Andrew

Summer comes soonest in the South This week David H. brought ten very handsome locomotives from his large Southern collection to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine in Dorking. First up was a double headed ensemble of King Arthurs, with Sir Meliagrance piloting Pendragon: After running successfully for some time, we noticed that Sir Meliagrance had nevertheless sustained an earlier injury. Visible in this next photo is the dislodged off-side slidebar assembly. So he is now in the shops for care and attention. Number 30915 Schools class "Brighton" ran well, seen here running off the Northern Viaduct with a very light load. But she then shed a traction tyre, so also had to be removed from service for later attention. Deciding a beauty contest can be hard, but Dugald Drummond's T9s, nicknamed "Greyhounds", will always be strong contenders: The last photo shows an Adams Radial tank as the train engine with an M7 as pilot, passing Northdown Sidings:

Thomas, Your civil engineering skills are fantastic. All the new infrastructure looks great, and I'm really looking forward to seeing photos of the trains running on it soon. Please make sure you post lots of pictures after the grand opening ceremony takes place (which must be quite soon, I think). Well done, and keep up the good work.

That's Entertainment Today the DGR was delighted to welcome Hal and Joe to see the trains. As neither has reached their third birthday yet, it was an excuse to run some older, less delicate stock, so I dug out the battered Tri-ang BR green Class 37 no. D6830 and some Tri-ang Mk I coaches (very passable models for their day) - which seemed to keep the visitors happy. Afterwards, as everything was up and running, I decided to exercise the BR Standard 4MT and relax while watching it trundle past with a coal train. First the 37. Someone seems to have taken a bite out of its bodywork: Then the Class 4, here running onto Sycamore Curve: I noticed this year that the mind-your-own-business has managed to cross the line and is now growing on both sides of the track: Looks as if the fireman is taking a well-earned breather...

Then The Grange paused with some coaches in the headshunt, admiring the signal controlling access to the main line... ...as King William IV ran past with an express to Paddington from the west Midlands and the Principality beyond: and later the King showed up again on another of those parcels trains:

Going Great Western Visiting locomotives and rolling stock aren't exactly unusual on the DGR, but today was a bit of a first with some visiting signals. More specifically, some beautifully finished lower quadrant Ratio signals arrived (helpfully tailored to the DGR track plan), along with Julian's ever growing stock of realistically grubby GW-origin rolling stock. So we planted the signals and ran some trains. First out of the box is Resolven Grange, seen here just about to pull away from the Foxdale Bank distant: and here she is on a parcels train passing some fine signals somewhere west of Shrewsbury (note the bucket on the tender footplate)