Andrew

It's looking good, Tony.  I like the way you're using those curved points - they look very effective.  But I suppose with the points there on the curve, you can't really do any banking of the track. 

Keep the pictures coming!

"Class 66 Heaven"

The real-life version of that GBRF 66701 shot on the DGR makes a couple of appearances in Josh Barker's other new video which is well worth a look, here:

New Video

Tony has just mentioned a Class 66 in GBRF livery, and I hope his project runs smoothly for a Happy New Year! 

By fortunate coincidence, a very similar loco appears in this new video.  It's my favourite Christmas present, and comes from Josh Barker who has just put together some excellent material from his visit to the DGR in August 2018 featuring British steam and modern image and German modern image trains.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!

Remembering what it's all about

Fun in the summer sunshine:

and a very Happy Christmas to all our visitors and contributors to this site!

Isle of Man Railway 1967 & '68

This week I used some of my old colour slides for a Zoom presentation to the Dorking branch of the Locomotive Club of Great Britain, so I thought it might be worth slipping a few in here too.

Douglas station, with "Hutchinson" and "Maitland"

"Maitland" arrives at Douglas with a train from Peel

"Hutchinson" approaching St Johns with a train from Douglas

"G.H. Wood" crossing Glen Mooar viaduct with a train for Ramsey

"Hutchinson" at Ballavolley Halt (for the Wildlife Park)

"Mona" arrives at Peel

There are five pairs of intermodal wagons now.  A sixth would help, and allow a few prototypical gaps without containers.

Autumnal Interlude

Having waited a while for some decent weather, I decided to go for a running session today despite it being overcast, in order to get some autumn leaves photos.  Polishing up the track seemed to take a bit longer than normal, as it hadn't been used for such a long time.

The new Class 66 was keen to have another stretch of her legs, and there was a new intermodal wagon to add to the rake.  I hope the pictures convey that autumn feeling (and yes, it was a bit cold).

A video may be along later.

That cable stay bridge is looking great, Tony, after so much work on your part.  Well done on getting so far.  I hope you can get the main part of the layout ready soon.  Looking forward to seeing the first train running!

By the way, i'm not clear why you posted that photo of a very different bridge which is nothing like yours.  Are you also working on a low-level pier bridge?

All the best as the work continues, anyway.

You've got the colour of the ballast exactly right in my view, Mick.  Not many layouts seem to achieve the appropriate shade of fawny brown, as opposed to the unrealistic grey of much that is often sold as ballast.

Good work, Thomas.  Most impressive.  We would all like to see some double-headed trains on the helix...

Nice Class 50 pics, thanks, Mick.  What make is that colour light signal please?  Looks very authentic.

Sharp eyes!

DGR does globalisation: first run of the intermodal train

Class 66 waiting for work

Bringing home a train of containers - literally all the way from China

Then it was time to form up another rake at Northdown container terminal:

Before heading off again

One more:

Your trees are looking great, Mick.  Silver birch, perhaps.  More happy leafing!

A new kid on the block

The 1st October celebrations in Dorking and Beijing mark an important milestone for the Fat Controller and the People's Republic of China.  The date is also the anniversary of the opening of the DGR in 2012, and for all these reasons it frequently results in new stock arriving in Dorking.  This year was no exception, seeing the DGR finally escape from the steam age with the acquisition of our first diesel (about time too, I hear Mick say) and what should be a decent train of intermodal wagons to complement it.

Getting the too-bright and shiny intermodals coupled up and running proved to be too fiddly and time-consuming for the limited time available, so the Class 66 made its proud debut towing just a modest pair of containers.  The loco is nicely weathered, so the pristine wagons will have to get theirs in due course.

A longer train should be along soon.

And here are a couple of examples of the real thing a few years ago, also in Dorking:

Not the Night Mail

Some old negatives recently came my way, courtesy of Julian, which look like photos from sixty years ago of the overnight mail trains that ran in both directions between Paddington and Penzance.  Presumably these are summer photos, taken when the train could be seen in daylight.

The trains had originally been known as the Great Western Up and Down TPOs and that continued after nationalisation.  The Travelling Post Office vehicles are in the striking Post Office red livery used for the new Mk 1 mail train stock (1959 onwards) until their repainting into blue and grey livery from 1970.

It's not clear whether these photos are of the Up or the Down train.  Several vehicles are fitted with mailbag exchange apparatus which would be on the nearside of the train, but they are marshalled with apparatus on both sides so that the stock would not need to be turned at final destination.

As well as the TPO coaches, there are several ex-GWR Siphon G vehicles coupled at the rear which by this time were in parcels use and would be dropped off at various points on the Down service and reattached on the Up.

Peter Johnson's book Mail by Rail gives a general introduction to this traffic.

A computer generated colour rendition(!) to show the Post Office red livery, with a view of the mailbag exchange apparatus:

And the same treatment for the first photo above:

Strange Cargo at Northdown Junction

This curious object was recently seen on a Lowmac.  Is it perhaps a prototype Korean deep diving bathysphere?

Nope!  It was of course Josh's 360 degree camera ready to record full details of the DGR circuit.  On the following video you can swivel the field of view by tilting your device or using the mouse.  Quite fun to give it a try:

Belmond British Pullman in the Surrey Hills

In normal times this luxury day excursion train is often hauled by Merchant Navy class engine "Clan Line", lovingly polished into gleaming condition.  During periods of high fire risk, most of the tractive effort is provided by a Class 67 diesel running as the train engine, with the Bulleid sauntering along as pilot with little effort.  These photos were taken near Dorking on one such trip, although no-one attached the headboard that day.

Northdown Junction

Running along the Downs

Passing a typical Surrey Hills residence (a.k.a.Palmer's Farm, the home of Anne Arden, William Shakespeare's mother)

Heading back to London Victoria with passengers well wined and dined.

Virgin Trains

When Virgin Trains used Pendolino electric units for their West Coast Main Line franchise they also had a full rake of MK3 coaches  including DVT as a standby set (known as WB64).  In 2011 Virgin Trains started hauling this set with Class 90 locomotives hired in from Freightliner, and this arrangement lasted until the operations ceased in late 2014.  More details here: http://www.class90electriclocogroup.co.uk/virgin_trains.html

This is what it looked like (you have to imagine the OHL equipment):

South West Trains

These Siemens Desiro Class 450 units have been a mainstay of medium distance suburban services on the third rail electrified routes out of Waterloo since 2003 and are familiar to thousands of people who in days gone by were commuters.  The livery started to change after SWT lost the operating franchise in 2017.

This one is on an Up Waterloo service:

Rear view on Foxdale Bank

Rural Hampshire perhaps

Still heading for Waterloo

Modern railways

Goodness!  More than a month with no pictures.  So it was jolly good that Geoff and Josh came over yesterday for a suitably distanced running session and brought lots of exciting rolling stock to add new liveries to the normal DGR diet of steam age British Railways.  The photos will be posted in installments, starting with "Lady Penelope".

Lady P. is number 57307, re-engined from a Class 47 and, at the time shown, owned by Virgin Trains primarily as a rescue engine for Pendolino electric units and other trains in trouble, such rescue locos commonly being known as thunderbirds.

First we see her setting out from Throstlebeck inland port with her intermodal train:

Crossing the Northern Viaduct

On across Foxdale Bank

and then, later the same day on a different working, passing Black Ghyll

Grasshopper watching the trains go by

I fully endorse Mick's second and third paras above.

After eight years of sterling service my creocoated timber track base is starting to show its age, suffering from rot in some places where it's been resting on the earth and warping on some curves where it wasn't adequately braced.

I shall replace it on the same basis.  Treated timber is by far the simplest medium to use and I prefer its weathered appearance to that of uniform grey roofing felt.  It has good qualities in service and, if it lasts for 8-10 years, offers a reasonable lifespan.

All looks promising, Barry.  A couple of thoughts. 

The temporary can tend to become permanent, so you might want to make some allowance for that from the outset rather than committing to replace everything as part of the plan.

The sidings at your terminus don't look as long as the passing loop.  If there was scope to have the station parallel to the front edge of the decking you might have more length available.  If you could get the line to run behind that variegated green patch so that the curve starts from up against the boundary, there might be more length available for the main station.

As for the main station, does it need to be a terminus?   One of the characteristics of a garden railway is that operators (and your visitors) enjoy watching trains running round a continuous circuit, rather than doing detailed shunting which is better performed indoors.  Some people (i.e. me) start with a continuous circuit and find that gives so much of what they wanted that anything further is a bit of an afterthought...