line to Oakworth where Jen wanted to visit the station, made famous for its appearance in 'The Railway Children', this gave us the opportunity to film 45212 & Taff Vale Railway Class O2 0-6-2T No.85 together on a double headed train for Oxenhope.  

After spending an hour in Oakworth, it was time to head back to Keighley for our train home, our journey home was a little tiring, arriving home around half 7 in the evening, but over all not a bad day out. Thanks once again to Jenny for her company as always. Until next time..Cheers all..Jake...

Side Note, the video from this event can be found by clicking the link here.

The East Lancashire Railway...

Evening all. Today saw me and my dad pay a visit to the East Lancashire Railway, a a 12 ¹⁄₂-mile heritage railway line in North West England. The reason for the visit was to see John Cameron's LNER A4 Pacific 60009 "Union of South Africa" in operation on the railway, for what could be the final time before her boiler ticket expires in April this year. This following the announcement that John Cameron had decided to retire both of his engines from service at the end of their boiler tickets, with his intention being to display both engines in a museum building at his farm in Scotland.

After a 6am start, we arrived at Bury Bolton Street Carpark for just after half 8-9am in the morning. With tickets purchased we made our way onto the platform as 60009 brought her empty coaches into the platform from the carriage sidings.

After a failed attempt at photographing No.9 behind a cloud of steam, I decided to get some close up photos of her name & number plate as well as the crest on her cabside, before joining my dad on the train ready for a run up the line to Ramsbottom.

With a slight delay leaving Bury, our train set off for Ramsbottom with stops at Burrs Country Park & Summerseat before arriving at Ramsbottom where we left the train before meeting up with my good friends Andrew & Ian.

On arrival at Ramsbottom, we were joined by Andrew and Ian and after a brief discussion, we decided to film 60009 on her next outward run to Rawenstall, leaving my dad to catch the train back to Bury where we would meet for lunch before catching the final trip of the day behind 60009. With our video shots complete it was time to head back to Bury for lunch before catching a ride behind the Streak.

"Steamy arrival"

Lunch finished it was time to wander back over to the platform to wait for 60009 to arrive, and before long she could be seen as she entered Bury Bolton Street Station in a pretty impressive steam display, a note to be added is the wreath that had been placed above her nameplate in memory of one of the ELR volunteers who had sadly passed away prior to event. Now safely onboard, it was time to sit and relax and enjoy the journey up the Irwell Valley behind the streak, with stations stops at Burrs Country Park, Summerseat, Ramsbottom and finally Rawenstall, it was a pretty impressive trip up the line behind the A4, the old girl making her voice heard across the valley.

The brief run round at Rawenstall provided the chance to get some extra video footage and this photo of No.9 while she was being coupled to her train for the return to Bury, before long it was time to get back onboard from the journey back to Bury, with the journey pretty much the same as the outward I won't bore you with it... however the return journey sees trains stop briefly at Bury Bolton Street before navigating the sharp left hand curve onto the Bury Ski slope over the metro line and on to Heywood, where the ELR services terminate. The line actually continues future onto the mainline at Castleton, but this is the end of the line for ELR services.

"Union of South Africa" (Pic - N.Bonner)

Before long we arrived at Heywood where once again 60009 ran round her train for the final time before retracting our steps back to Bury in pitch black. On arrival back at Bury it was time to get a few more photos of No.9 before saying our good byes and heading home. Thanks to Andrew and Ian for their company throughout the day and a special big thanks to my dad for agreeing to take me to ELR, Once again....another fantastic trip out.Cheers all, Jake...

BMES: Wet and Windy...

Hi all. Today saw me back down once again at the Burton Model engineering society on a driving turn, however this time in less favourable weather conditions. With a typical arrival at the club for 09:45am, As always Dave was already on site and on my arrival was in the club house, not long after my arrival, we were joined by Brian, John & Geoff along with others too.

After a catch up with Geoff, Jim and William. We proceeded over to the containers where Geoff, Jim and William said that we would be fetching the two club steam locomotives, the club Simplex (see above photos) and the club peckett (see photo below) for a quick steam test to make sure there was no problems with either engine. This could be another excuse to play trains of course..

However the weather decided to take a turn for the worse and we found ourselves steaming in rather wet and windy conditions, I took the simplex for four laps of the raised level circuit before calling it a day and handing her back to Geoff to help blow the boiler down and drop the fire. Thanks to everyone involved in today's post for another fantastic opportunity. Cheers all, until next time, Jake...

BMES: New Years Day Steam Up...

Good evening everyone and a Happy New Year to you all. That's it, 2019 is long gone and 2020 has begun. Today's outing was down to BMES (Burton-on-Trent Model Engineering Society) for their annual New Years Day 'Steam Up' . The day started as always with me waking up around half 8 in the morning, arriving on site for around half 9 - 10am. On my arrival, I found several members already on site preparing their engines for service.

After many greetings with the other members, I decided it was time to do some work and get my camera kit out and start filming and taking photos for this blog post.

 After taking a few photographs in the Steaming bays of each engine, it was time to start filming them running round. The first locomotive on the track was a Simplex, out shopped in this rather unusual CER Blue livery, owned by J.Mayor. 

This was quickly followed on the track by Dave's Polly 0-4-0 Trojan and eventually Barrie's Pannier tank No.7752. After filming several laps of the three steamers, a 4th engine appeared on the track for a couple of minutes before sadly failing with injector problems.

After taking 10-15 minutes worth of video footage, Barrie asked me if I'd like to have a go a driving his locomotive, of course, I couldn't refuse. lol..

After a few laps on Barries Pannier, I thanked Barrie and let him remove his engine from the raised level circuit, for him to drop his engine's fire before blowing the boiler down. While stood in the steaming bay watching Barrie blowing the boiler down, I was asked by Jim if I wanted a go at driving his engine to which I accepted before taking it for a few laps round the raised level circuit.

Once again after a few laps it was time to call it a day and pack away, thanks to Barrie and Jim for allowing me to drive their engines. It just leaves me I wish all my readers a Happy New Year. Hopefully 2020 will provide some interesting things for us in the steam circles. Until next time...bye...Jake...