Model Railway News

For Model Railway News, go to:

  The UK Model Shop Directory 

http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk

Bournville Model Railway Club – Pete Bridge

Staffordshire News – Shugborough Yew Tree

Staffordshire News

 

Shugborough Yew Tree

Shugborough’s Great Yew (the widest tree in Europe) has been shortlisted in the final ten of England’s Tree of the Year. Voting for the winner (which will enter the European competition runs all this week until Tuesday 4^th). We’re up against some stiff competition from Newton’s Apple and the Sherwood Oak, so please, please, please lend your support by voting for our extra special tree as NUMBER ONE at www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/vote and by retweeting and sharing our posts on Facebook and Twitter www.facebook.com/shugboroughestate www.twitter.com/shugborough

Canal News, 1st & 2nd November 2014, Crofton and Gloucester

Canal News 1st & 2nd November 2014

Crofton winter work open days

01 Nov 2014 – 07 Mar 2015
10:30 am – 3:30 pm
Address
Crofton Pumping Station,
Crofton,
Marlborough,
Wiltshire,
SN8 3DW

Come and see behind the scenes at the Historic Crofton Pumping Station this winter, when our teams of dedicated volunteers cosset and maintain the two historic beam engines.
The Pumping Station will be open free of charge on the following days from 10:30 to 15:30.
• Saturday 1 November 2014
• Saturday 13 December 2014
• Saturday 7 February 2015
• Saturday 7 March 2015
This winter we are giving visitors a rare chance to see maintenance works in progress,
when we dismantle parts of the engines normally hidden from view.
It’s cold inside the pumping station during the winter as the boiler is not in steam and drained down but tea, coffee and biscuits will be available for a small charge.

Halloween at Gloucester Waterways Museum

25 Oct – 02 Nov 2014
10:30 am – 4:30 pm
Address
Gloucester Waterways Museum
Llanthony Warehouse
Gloucester Docks
Gloucester
GL1 2EH

Jeepers, creepers! Gloucester Waterways Museum is planning a halloween extravaganza with spine-tingling activities to keep the kids entertained this half-term.
The Museum’s education team have let their imaginations run wild to plan a spooky (but not too scary) Halloween trail around the museum.
Crafty children of all ages will enjoy making witches’ hats, frogs, bat mobiles and scary spiders in our craft room throughout half-term.

‘Fight to re-open Railway’ – From the ‘Brownhills Gazette, December 1989 – via Brownhills Bob, David Evans and Brian Stringer

Fight to re-open Railway

From the ‘Brownhills Gazette, December 1989 

via Brownhills Bob, David Evans and Brian Stringer

This was taken from Brownhills Bob’s latest post (28-10-2014) and is of particular interest to railway followers in the Lichfield, Walsall, Brownhills area.

On a personal level – when I first started school (a few weeks ago now!), I used to travel from Brownhills to Lichfield by train (steam, obviously), and later, when I started work, I travelled in the other direction, from Brownhills to Walsall (steam or diesel) – hence my interest in the line.  John (CWS).

  http://brownhillsbob.com/

 Next year (2015) will be the fiftieth anniversary of the closure of the line!

 

Steam Railways in Preservation in the 1980-90s, August 26 – September 2 1988, ‘Standard 4MT No.80104’

Steam Railways in Preservation in the 1980-90s
August 26 – September 2 1988

‘Standard 4MT No.80104’

Standard 4MT No.80104 departs Swanage for restoration at Swindon.

The Port Line Locomotive Project’s Standard 4MT 2-6-4T locomotive No 80104, based at the Swanage Railway, has been moved to the Heritage Centre Swindon, where it will be restored to full working condition before returning to the Swanage Railway to haul trains on the expanding line.
No.80104 was rescued from the Barry sidings in 1984 and during its time at Swanage, the deterioration was halted whilst awaiting restoration. The locomotive is owned by the Port Line Locomotive Project, but the Swanage based Southern Steam Trust holds a large percentage of shares in the engine. It is intended that 80104 will operate permanently on the Swanage line following the completion of restoration.
Built at Brighton in 1954, the locomotive was initially allocated to Plaistow (33A) on the Eastern Region and spent the first six years of its life hauling intensive commuter services out of Fenchurch Street to Tilbury (Riverside), Shoeburyness and Southend (Central). The Standard 4MT tanks were displaced from those services in 1961.
The class is not a newcomer to Swanage, with engines of that type having worked the line between 1963 and 1967, indeed the last example to work to Corfe Castle and Swanage was on Sunday, 18th June 1967, when No.80146, a one-time regular on the line, worked a 10-coach RCTS tour train to Swanage.

BR 2-6-4T Class 4MT No. 80104
BR Standard Class 4 80104 was bought by the Southern Steam Trust and displayed in the headshunt at Swanage in September 1984 after a cosmetic restoration, and stayed there for a number of years.
After a long restoration the locomotive entered regular service in 1997.

Photo – Date August 2003,  Author Andrew Hackney,  Licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license

http://swanagerailway.co.uk

Some Early Lines – Old Railway Companies – Wallingford & Watlington Railway

Some Early Lines

Old Railway Companies

Wallingford & Watlington Railway

Incorporated on 25 June 1864, this was the first
standard gauge branch of the GWR. It failed to reach the length authorised (9 miles), stopping short of Wallingford and abandoning the river crossing. Opening on 2 July 1866, the line was worked by the GWR, which bought the Company for £16,750 under an Act of 25 July 1872. The line was closed on 1 June 1981, and is the site of a preservation scheme, the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway, now authorised to run into Cholsey station.

Watlington railway station, Oxfordshire
Date  Postally used 9 October 1919
Source Old postcard Author  I.J. Cook, Watlington

The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway Preservation Society (C&WRPS) aims to preserve the branch as a Heritage Railway. After years of hard work by our members, the line is now open all the way from the main line station at Cholsey to Wallingford and passenger services have been restored. Acheivements include the relaying of various sections of track and sucessfully preserving the line into Wallingford when the new town bypass was built.

In addition to the regular maintainance and restoration of the line and its rolling stock, the Society is now chanelling its efforts into the re-development of the Wallingford station site. A major project to improve the permanent way is also currently underway, to ensure the line continues to be fit for passenger trains. More members are needed to help with this major project. See the membership page and volunteer today!

http://www.cholsey-wallingford-railway.com

The current Wallingford end of the Cholsey and Wallingford Railway, with locomotive 701.
Date  1 April 2005
Author  Chris Wood  Copyright (c) 2005 Chris Wood. Uploaded by the copyright holder under the terms of the GFDL (see below).
Licensing  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The ‘big’ Barclay – 1964/1929, also known at Chasewater as ‘701’ – goodbye and thank you!

After spending some time at Cholsey & WallingtonRailway, ‘701’ went to Chasewater Railway in Staffordshire, appearing firstly as 701, then in GWR livery and finally in NCB colours.

Steam Railways in Preservation in the 1980-90s August 26 – September 2 1988 – ‘Bahamas’

 

45596 Bahamas

  13 December 2012  Thomas’s Pics
Licensing:  Creative Commons  attribution This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Saturday, August 6th, saw LMS Jubilee ‘Bahamas’ in steam and carrying out some light engine movements at Dinting Railway Centre, for the first time in fifteen years. Visitors to the Centre on that day received a bonus, although the engine was unfinished as far as the painting goes, no problems were evident and the locomotive ran perfectly.
The race is now on to complete the painting in time for the big event of 1988 at the Centre, which will be the 21st anniversary of the Centre itself and the re-commissioning of the Jubilee.

Boiler repairs became necessary during 1973 and Bahamas was taken out of service to become a static exhibit at the Society’s home at the Dinting Railway Centre.
Work on the restoration of other locomotives by Society volunteers prevented a start on the overhaul of Bahamas until 1980. It was to be a further eight years before the overhaul was completed, at a cost of £16,000. All the work was undertaken by Society members, who effected a saving in the region of £50,000 when compared with the cost of similar work undertaken by contract firms at that time.
Restored to its authentic British Railways condition, Bahamas successfully operated 37 railtours on the main line between 1989 and 1994, covering more than 12,000 miles before its main-line certificate became due for renewal. It was praised by both enthusiasts and professional railwaymen, and earned itself an enviable reputation for excellent reliability and good performance.
Then followed visits to various heritage railways until the expiry of its boiler certificate in 1997 resulted in its withdrawal from operation.
The engine then went on public display in the museum of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway at Oxenhope, where it stayed until 2012 when it was invited to attend the ‘Railfest’ event at the National Railway Museum in York. Its stay at York was extended until the following year, when it returned to Ingrow.
It was during 2012 that an application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund to enable the overhaul of Bahamas to be undertaken by contractors and thus speed the process of its return to working order. The bid was successful, and by December 2013 work had commenced on the boiler, wheels and frames at the Tyseley Locomotive Works. See the Work in Progress page for updates with the project.  http://ingrowlocomuseum.com/?page_id=352

Sandfields Pumping Station – All hands to the pump!

BrownhillsBob's Brownhills Blog

This is a remarkable, severe but beautiful building, now almost marooned in a sea of new development. Image from Dave Moore’s Flickr photo stream.

It’s really getting busy for top local history wonks Dave Moore, Chris Pattison and their  Freinds of Sandfields Pumping Station campaign group, who seem to be really getting somewhere with this fantastic Victorian edifice; not only has their attention prompted the fixing of the roof recently, but the listing status of the building is now under review too.

If you’d like to have a great morning out this Saturday (25th October 2014), the group are taking part in the Arts and Heritage procession through Lichfield taking place that morning from 10:30am. They’ll also have a manned stall in the Guildhall until 4pm where they’ll be talking to the public and explaining why this excellent and well-fought campaign is so important.

Dave Moore wrote:

View original post 361 more words

Another couple of Half-Term Events – Hednesford, Staffs

Another couple of Half-Term Events 

Hednesford, Staffs

Friend of Hednesford Park

Lantern Walk 31st October 2014

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Come along and join in the spooky goings on! Meet from 4 pm by the gazebo near the main gate to The Park to collect your entry form for the treasure hunt.

Activities on the night will include a scary story walk, spooky disco music, and competition prizes for best fancy dressed, best lantern, best pumpkin and prizes for completed treasure hunt entries! There will also be fun fair rides, story-telling in the Pavilion and food from Spencer’s Kitchen.

There will be free workshops in the Pavilion leading up to the event;

Monday 27th October 12noon – 3pm Get ECO Creative Lantern Bottle Workshop

Tuesday 28th October 12noon – 3pm Great Ghouls Workshop

Thursday 30th October 12noon – 3pm Get creative Bring a Pumpkin Workshop

Friday 31st October 4.30 – 6.30pm Spooky Spiders Workshop

There will be a parade to show off fancy dress and lanterns at 5.45, when judging will take place by Backstreet Theatre Company. Pumpkins should be in the Pavilion by 5pm latest for judging. Event will finish at 6pm with a dance extravaganza in partnership with The Cadets and Jacquie Stokes.

And don’t forget – Chasewater Railway’s diesel Service on Thursday

Canal News – October 25-26, Middlewich Floating Market, The Wartime Port – 1940s Event

Canal News – October 25-26

Floating market in Middlewich

24 – 26 Oct 2014
8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Address
Situated off Salinae Field/Lewin Street,
Town Bridge,
CW10 9AS
Find a unique christmas gift at Middlewich’s floating market this year – and why not enjoy some great food and drink as well?
Middlewich are playing host to an annual beer festival, artisan market and a floating market!
What better way to spend a weekend than finding yourself in the hub of delicious food, a beer festival and market packed full of hidden treasures and unique gifts.
Middlewich is a fantastic historic canal town, come and enjoy it in the autumn air. More information about the beer festival can be found here.

The Wartime Port – 1940s Event at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port

25 – 26 Oct 2014
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Address
National Waterways Museum,
South Pier Road,
Ellesmere Port CH65 4FW

The event will bring to life the key role that the canals, waterways and ports played during the days of the Second World War. Re-enactors will recreate scenes and activities of events that would have taken place during the wartime period with original and reproduction equipment and vehicles.
The Wartime Port – 1940s Event 25th-26th October
The event will bring to life the key role that the canals, waterways and ports played during the days of the Second World War. Re-enactors will recreate scenes and activities of events that would have taken place during the wartime period with original and reproduction equipment and vehicles.
Visitors can expect to see a variety of allied military personnel, as they transit through the port, civilians and civil defence workers, home guard, land army and many others. Alongside this, entertainment will be provided throughout the day by renowned singers, Paul and Natasha Harper, together with 40’s DJs, Cotton Town Hot Club. The entertainment will continue into the evening with a WWII Victory Party.