7 May 2005: a quick visit to the Telford Steam Railway, to see what was going on, prior to another visit, later that month, for its 21st anniversary weekend (see “Horsehay’s 21st” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries)
Category: Railways…
…and trams, traction engines, buses, ships, boats, canals and other transport subjects
Buses, bears and pumping engines
6 May 2006: the Abbey Pumping Station is in Leicester, a local authority museum based around a Victorian steam-powered sewage-pumping facility. They’ve constructed a 2′ gauge railway around the grounds, and Leonard, a little Bagnall dating from 1919, would be in operation on this occasion (for a full report on Leonard’s activities, visit “Leonard at Leicester” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries). There were other exhibits, including couple of old buses which seemed to be operated by, and for, some rather large bears. Next door, there’s a spaceship (really!). All good fun, and interesting too. Must go again one day…
Chasewater and Middleton
4 May 2003 and 2008: visits to small heritage railways which were in the vanguard of the preservation movement. I first visited the Middleton and Chasewater railways in the late 60s; for a time, Middleton wasn’t too far distant, and I visited it on a number of occasions. Then came a long gap – until this day in 2003. Chasewater has been the destination of many short outings over the years. When we visited it on 4 May 2008, it was getting back on its feet, after the motorway truncated its line slightly, but funded much-needed development. Both trips are fully detailed on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” – see All change at Chasewater and Middleton revisited
Day out with a Baldwin
26 April 2014: the Industrial Railway Society’s AGM was to be held at the Leighton Buzzard Railway – and before the meeting, we were to enjoy a ride up the line to check out the railway’s extensive workshops at Stonehenge. The train was hauled by a locomotive built to operate in the war which began 100 years earlier – Baldwin 4-6-0 no. 778 (44656 of 1917). The trip was reported at the time in “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” (see http://geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/buzzard.htm); here are a few reminders of the rail trip up the line.
Evesham Vale
25 April 2004: It’s a super little 15″ gauge railway, running through fields and orchards beside a retail centre just outside Evesham. I’d read about its development a year or two earlier, and we paid a first visit in June the previous year. The locomotive in use is a 1946-built 4-6-2 “Prince William” – quite a substantial machine.
Steam days
Coincidence: we don’t get many main line steam-hauled trains in Shropshire, but 22 April scores heavily with three in recent years. The fourth event, just three years ago, involved a brief look at the Middleton Railway in Leeds.
Questembert, Shackerstone and Hanbury
Little in common, apart from their dates – 18 April, and they all involve buildings:
2003 – the splendid market hall at Questembert, Brittany
2004 – John Jacques’ wonderful little museum at Shackerstone station (Battlefield line)
2010 – Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire (NT)
On the same theme
After posting “Nine years later”, I browsed further back through the archives and found that 10 April 2009 was a pretty good day too. We’d stayed overnight in Edinburgh, and were driving up to Skye. We visited the Falkirk Wheel on our way, then, as we drove up the A9 near Gleneagles, discovered that a steam-hauled special was due imminently – the “Great Britain II” railtour, on its way to Inverness. The latter appeared on the blog at the time, but the Wheel didn’t.
The eastern west…
A lazy day out exploring the eastern side of the West Midlands Day Ranger area. Visit “A January jolly” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries for the illustrated full story.
An early start
Happy New Year everyone! Our new year was made happy by a visit to the Chasewater Railway, where they were running a “Mince Pie Special” service, plus demonstration freight trains – just for fun! To see more of the fun, visit “Chasewater: an early start” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries.
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