esngblog

And now for the wagons.  Just a photo-dump, really.  Engineers wagons are often an interesting breed, sometimes being old rolling stock, like the ex-SR brake van, and sometimes rebuild, like the Rudd on old hopper wagon chassis.

A Seacow..

Not to be confused with a Sealion!

A Salmon….

Not to be confused with a Brill…

And an unidentified species!

A very shiny Rudd.  New or recently maintained, as it will soon be as dented and rusty as the others!

A Dace…

A Crab….

And a Seal…

A Bass…

Don’t tell them your name, Pike!

A veritable shoal of open wagons….

An interesting one, a Squid.  Is it really this colour, or has all the paint dropped off?

And finally a Flatrol (otherwise known as a Lowmac?)

You could have a lot of fun modelling all of these.  A fair bit of scratch building needed, I suspect.   We’ll move onto the Redhill pictures next.

The next set of photos come from an open day at Three Bridges CMD.  I had no idea when these were taken, except that they were filed with the other Redhill pictures.  But Google told me that the shunter 09009 was named ‘Three Bridges CED’ on 27/08/1990.  Google maps aerial photos show the electricity pylons that are in the background of some shots.  So that’s when they must have been taken.  I really can’t remember going there, or why I went!!!!  So here’s the locomotive in question, all spruced up and ready to be named.

And some underframe detail.  Bet that didn’t stay white for long!

A general view of the yard.

And pictures of the cranes on display…

And one hard at work….

A luminous tank wagon…

Some modern but battered vans….

And a rather nice, if rather tired, ex-Southern Railway brake van…

Next post will have lots of pictures of fishy wagons – engineers wagons named after sea life (a bit like Scottish National Party leaders) for the uninitiated.

Hunting (successfully) for interesting pictures of my daughter ready for the wedding, I came across a number of railway shots.  A lot come from Redhill, but there are some wider afield.  Todays selection start with a visit to Lahore, Pakistan, in 1990, for a water supply project.  An interesting trip, in the days when Pakistan was fairly safe to visit – I drove myself to work and there was an American Club that flew in all its corn-fed beef and chicken.  And Budweiser to drink that was even worse than the Murree beer brewed in-country specially for non-Muslim expatriates.  

The first two pictures are of an old locomotive and coach parked, if I remember correctly, next the station that I passed most days to and from work.

The next two are taken from the Railway Club golf course.  I walked round the course with a colleague and (mis)hit the occasional shot.  The railway ran next the golf course, and the bird watching was good – Hoopoes in the bunkers, and a stack of vultures circling overhead to penalise slow play.  You didn’t go in the heavy rough, in case of snakes, but you could pay a small boy a few rupees to get it for you and throw it back into the middle of the fairway.  Even I could play golf like that!

Driving to work, I crossed a modern hump-back bridge over the railway.  It had obviously been modernised and raised to clear the overhead on the railway, but the approaches had also become rather steeper.  Or perhaps it was originally a level crossing.  A likely true story going round was that a donkey pulling a load of steel reinforcement couldn’t make it to the top, and lay down and died.  A young gentleman driving his BMW sportscar at high speed on the wrong side of the road flew over the hump and was terminally impaled on the reinforcement.  The picture below gives you the idea (of the donkey.)

The second set of pictures are from a work visit nearer home.  Cuxton, next to the Medway estuary near the Medway bridge.  A fine old signal box and signals, and a ‘Jaffa Cake’ liveried EMU.  And a load of condemned hoppers parked on a siding.

After a totally hectic week, culminating yesterday by cutting the lawn with our new lawnmower before today’s rain arrived, I settled down this morning recover with some strong coffee and to watch the coronation.  (Yes, I know it’s no-mow May, but if I left it I’d have been flushing out the water buffalo.  I’ve left some long areas wild.)  I’d class myself as a mild royalist – I’ve dipped into the procession and watched the ceremony (partly to catch Welby’s sermon) until Charles was pronounced king – but would never considering going to London to see any of it all.  But I enjoy the pageant and style of the whole thing and some excellent music.

As for model railways, my approach at the moment is rather summed up by these two videos – a bit random and difficulty in making things work.  All in Bahasa Indonesia, but brilliant pictures of rickety sugar-cane railways.  I was surprised at how much Bahasa I identified, not having been in Java since 2017.   His whole channel is a fun watch.  The trackwork is even worse than ESNG at it’s best….

Well, still hunting for the wedding suit, but the new lawnmower is on order – just in time for no mow May.  A lot of time has also been spent planning what to take to the NCI Stuttgart meet in November, and rearranging the exhibits for our September show, to squeeze in another trader.

So the next couple of weeks may be a little short on posts, but I’ll be back.

I’ve seen this done in the larger scales, but perhaps not in ‘N’?

My only continental models are a box of these UK army express carriages….

How to use up those bits of flexitrack?

A little bit of forgotten railway history….

I must have another go at these couplings.  I failed when I tried before!

And here’ #1 bride, still in Berlin and looking pensive, with her glamorous assistants.  (Who won’t be at the wedding, as could you trust them in the Barbican Conservatory, with all those trees?)

Not a lot to say today, as much time has been spent looking for a suit for #1 daughter’s wedding, and a new lawnmower.  Failure on both counts so far!  Perhaps we need some guinea pigs on lawn mowing duty, but that won’t help much for the wedding?  So here are a few pictures….

A small American industry yard, Fall River, Massachusetts.  This would make a good module or shunting layout.  It’s good to see that not all US yards are miles long…. 

One exception to the rule were the New York yards fed by car float.  Here’s the Erie in 1926….

Also American, a Santa Fe yard goat.  A lot of character in this lash-up of a locomotive, and more interesting than a Big Boy?

I wish someone would make a model of these Southern 4-6-0’s – an S15 and a Scotch King Arthur.

Great picture of a W class round the back of Stewarts Lane shed.  In the olden days, one could get a good view of this bit of the shed from the South London line on the viaduct above. (Photo John Benson.)

And another W, a Mike Morant photo.  It’s a shame that none of these survived for preservation.  They have a lot of character, and would have been ideal for trundling along heritage lines at 25mph.

Despite my Southern loyalty, I have a soft spot for a humble Jinty.  This one has condensing gear fitted for working around the Metropolitan lines in central London.  If I recall correctly, these were a slightly earlier class than the usual Jinty, with a square bunker.  But a possible Farish conversion?

Finally, this is a certain Peter Lockyer’s back garden.  What a great way to extend ones hobby into the garden.  I think that he’s an Isle of Wight enthusiast….

A serious but interesting article on Ukraine’s railways.

Jago Hazzard takes to the Underground again.  Sudbury Town would make a good model…

Ex-Underground stock goes even further than the Isle of Wight!

This is an interesting little primer in layout design – how simple can be best?

Prototype for everything spot – our N-Club “Up and Under module” has competition….

The British Rail flying saucer!!!!!!!!!

And to close, modelling challenge for the day….