CSLR on Tour
As is the practice with garden railwaying, visiting other lines is always an event, giving the opportunity to explore other peoples work and run over new metals. This tends to be a very social part of the hobby, visits generally involving food and drink, along with several other friends and acquaintances and their own equipment.
These first pictures show The Chief at the South Don and Flingel Railway, near Lymington in Hampshire (UK). The builder of this railway is a bit of a bridge specialist, as you can see, the upper sections of the layout being over a metre higher than the lower parts, but connected by gentle gradients well within the capabilities of The Chief.
Here we have some images taken in August of 2005, in the garden of Tony Brown, near Worthing in Sussex. The garden is by the sea, but sheltered by hedges and fences. The track is level throughout with 4 foot radius curves at each end, but giving a double track appearance for the centre section. The long sweeping curves throughout the rest of the layout mean that long trains can look fantastic.
August 2006 - the fledgling Miller Branch - Portsmouth - is the scene for some careful driving due to tight bends, but wonderful civil engineering crossing slate-built bridges and more modern constructions. The young sons of the the owner (Matthew and David) both exhibited the ability to control a real steam engine on their Dad's new line.
October 2006 - BST Ends - Eight Coupled in Sierra Leone.
A collection of eight coupled locos joined forces at the Bickers-Jones line in Purbrook. The mighty K27 started the show with 23 bogies (house bricks in the first nine), starting and hauling with ease, although it's voice was clearly heard echoing around the garden. The same train took two C16's to start, although one just managed after an assisted start. Later, Engineer hauled ten of the CSLR's bogies, plus an open and the guards van with ease, so we tried the 23 (less the bricks) and were rewarded with a splendid performance. Links to video clips are below, all jpegs.
1. K27 makes easy slow running. 23 on. 11 meg
2. K27 again. Count the wagons (plus bricks). 6 meg
3. Engineer - first run with CSLR wagons. 3 meg.
4. Engineer - 23 on (but no bricks!) 7 meg.
5. Engineer and a circuit of WDBJ's line. 22 meg (you were warned)
6. YouTube too -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSk8ourcEXk C16's double heading.
December 2008 - The Day before Christmas Eve.
CSLR No.10 visited the White Pass and Yukon railway in Totton, England. In the gathering gloom, the headlamp picks out the way around the rockies, the whistle and bell sounding their ghostly chimes in the darkness...
(apols for any camera shake, it was very dark and the flash was killing the colours!)
June 2009 - A visit to David Daws in Swanwick.
Davids line occupies two sides of his garden and one can imagine almost street running a-la WLLR in it's pre-preservation days. The buildings and infrastructure spring up all around the track and the platforms are close enough to step onto. The line begins just 600mm from the ground and although level, some parts are double that.
I took along The Chief and four short coaches, just enough to fit into the run-around loop on this out and back line. The photos have no captions, but you will see that this is a delightfully scenic line, with the emphasis on buildings and railwayana.