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Too hot to blog today!  To hot for almost anything requiring mental effort.  So just the crash of the day.  A very early Lehigh Valley switcher (from the livery) misses the turntable.  Please don’t try this at home, gentle readers.  Oh, you’ve done it already…..

And I’ll add this very summery picture.  Oh to be able to see this sight today!

And this will keep you cool….

Still hoping to get some more of Allan’s pictures of the Lowestoft Transport Museum and the North Norfolk Railway.  And it’s been too hot for much modelling in the loft roof room.  

But for today, some old Southern station and shed photos.

Blackfriars in 1939.

A G16 shunting Feltham.  Amazing locos…

An accident at Nine Elms….

Norwood Junction in 1959.  One of the most modellable Southern sheds, perhaps with a little compression in the length and number of shed roads…

Nearby at West Norwood in pre-grouping days…

A W Class 2-6-4T on a banana train near Oxted.  There was a distribution depot nearby, that lasted well into British Railway days.

And Oxted looking north….

Three Bridges a very long time ago….

And an interesting group of wagons in Southern Railway days.

A change of scene, with the delightful shed on the Snailbeach Light Railway.

This last one is from the Great Western – some dodgy Edwardian characters on the platform! 

Back to modelling.  I did invest in a box of boxes – seconds (flaws in the colour, not damage) at a very cheap price.  I can buy some foam fillers, or use them for storing other things!

A few more oddities and inspirations….

Jago Hazzard on the end of the London trams…

And on somewhere I know well – Camberwell Station.  We live just up the road from this site…

And on the Tower of London.  I enjoy these videos – both gently amusing and informative!

Two videos of the wonderful Darjeeling railway.  Even the diesel is rather good….

All I can say is that his wife is rather long suffering!

Enjoy!

Hopefully, modelling posts will recommence next time.  But for today, we celebrate an auspicious occasion!  Not Mr Dawes appearing at a Wednesday ESNG meeting, but his retirement trip to Exeter and back behind Clan Line.

Both me and Ron had a fantastic day out to Exeter by train. Pulled there and back by Clan Line. Thanks to Sean & Kerry families.

Starting at Waterloo..

En route…..

And the modern equivalent at Exeter…..

There may be more pictures to come, but here’s one of the many YouTube videos of the trip…

No ESNG meeting photos today, as photos of the AGM would be pretty boring.  Basically, it happened, the committee was re-elected by default. and we socialised.  We did have a nice birthday cake to celebrate the 25th AGM of the club.

ittee

But back to the Swanage line….

We travelled to the end of the line at Norden, and the short hop back to Corfe Castle.  This is the classic Corfe shot from the footbridge, with the castle in the background.  It’s better with two engines, but Eddystone was doing all the work the day that we travelled the line.

Once the train had gone, Corfe turned into a peaceful, bucolic, country station.  I even managed to rescue a slow worm that had wriggled onto the platform, and return it to the bushes.

Corfe Castle was wrecked during the English Civil War, but remains an impressive ruin.

And the views of the railway and trains below are excellent.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a seaside holiday without a paddle, and a Jurassic coast holiday without looking at some fossils.  All in all, a very good and much needed time away.

After Ron’s epic travels, our holiday was less spectacular.  However, a week in Swanage did include a very pleasant day on the Swanage Railway.  The Swanage branch is the archtypal large branch line – a single track line that saw through trains from Waterloo in the summer holiday season.  It’s been a long battle to preserve the line, but with a link to the national railway system at Wareham fully operational next year, it will be possible once again to take the train to one’s holiday in Swanage.

But I’ll start with pictures from 1973, to show how far the line has come.  No track, no turntable, and threats of redevelopment for the Swanage station site show here.  These photos were taken by my father, whilst I was preparing for university with a holiday on the Isle of Skye!

It looks very different today, and as we pulled out of the station, I spotted their T9 4-4-0 lurking at the back of the engine shed.  Swanage had an interesting shed, as it was built at an angle to the entry track to the yard, and could only be accessed by the turntable.

Engine for the day was the rebuilt West Country class 4-6-2, 34028 ‘Eddystone’.  Just magnificent….

Parked in the station was a Class 50 diesel and an old ‘Blue Spot’ fish van.

And on the way back into Swanage, I caught an unrebuilt Bulleid and an ‘N’ 2-6-0 parked outside the station itself.  They were too close to our line for a full photo.

Next post, we’ll travel to Corfe Castle.