At last! The car told me it was 82 degrees in the old money – about 27.5C – as we drove the short distance home. It had certainly been hot in the sunshine, though most of our walk was pleasantly cool amongst the trees. Still plenty of bluebells, and a fair smattering of early purple orchids. The air seemed too clear for settled warm weather though, and the forecast is for a cool down over the coming week
The other Manchester tramway
Manchester had a tramway many years ago, long before Metrolink – sadly it closed as long ago as 1949. A tiny fragment remains, and is active, in Heaton Park, in Manchester’s northern suburbs. Visit “Heaton Park Tramway” on “Geoff’s Rail Diaries” for the usual illustrated account of this short visit (on a day when many of the northern steam railways seemed to be running trains with faces…)
Edward Sholto
Just published – the illustrated account of Saturday’s fun at Apedale. Visit “Edward Sholto” on Geoff’s Rail Diaries
MRT – IRS AGM…
Translation – today, the Industrial Railway Society held its Annual General Meeting at Apedale, Staffs, home of the Moseley Railway Trust’s new narrow gauge railway. Such events provide an ideal excuse (should one be needed) to get out everything that works and give it a run. In the case of the MRT, the range encompassed by “everything” is truly eclectic – from recently-restored (last steamed in the 1950s)
Hunslet “Edward Sholto”, to a Motor-Rail that looks, for all the world, like a garden shed on rails.
A “Rail Diaries” page will inevitably appear in due course, in the meantime, here’s a sample of sublime and ridiculous!
Spring at last
A sunny afternoon – a walk down to the river and back, and at last some real signs that spring is here.
Yes, the year’s first violet, and the year’s first butterfly (a comma)
Old friends on the Lickey
Just posted to Geoff’s Rail Diaries, an illustrated account of Thursday’s visit to the Lickey Bank and Cranberry, in Staffordshire, to see the “Great Britain III” railtour, hauled by 44871 and 70013 “Oliver Cromwell”. Visit “Old friends on the Lickey”
Great Britain III – steam on the Lickey
It was originally planned to run via the “North and West”, but the possibility of strike action meant the Bristol – Preston leg was re-routed – twice! It would now ascend the Lickey bank before traversing the West Midlands and gaining the west coast main line at Stafford. It would be hauled by 44871 and 70013 – the last time I had seen 70013 in action was 11 August 1968 (when we thought it would be, barring a few trips by 4472, the last main line steam-hauled train on the BR network)… Better go and see it! (and escape from the dreaded painting and decorating)
Here’s a preview – I’ll probably put up a page on the “Rail Diaries” in a day or two – paintbrush permitting… Note the Voyager just disappearing out of the picture, extreme left – no, I didn’t get all the pictures I’d hoped for.
Mid-Wales windmills
A sprawling grassy hill about five miles east of Llanidloes, in mid-Wales, reaches a little over 1900’ (the OS map indicates a maximum of 584m). 
Getting on for 20 years ago, a wind farm was constructed here – one of the biggest in Europe, with no fewer than 103 turbines. Their generating capacity is 30.9 megawatts – during their expected lifetime of 25 years, that’s apparently equivalent to nearly 1.5m tons of CO2
A surfaced road provides easy access from the A483 Newtown – Llandrindod road to a small parking area – from where an easy walk takes one up to the “Fferm Gwynt”. The hilltop is access land, so there’s no problem with exploration, though a sign at the gate warns of the perils of icy 
conditions and thunderstorms…
The views from the hill are extensive and panoramic, ranging from the Shropshire hills to the Brecon Beacons, with much of mid-Wales in view to the west – and the generators themselves make an interesting subject for the camera.
Midweek wandering
The forecast was much better than reality –there wasn’t much sunshine, but the air
was fresh and mild – just right for this walk from Broseley, via Benthall and Buildwas bridge, to Coalbrookdale.
Spring in the air?
The crocuses are out, and there are fluffy white clouds sailing through a blue sky. And it’s not cold. It’s not warm either, but that biting easterly cold seems to have gone. Just right for a wander beside the 
Severn, near Linley, just a couple of miles north of Bridgnorth.
This part of the Severn valley is pretty inaccessible – just a mud road along the old railway track. Linley station is intact and inhabited, though the trackless trackbed below the platform is a reminder of what the rest of the route might have looked like, had it not been for the SVR.
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