It's Mother's Day in the UK so I treated my wife to a romantic day out, to the local steam railway. At Frome Market under a rather ominous-looking sky we see one of Bulleid's finest coach designs, built for crack expresses from London to/from the West Country and Dorset, hauled by his magnificent Merchant Navy Pacific locomotives. Where is the engine? Ah here it is. A slightly more hum-drum Ivatt 2-6-2 tank engine, which will haul us for 6 miles over the Mendips to Radstock. Nonetheless this is a beautifully kept and cared-for locomotive. It is a relatively quiet day, perhaps the possibility of rain has put people off. Or maybe other people take their mums and wives out for Sunday dinner? Getting ready for the 'off'. It's nice to see proper SR discs being carried, which goes well with the first coach. The remainder are the usual maroon BR Mark 1 fare. For some reason my wife decided to get comfy and wait in the train, perhaps she was cold. About 35 minutes after departure we arrive in Radstock (North). Only a few pax alight from the train, hopefully the railway is doing better business on other weekends. 5 coaches for a Class 2 tank engine over the 1:48 gradients up to Mells Road certainly provided it with a workout, I suspect load 4 would be more comfortable. I was explaining this to my wife but she was distracted by something interesting out of the window. (It may have been the local solicitor's firm.) Anyway lets leave it there, I'm hoping to surprise her with a spin round the Radstock Museum before we head back. Route: NSR - The Mendip Line (GA Developments) Loco: BR Ivatt Class 2 (Steam Sounds Supreme) Stock: Bulleid (SSS) and BR Mk1 (AP) coaches Mods: Various AP sky, lighting, track packs etc.
Marsdonshire Railways HST approaches Portkeane on 25th April 2021 as the train is about to terminate its 22:30 working from Cairnlochross:
For anyone who remembers Class 309 'Clacton' units in the Midlands/North West in the mid-late 1990s, does this bring back any memories? An AP Cl.411 in NSE colours provides a passable substitution from certain angles. These trains generally worked local electric services out of Manchester Piccadilly (replacing the ancient AM4 units withdrawn in 1995) but also had a peak-hour working to Birmingham New Street, an early-morning North Staffs semi-fast from Stafford-Manchester and, on occasion, the 0650ish Preston-Birmingham New Street vice Cl.158. Which I've pictured here after arrival from Preston at 0840hrs.
Installment 18 in a multipart chronological depiction of an Autumn morning stopping passenger QuickDrive on Golden Age Developments' freeware West of England Mainline, phase 2, which extends tracks further eastward to Yeovil Town. Our journey begins there, stopping at all stations until the drive terminates at Exeter. Our train is powered by Caledonia Works' rendering of the LSWR 415/0415 class 4-4-2T steam locomotive, commonly known as the Adams Radial Tank. It is seen in Adams Brown livery, pulling six LSWR coaches. This installment. sees us between Whimple and Broad Clyst. En route to Broad Clyst: as above: as above: as above: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds TO BE CONTINUED . . .
A bright and sunny morning run along the picturesque Furness Line from Barrow. It's 1989 and a pair of 'nodding donkeys' is working the 0835 all-stations to Preston. Hold on to your giblets! Pausing for custom at Roose... Before rumbling across the Leven Viaduct... Awaiting departure time at Grange-over-Sands... Followed by a scenic crossing at Arnside. Finally at rest on arrival at Preston at 1007.
Installment 11 in a multiset chronological depiction of a cloudy Autumn morning passenger run QD between Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester Picadilly (via Warrington Central). The train consists of Caledonia Works' LNWR Webb Coal Tank No. 1054, in preservation livery, pulling AP MK1 coaches. Most mages are manipulated via Paint.NET (freeware image editor), Wondershare Filmora (payware video creator/editor), or both. This installment sees us stopped at and departing from Padgate. At this point in the journey, black & white, sepia, and "damaged" images are less prevalent but do not disappear. Most if not all images continue to receive subtle or not-so-subtle manipulation. Padgate Station Platform welcoming scene: Padgate Station: Padgate Station platform scene: Departing Padgate: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds+Veggies TO BE CONTINUED . . .
Miniblog. I have been resisting post-processing until now, for reasons. The NJCL pic above made me think, though, that I should edit some. I've been ditching a lot of potentially nice ones as well, in random slideshows, when they were comparatively weak. That said, here is an example. This is from the pool that would be shared here, eventually. Depends on the screen, but on my TV this is rather gloomy. My laptop uses a different HDMI encoding with my monitor, which applies a significant gamma. So, how would it look nice on my TV? Well, something like this: Of course, bad layout pictures are trash bin material, but probably a lot of stuff could be salvaged. Instead of shooting just a very few weathers (and trying the rest but ditching them), it could be possible to document and keep these scenarios. That's what an actual photo streamer would do, right? Sure, AP weather is the same line of thought. I keep a collection of photos saved from the interwebs and I have set up a couple scripts to start random slideshows. Within TSC it helps weeding out the bad ones (when the entire scenario is dark, I tend to forgive and force, like the above), but looking at actual photos before weeding TSC can help by setting a baseline.
Now for a trip back to 1980. For several years the Hope Valley line was blocked for engineering works until 1600hrs on a Sunday afternoon and as a consequence the 0945 Manchester Piccadilly-London St Pancras (itself a historical oddity) was diverted to run via the Woodhead route. Initially a regular Peak turn, from 1976 onwards it became a Class 47 duty. Under a pleasant but chilly April morning sun, we see 1M51 winding its way up the Woodhead pass behind boilered 'Duff' 47109. The steam heat does not appear to be switched on, despite the cold temperatures. Shortly thereafter, Woodhead tunnel is approached... ... and 1M51 is swallowed into its depths. The portals here are reminiscent of Alpine railway tunnels, with the now-redundant (and rather hellish for footplatemen) single-bores over to the side. Approximately 25 minutes later, 1M51 pauses in a derelict Sheffield Victoria for some reason. The station was long-closed and the service was not booked to stop here, instead stopping 3/4 mile further on at Woodburn Jn where a pilot locomotive would attach to the rear and drag the train down into Sheffield Midland via Nunnery Junction. It was then normal on Sunday for the train to depart northward, pass through Woodburn Junction a second time and proceed to Chesterfield via the 'Old Road' and Barrow Hill.
Installment 10 in a chronological pictorial depiction of a stopping passenger service faux heritage rail-tour QuickDrive on AP's Wherry Lines - Norwich to Greater Yarmouth & Lowestoft, a somewhat recent purchase when these images were captured during mid-late April 2024. To it is added AP's route enhancement pack. This is the most consistently visually appealing primarily rural route in my possession. So pleasing that I drove and captured images of four passenger runs in rapid succession. This series showcases the first of those runs, from Norwich to Lowestoft. Motive power is Caledonia Works' "Single-Wheeler" GER P43 4-2-2 tendered steam loco, another recent acquisition when this run was driven, seen in its super-heated coal-burning variant. The train is, admittedly, not ideally suited for stopping passenger duty; the P43 primarily an express locomotive, the consist overlong for the route's often small station/halt platforms. (Coach count is reduced for the remaining three runs.) This installment finds us between Reedham & Haddiscoe. Not far beyond Reedham Station: En route to Haddiscoe: as above: as above, with great grass coverage: En route to Haddiscoe: Fireman-side cab leanout: RWE2 (gimped), AP S&W2+Clouds+RouteEnhancementPack TO BE CONTINUED . . .
My first footplate run over the magnificent 'West of England' freeware route from Golden Age Developments. I was rather pleased to discover that I already possess all the payware requirements for the route. The requirement for 1.4GB hard drive space meant some difficult choices, for now my rather full PC is exclusively for TSC! The final months of Southern Railway operation sees a Maunsell V class 'Schools' no.926 Repton in charge of a lightweight Waterloo-Exeter express at Yeovil Junction. Booked non-stop to Exeter Central in an hour, this will be an interesting test for a medium-sized locomotive. IMO the Malachite Green livery is the best that the class ever carried. The rolling stock is newly-built Bulleid vehicles of steel construction, equating to about 210 tons gross. Preparing to depart Yeovil Junction just after midday. A tinge of exhaust as the fire is built up for the climbs ahead. Bursting out of Honiton tunnel at the summit of the line. A wonderful detail is the overland route that the signalling telegraph wires take! Rolling down into Exeter Central, with the down-side carriage shed on the right and St James Park halt just visible in the distance. And finally at rest, at Exeter Central, in 58 minutes from Yeovil Junction. The locomotive will now be serviced and turned, in preparation for a late-afternoon stopping service back to Salisbury. The coaching stock will continue on to Barnstaple and Ilfracombe behind one of the modern streamlined West Country Pacifics. A note on the running, mainly for my own enjoyment but hopefully others too! After departing Yeovil the regulator was in the first valve with cut-off about 40% while the fire was built up; speed was maintained at about 50mph up the initial ascent to Crewkerne. Once preparations were complete, Repton was opened up to about 70% regulator and cut-off reduced to between 27-33%, varying with the gradients. In this fashion speed was maintained in the mid-70s, with Axminster passed at 73mph with a full boiler in preparation for the long hard 1:80 climb to Honiton Tunnel. After Seaton Junction the regulator was advanced to 89% with eventually as much as 48% cutoff; the minimum speed was 41mph into Honiton Tunnel with steam pressure around the 210psi mark. The locomotive could have been worked a bit harder but the driver felt this was unnecessary given the relatively light load. After exiting the tunnel at the summit, steam was reduced back into the first valve and cutoff reduced to 23%. In this condition with the falling gradients a maximum of 83mph was attained in the dip between Axminster and Whimple, 79mph at Whimple itself and a further maximum of 82mph near Broad Clyst; at this point a distant signal was momentarily sighted at caution and subsequent running was more restrained. Steam was shut off passing Pinhoe at 50mph, with a natural reduction to the 30mph restriction at Exmouth Jn and a gentle coast down the bank into Exeter Central with the fire nicely reduced ready for servicing, a full glass of water and steam around the 200psi mark.
