the Dorking Garden Railway

[traingeekboy]

I like the video of the birds. We have been graced with the presence of a nesting pair of blue jays this year. Although they have nested in a tall pine across the street, it's a first for my garden to have blue jays searching for nesting. I do enjoy all aspects of the garden from plants to trains and birds. Good for you in not bothering the nestlings while they grow.

[Andrew]

As I'm prevented from using the 'main' railway until the hatchling blue tits decide to leave home, desperate measures were needed today...

But here, for consolation, is a shot dredged from the archives:

 

[IanR]

Perhaps you should build a 'Blue Tit avoiding line' or run a replacement bus! lol

[traingeekboy]

I may have to resort to a similar solution.

[Andrew]

The railway hadn't been touched for a couple of months due to nesting blue tits, me going away, and life intervening. I cleared the track of its accumulated garden debris of leaves, an ants nest, fallen earth and so on and polished up the rails and enjoyed running trains in today's glorious afternoon sun.

Here are a couple of shots of the 2.30pm weekday train from Glenwhatsit hauled by a BR Standard 2-6-4 Tank passing below the peak of Skeagh Dhgurrh and heading towards Inversomewhere with its through coaches to Glasgow enabling connection with the sleeper service to Euston.

The locomotive is by Hornby Dublo and was bought in summer 1958 as a 3-rail model and converted to 2-rail in 1964. It still runs very well.

[Andrew]

Here's another similar working...

[traingeekboy]

Oh very nice. The standard BR looks like the same wheel base as my old hornby fowler. Is it the same loco or different? I can see differences, but often over here steam locos would get upgraded, so although outwardly different they were still the same beast.

Sorry to ask what is probably a dumb question, I just don't know that much about british locos.

[Andrew]

Griff, Your old Hornby Fowler would have been built by the LMS before nationalisation. After the advent of British Railways in 1948 steps were taken to design a range of BR Standard locos which started to emerge in 1951. These were intended to incorporate best practice of the time, and some people think the loco designs show strong LMS influence, so there may well be a more than superficial likeness between the two models. But the Standard classes were not rebuilt from anything earlier.

[Andrew]

Some different colours appeared in Dorking this week when friend David brought some Swindon locos for a day out.

First is Soughton Hall with a fine rake of chocolate and cream coaches:

Here's a Prairie tank still in elegant GWR livery despite the BR Mk 1 coach signalling the year must be at least 1951:

Just to show that other companies beside the Great Western could use brown and cream paint to good effect, this photo shows a stand-in BR Class 4 loco barrelling down Bamboo Curtain Straight trying to catch up lost time with a Pullman express:

[Riddles]

It's good to see a really old model still going strong. It must be nearly 60 years old although the mechanism could possibly be slightly younger. 80054 was introduced by the original Hornby, Liverpool company (actually Meccano Limited) in November 1954 as a 3 rail loco and was superseded in September 1961 by 80059. All the 2 rail models appeared as 80033 and some body swaps have occured. Looking at the driving wheels though, I should say that yours was originally 3 rail and has been converted, which would make it between 52 and 59 years old.

Incidentally, the original Hornby diecast footbridge, signalbox and stations stand up to outside use very well.

Dave W

[traingeekboy]

We had something similar over here: http://www.steamlocomotive.com/misc/usra.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Andrew]

Made a new video today as the sun was shining. It's at:

Enjoy!

[Andrew]

Having previously received heavy hints that running the occasional goods train would be A Good Thing, the offer of friend Robert to come and visit with some wagons and a loco to correct this omission seemed too good to refuse. Here is a link to the video of the day at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsgKPkNbT_w, and also a few photos:

First picture shows the visitor, an ex-LMS Ivatt 2-6-0, running tender first and passing an advance caution signal on Foxdale Bank:

Then the regular DGR 9F runs off Sycamore Curve onto the Bank with a goods train:

Then the 9F passes the caution signal on Foxdale Bank (presumably protecting the Ivatt which is ahead):

Finally the 9F whisks its freight train down Bamboo Curtain Straight in fine style:

[Andrew]

One of my earlier videos, "Jubilee in the 1950s" with the blood-and-custard coaches, had very primitive editing because it had been done online with YouTube's basic editor before I discovered Windows Live Movie Maker. So I've now redone it and added a scene. It's now called "Scottish Express in the 1950s" and looks a bit better. Catch it at:

The newly-added clip, the final one, is 'mirrored' to make the direction of travel appear consistent, so sharp eyes will see for example that the coach numbers are at the wrong ends (and our garden looks back-to-front) and, separately, the coaches have shuffled their order en route.

[Andrew]

The homepage of my "Dorkingian" channel on YouTube has been improved to make finding Dorking Garden Railway videos easier.

You can see it at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Dorkingian

There is now a prominent Recommended Playlist of the best and most recent DGR videos. No videos have been removed from the site, but the aim is to point visitors towards the better content first.

I hope this makes it easier for people to enjoy the site.

[traingeekboy]

I say this often on various layout discussions. I don't always have anything to say but I do come and look at the photos.

I think your rocky low shots with Ivy creeping down along the back look great. Also, the weathered stock really look good in that setting, it looks like it belongs there.

Is your layout just a big oval right now? I see that section with the bamboo behind it and assume that is along the front of the layout. I would love to see a wide shot of the whole thing.

Do you plan for any points and or siding?

Thanks for posting. I know sometimes it seems like it's sitting there and no one cares, but we do look and it is inspiring and perhaps a cause for jealousy. he he

[Andrew]

The two recent photos below show double-chimney Ivatt Class 4MT number 43018 hauling an inspection train along Foxdale Bank so that the Permanent Way and Operating Departments can review the Civil Engineer's new retaining wall. This wall is intended to help keep debris and rockfalls off the track and took about five minutes to construct, being made from leftover worktop edging laminate with the patterned side hidden. As Griff says, Use what you've got. And, Griff, thanks again for the supportive comments. We all look forward to you getting back on track - and are grateful that your home presumably hasn't been swept away in Colorado's recent floods.

43018 is spending a season as guest locomotive on the DGR.

The DGR seems to be stuck in Phase One, the single oval. The aspiration is for double track all round, but the next stage is planned to be a facing crossover to lead to a headshunt facing two sidings, so that while one train runs round the circuit, shunting movements can take place independently. That layout can then be expanded to a double track oval with a passing loop on each track to hold alternative trains. Talk is cheap, as I may have said before.

[traingeekboy]

Well, if you are like me.... it sits and sits, and then bang a whole new section gets put in. I had single track for a year before adding the second line.

[Andrew]

Tonight being the end of British Summer Time for the year with the prospect of shorter afternoons ahead, I was determined to run a train or two today in order to exercise some newly acquired coaching stock. Although the weather forecast was a bit vague, it seemed to hold grounds for optimism and the railway was drying out so before lunch I brushed off the leaves, polished up the rails and vacuumed the trackbed.

After lunch the sun had gone in but I put out a train of Southern Region stock, ran it round a few times and decided to take a few still photos pending the return of sunshine for videoing. Sadly, the clouds turned to rain, and after initially protecting the train in the hope that things would improve, the rain got worse and I had to abandon operations - for the rest of the summer. The sleeper express will have to run another day.

Here are a few photos from before the rain arrived, featuring the Guildford to Redhill passenger service.

The first is a general view of the train running along the North Downs escarpment near Dorking:

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This is followed by a study in green:

[image]2144[/image]

Finally a couple of closer views of the train:

[image]2141[/image]

[image]2143[/image]

Now it's winter drawers on!

[Andrew]

This morning was reasonably dry if a bit blustery, so I decided to video the Southern Region train that had been run yesterday. Things got worse, wetter and windier as the morning progressed (well, it is the start of winter), so I called it a day at lunchtime and spent the afternoon editing the video. It's called "Southern Region in a Storm" and as usual is at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Dorkingian

Hope you enjoy it.