131 – Chasewater Railway Museum Bits & Pieces
From Chasewater News January 1991
Out and About – Peter Aldridge
Regular members and visitors to our railway will probably remember a red Reliant Robin three wheeler belonging to Pete Aldridge. When not working at Chasewater, Pete visits many of the other preservation centres throughout the country. These trips, irreverently known as ‘Flying Pig Tours’ often involve travelling four or five hundred miles in a day, but it is always worth the long drive, and many features of Chasewater have been inspired after visits to other lines. The reaction of the other societies is often amusing.
After arriving very early at the Yorkshire Dales Railway one morning, the members of one ‘Fling Pig Tour’ were told to ‘Sod off back to Chasewater and work on your own line!’
The West Somerset Railway was rather more appreciative. The station staff at Bishops Lydeard had managed to padlock themselves out of the signal box. Fortunately, theCLRmembers produced a large hacksaw and soon chopped the offending item off. This earned theCLRmembers a free drink at the bar, not to mention some very strange looks from the operating staff who thought that the box was being burgled!
The Isle of Wight Society at Havenstreet are obviously an enlightened society. When they found that we were from Chasewater they pulled two ‘Terriers’ and the ‘02’ from the engine shed and asked ‘How’s Asbestos?’ Few other societies have even heard of Chasewater, let alone any of our engines!
‘Terriers’ were also in evidence at the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Tenterden. The K &ESRis a wonderful railway, but it illustrates one of the pitfalls of preservation. Much of the light railway atmosphere of the Colonel Stephens Line has sadly gone. In fact, Chasewater looks far more like the K &ESRthan the K &ESR– if you see what I mean!
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