Category: Railways…

…and trams, traction engines, buses, ships, boats, canals and other transport subjects

Peter Pan, Dalmunzie and the Whistling Pig

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Not every visitor to the Geoffspages blog will know what they have in common. Simply, they’re all narrow gauge railway locomotives – one steam, one petrol-engined, and…. Peter Pan is well-known and well-travelled; Dalmunzie much less so, in both respects, and the Whistling Pig? Who knows? PP was in action at the Alan Keef open day today, with his friend Woto. Dalmunzie, not in working order, was on display, pre-renovation. At the nearby Lea Bailey railway, a couple of diesels coughed and chugged up and down the short-but-interesting track to the mine entrance, but the star turn was undoubtedly an EIMCO compressed air-powered mines loco, which scuttled back and forth in fine fashion, its exhaust making a curious whistling sound. Given its basic shape, the name is entirely appropriate.

A “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” page will appear in due course (but not before I’ve done the Statfold page), including video (with sound, of course) of the remarkable yellow pig.

Alan Keef Ltd
Lea Bailey Light Railway

Catholic tastes

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Towards the end of the afternoon, it occurred to me that, over the weekend, I’d seen a quite amazing range of railway activity. Yesterday we started with the Statfold open day – rather a soggy one, sadly,  though the weather had changed completely by the time we saw Princess Elizabeth hurrying southward from Church Stretton, shortly before 6pm. This afternoon we were at Nantmawr where we had a ride on an ancient DMU, barely half-a-mile down the last remaining section of the former “Potts”. The main reason for our visit however was to see the incredible collection of industrial monorail equipment, which until very recently was in storage at Blaenau Ffestiniog.

More on the above will appear on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” in due course, though I’m acutely conscious of a growing backlog. So far as this blog’s concerned, we were still on Skye until this entry. I hardly dare say it, but I could do with a few more rainy days…

 

Mid-Wales

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Lesser spottedRhiw Valley - JackA day out: a visit to the 15″-gauge Rhiw Valley Light Railway, and a few minutes in the RSPB hide at Lake Vyrnwy. The RVLR’s “Jack” and “Powys” are easily spotted, trundling around the fields beside the Rhiw. The woodpeckers are, of course, lesser spotted. More to come…

Summer sunshine at Foxfield

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways..., VideoLeave a comment

DSC_0828…and despite the warmth, there’s plenty of visible steam*. It’s the weekend of the annual summer gala, and the weather forecast suggested Sunday would be the best day. It was – an excellent day out. Visit “Foxfield summer gala” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries for more photos and a short video clip (remember to turn up the volume!)

*I know – steam is invisible. The fluffy white stuff coming from the chimney is water droplets, suspended in the air, which don’t always form on warm days…

Going to the Wyre

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Out with a railway friend – travelling to the Fylde on a Northern Rail day rover. Our objective is to cross the Wyre from Fleetwood to Knott End – our reward, a pint at the Bourne Arms – and some wonderful extensive views across the shimmering (despite it not being particularly warm) sands. The train takes us to Blackpool North, a smart new tram to Fleetwood – and what must be the shortest ferry crossing in the British Isles to Knott End jetty.

For more railway and tramway photos visit “By rail to Knott End” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries

English Heritage

On By geoffspagesIn NT and EH, Photography, Railways...1 Comment

English HeritageDay 4 of the “Cambrian Coast Express” tour. Flying Scotsman is hauling the train (as I write) between Crewe and Paddington, via Hereford and the Severn Tunnel. We went out to Stokesay to see it, with the castle providing a (scaffolded) backdrop. Inevitably, a little cloud obscured the sun over the railway line, while the castle basked in full sunshine. I don’t think 60103 was feeling very well – a few minutes down at Stokesay, it has just arrived at Bristol Parkway (Realtime Trains!) around 30 minutes late. The photo says it all – no visible smoke or steam (it was around 25c – another warm one), thought the diesel at the back seemed to be working hard…

Update: The train left Parkway on time (it had been scheduled for a lengthy stop) and arrived at Paddington on time. I wonder what the problem was?

Red Engines

On By geoffspagesIn Photography, Railways...Leave a comment

Day 1 of the “Cambrian Coast Express” tour: it was to have been hauled by “Flying Scotsman”, but in the event, 46599 “Galatea” hauled the train between Paddington and Shrewsbury. We’d better go and see it, though there probably won’t be much visible steam on a warm day like this. Having see the large red engine pass (five minutes early), we headed north (ish) to Woodseaves, near Market Drayton – it’s a “garden plant centre”, and has a rather splendid 7.25″ gauge railway (quite the other end of the scale…). The little green diesel “Sydney” was in charge when we arrived, but “Jean” was soon in steam – so we had two trips around the interesting layout – one hauled by Syd and the other behind Jean. We met the toad shortly after Galatea had hurried past; the aquilegia  which came home with us will join several others (which invited themselves) in the garden.