Andrew

Mick, You're very welcome. I sent you that as a small Thank You for all the work you do throughout the year to keep this great website available. Although we the users don't often say thank you, I'm sure we are all extremely grateful to you for keeping this community facility available for our general enjoyment - along with the many people who just come to look without choosing to post. Many thanks once again.

Photos look really good, Mick. As Roddy says, the viaduct weathering is very effective - looks to be more of it on one side than the other, which I guess is quite authentic.

The Dorking Garden Railway has been a few years in the planning and has now started to take shape on the ground. Plan A was to have involved building a double track oval in the garage last winter, but when Spring arrived and no work had been done, it was obviously time to forget Plan A and focus on the garden side of things - Plan B. A foretaste of the real garden railway has been provided by various photo sessions involving mock-ups. The first session was precipitated because, having talked about a potential garden railway at work, my colleagues announced that my leaving present had to be a loco for the layout. So I was duty bound to show at least the spirit of what was afoot, and some temporary track was put down one sunny afternoon in December for a photo-shoot. Here's the result - a Bachmann 9F heading a passenger train in the East Midlands in the early 1960s. Before the 9F, my daughter had announced that she wanted to give me a loco as a birthday present. Once the Jubilee arrived, it too required some photos to show my gratitude. By this time the Bamboo Curtain in the garden had become the obvious backdrop, and another sunny day saw "Hong Kong" given the treatment - and an attempt at smoke and steam - as shown here. Here are another couple of mocked-up photos (we get on to some real construction progress later!). First, a nostalgic pose with the Hornby Dublo 3-rail "Bristol Castle" heading a Western region express, and second a BR Standard Class 4 with a Guildford to Redhill train seen near Dorking West station in winter sunshine in the late 1950s. To show a wider perspective, the next mock-up marked the 150th anniversary of the Great Locomotive Chase on 12 April 2012. This commemorated all those involved in the epic event, and shows an almost correct period 4-4-0 locomotive by Rivarossi. The Andrews Raiders are running low on fuel and have just uncoupled the first of their three boxcars. At last, a length of timber base was installed for one side of what is intended to be a double-track oval, and the first six yards of track were laid. Although amounting to little more than a test track, this stretch did give an authentic garden railway feel. The first powered train was this Alco diesel, seen running on Burlington Northern's rarely photographed Bamboo Curtain subdivision. This was soon followed by a vintage Hornby Dublo freight, headed by an 8F loco. Work is now under way to extend the first straight into Sycamore Curve after which the far side of the oval will see the line leaving the staging to contour at ground level along a currently weed-ridden bank before curving round to rejoin the Bamboo Curtain straight. Talk is cheap!

Winter Sunshine Seeing today's bright weather, the Fat Controller suggested Thomas should show off his new brake pipes and front coupling by posing for some photos with recently-arrived Annie and Clarabel. Even the troublesome trucks were happy to join in the fun.

'Tis still just about the season, so a very Happy Christmas to all our readers! Here's a suitable photo, of Jubilee "Hong Kong" with its parcels train heralding the delights of Christmas:

CIWL Orientation Moving on from the Hornby Thomas (R9287), we now come to models by Liliput and Pocher which arrived as a gift from Philip when I went to last Saturday's ever-excellent O Gauge American and Continental Exhibition at Winchester. Here are a few photos probably taken at the Landy carriage sidings outside Paris in the interwar years. The Wagons Lits rolling stock is being serviced before being attached to various international expresses to run across Europe as through coaches, or indeed as complete trains in various versions of the Orient Express. First, a couple of dining cars. The photo was taken around the time the varnished teak was giving way to the later blue livery. Here's a sleeping car in teak. All ready for intrigue! Diner and sleeper, both in teak: This end shot of a dining car shows the space-saving storage lockers provided each side of the corridor connection:

The Fat Controller's Birthday It being the 6th anniversary of the opening of the DGR, the Fat Controller was delighted to welcome Thomas as a new arrival to the railway, to celebrate the arrival of our grandson a couple of weeks ago. When he first arrived, Thomas was rather a lonely engine, having no-one to play with: He tried talking to the Throstlebeck signalman, but that wasn't much fun: At last he met a couple of friendly coaches and persuaded them to come out for a run: They had a lot of fun puffing across Foxdale Bank: And then Thomas found another two coaches to join them. "Look at me now!" he shouted as they charged across the Northern Viaduct:

Australian Narrow Gauge We had a very special visitor to enjoy today's sunshine, in the form of Frank with his Baldwin-pattern 2-6-2T from the Victorian Railways 2'6" gauge line in the Dandenong Ranges. This line, now preserved as the Puffing Billy Railway, was built in the early 1900s, and seemed to be getting by when the following photos were taken at some point in its early decades. The fireman waves to the camera during shunting at Gembrook Number 6A dawdles through the Dandenongs with a goods train The driver keeps an eye out as the train runs onto the Northern Viaduct... ...from where it's best not to look down!

Video Tasty My favourite garden railway video team, Duck End Pictures, have just produced another superb gauge 1 epic which I hope you'll enjoy: https://youtu.be/f3SOzcLvaGk