Yet another hot sunny day. We drove today from Ilminster, Somerset to Kidderminster, Worcestershire visiting the Gloucester and Wawickshire Railway where we had a 2 1/2 hour trip Toddington – Cheltemham – Broadway -Toddington.
And Allan adds…..
A fantastic place to visit. One on my bucket list.
Trains by Allan….
Mainly scenery by Ron…..
And the usual toilet picture from Ron….
Seen in gents toilet at Cheltenham Racecourse Station
Another hot sunny day. Drove to Paignton for a return trip on Paignton and Devon Steam Railway to Kingswear and then a ferry to Dartmouth. Now sitting on Buckfastleigh station for return trip on South Devon Railway.
View from Paignton railway. You can just make out 2 mothballed cruise ships in Torbay.
Kingswear, harbour, ferry and marina
Train leaving Paignton main line station and the US engine outside Paignton steam Railway station.
And the trains on the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway.
Then on to the Dart valley, and the South Devon Railway. Maxine and I visited a few years ago – I’d last been there when it was the Dart Valley Railway, and was about to open as a preserved line. Dates me a bit…..
It’s holiday time for the Dawes brothers. As Switzerland is off limits, they headed westward on a tour of heritage railways. They’ve sent me the usual snaps, so my blogging holiday will sort of stop, with these easy to write posts! Day 1, not much to report….
Having delivered the cats to the cattery we set out for the South West to our first stop at Ilminster. We suffered heavy traffic and delays on M25 and M3 and finally on A303 passing Stonehenge. Currently enjoying meal and a pint in a pub just outside Ilminster. Sorry no photos today.
Day 2, a visit to the Seaton tramway….
A hot sunny day. Took a 45 minutes drive to Seaton, where using our pre-paid tickets we took 3 round trips on the Seaton Tramway to Colyton, where on our 3rd round trip we enjoyed pre paid Devon Cream Teas.
Devon Cream Tea. Should I have put the cream or jam on first?
Obvious. You’re in Devon, so jam first. Cornwall, cream first.
Some trams….
Colyton Station
The excellent webcam of the line. Worth a look!
dig
And the lovely Axe estuary. They’ve got the right weather for it!
Another club night – and the expected rain arrived half way through the evening, but without the forecast thunderstorms. Five of us met, ran trains, and finally settled down for a long chat, leaving my Warship and parcels train doing laps of the layout.
Earlier, Simon ran a long passenger train, that kept uncoupling, Michael ran his British stock, and Derek tested a couple of locomotives. It was good to see Ian for the first time for a while.
Looking back a meeting, here’s Brian’s video of the occasion….
And new on my bookshelf…..
Graham Hedges’ new ‘N’ gauge magazine. Very nicely produced, and if you liked the N Gauge Society when he edited it, it’s more of the same. Glossy, nice, but slightly predictable and I’m not sure that I’ll buy another one.
Model Railroader – 25 years of Model Railroad Planning on DVD. This annual planning magazine is the one essential US purchase of my year, and although it has a good number of basement empires included, there are a lot of good small layout ideas. I’m pleased to be able to get all these issues in digital form!
And best of the lot, Locomotives of the IOW Railways. I’ve got the ancient, smaller and thinner version of this, dating from the 1970’s, but this is expanded with much more information. It is also up to date, with all locomotion included up to the latest ex-tube stock. A recommended read!
A boiling hot Sunday afternoon, and England playing their first game in the Euros. Five of us had a rather more sedate afternoon running trains, and very pleasant it was too.
It didn’t take long to set up the layout. Dare I say, that it’s easier with less people…..
Chris and I both ran a ‘real’ UK goods train…..
Paul had his usual Japanese contribution…..
Brian was in deepest Europe….
And also filming my IOW Terrier, as Graham’s USA express passed in the background…..
Paul had his usual sage summing up on Facebook…..
An afternoon playing trains. Very enjoyable, nice to have regular club meetings again. Sunday’s only for me until September owing to my early starts at work through the summer.
And we’re back on Wednesday for another meeting.
No Chairman today, as he’s on holiday. Ron has sent some snaps of a cream tea to me, and I shall have to post them over the next few days.
And to finish, another modelling video from Brian. No doubt one of this afternoon will follow soon….
Doetinchem – Bijna Maar Niet is a model railway layout in N Gauge.
In real life, Doetinchem is served by rail services from Arnhem to Winterswijk with two stations, one in the city centre – Doetinchem and Doetinchem De Huet lying to the west between the suburbs of De Huet and Dichteren. In 2012, Arriva, took over the rail services.
Most of what you see is from my imagination rather than an accurate film of the location, but I’ve tried to replicate some of the area in my designs.
I tried to obtain a Class E186 in Dutch livery, but they have sold out around the world, so I had one last option – a Lineas branded E186 from Scograil – an excellent model rail shop based in Ipswich, England.
Lineas is a large European freight operation in Benelux countries including The Netherlands.
Last week the light just held long enough to take a few pictures of B1 class 4-6-0 ‘Mayflower’. There were, of course, the usual warmup act of EMUs whilst waiting for the main attraction.
It was quite noticeable how small this locomotive looked compared to the Flying Scotsman a couple of weeks earlier, and it was working a lot harder to get through the station.
Providing heat, light and emergency back-up was a Class 33. Good to see in itself.
The train paused at Redhill, and I nipped back to the car to drive a little way towards London to see if I could catch the train passing me. I got there just in time to see it, but unfortunately not in time to set up a picture.
This is the blog of the East Surrey N Gauge model railway club. Find out about our club activities here, as well as news and views on N-gauge railway modelling.