Santa Specials on the ANLR

[laalratty]

Well Morecambe finally got snow last night So as soon as I was able I got Taliesin steamed up, and because I was feeling ambitious (proberly overly so ) I decided to give it a 5 coach train it would have no chance of pulling so it woud have to doublehead with my Accucraft Baguley and re-create the Ffestiniog's santa specials from last weekend...


The garden in the morning


Taliesin in snow clearing mode. It wasn't particualy good at it as the snow got trapped under the loco, whlst the baguley just shovelled it into a massive pile with its huge buffer beam. Must remember to clear the line by hand next time!


With the line clear, Taliesin and Caeronwy Castle forge on up the line with the Santa special


Nearing the tunnel


Awaiting the right away from Afallen on the return run



Finally, Taliesin out of gas posed
There is supposed to be more snow tonight, if it sticks ino the mornig tommorow then I'll give Caradoc a run and hopefully get the volcanic steam plumes that were missing a bit today

[MoelygestLR]

love the second one up from the bottom

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Me too, what you need is a snow plough! They are simple enough to make, I really love the snow filled track showing just two metal lines and no sleepers!

[laalratty]

I'm considering building one after today, previosly I've thought that its not really worth building one for the amount of snow we get here. But this is the second time this year we've had snow

[mhlr]

Ahhh now it's only me left with no snow! Although I got some pretty damn good plumes from todays steam up.

[mhlr]

Could you please not quote the whole post, there's no need Just click 'reply' at the bottom of the page.

[laalratty]

Is that the bowsider you mentioned coach 17.. I have completed some bowsiders and they do look ok. The key to this is in the production of the compartment deviders, where you need the curve.Produce six all identical then fix to the flooring. You then finish up with I call a toast rack. Form the sides and glue from one end to the other and you should get a decent bowsider. Ive produced 3 so far and nearly completed the forth coach 19.

Although most of my coaches are scratchbuilt, for the bowsider I splashed out on an IP engineering one, so it has straight sides. I did mod it slightly though changing the interior dividers to make it more like 17 (that is indeed what it is based on)
Ps I have modded your post to remove all of the pics

[LMS-Jools]

Nice pics Ratty,

sadly I spent most of the day on the motorway so never had a chance to steam up in the snow and now its all mush.

[SLRmidge]

You'll have to borrow my snowplough next time Laalratty!

[DolwyddelanLightRail]

Nice Pics, I'm presuming that you will get massive clouds of steam, as I got a lot of that when I ran Edrig!

(P.S. Is you Baugleys name a mixture of Caernarfon and Conwy?)

[laalratty]

Nice Pics, I'm presuming that you will get massive clouds of steam, as I got a lot of that when I ran Edrig!

(P.S. Is you Baugleys name a mixture of Caernarfon and Conwy?)

I didn't really get much of a steam cloud with Tal, I was a bit disappointed but then again it was double heading with a battery engine so I shouldn't have expected so much!
Caeronwy Castle is the name of a small ancient hill fort near Tryfan, basically I looked for names of Castles in North Wales and picked the one I liked best!

[DolwyddelanLightRail]

Never heard of that one!

[laalratty]

Santa Trains, day 2
Well more snow fell overnight so I ran another santa special, this time with my accucraft Caradoc, but again double headed as the thing generally dosn't like making steam.
But first off I spent an hour clearing the line of accumilated ice and snow!


The Baguley valiently charges the snow


Finally made it to Nant Llywyd
The Baguley then went back to Afonglas to pick up the santa train with Caradoc


The train pulls into Afallen


Steaming off Glayrafon heading for Nant Llywyd


Caradoc finally shows some gusto rounding the headland


Finally the train pulls into the tunnel
There will probably be more pics tommorow, as the snow is falling really heavily at the moment! And it will definatly be a steam loco on its own this time!

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

Haha brill!

[mhlr]

Thats that snow that looks like god burst his bean bag chair...

[MoelygestLR]

again, last picture is really good!

[laalratty]

Santa Trains day 3, and you thought there was enough snow yesterday...
Last night, it snowed VERY heavily in Morecambe, as you might have seen from SLRmidge's photos, so the ANLR was just as badly hit as the SLR


The raised section was a mass of white...


And the snow was right up to the station name boards at Afallen!
After almost an hour of clearing the Santa special got underway...


...in the charge of Accucraft Wrekin "Kittiwake" from the SLR!
No SLRmidge hadn't come round to visit, and neither has he given me the loco for Christmas (unfortunatly). It was at the ANLR for lining, and I needed to steam it to make sure it didn't fall off didn't I?


Kittiwake pulls away from Afallen


Charging the hill past the huge snow banks


Showing off the lining


Leaving the tunnel


Kittiwake on its way back down the hill


Although the line was cleared, the platform at Afallen wern't!


Finally Kittiwake is seen at the bottom loop points
After 3 days of running trains, I think that even if it snows again tonight I'm having a day off running trains tommorow!

[mhlr]

After all that time you didn't get any snow, and now, you get a whole load of it! I hope that happens for me! Although we got a load of ice today, I went out doing donuts on my quad bike, and my dad slid across the road when cornering earlier

[Dr. Bond of the DVLR]

That lining looks good- how did you do it. The snow is still here and we are promised more although they are not sure about christmas day.

[DolwyddelanLightRail]

Really nice, and for once I hardly have any!!!!

But I have heard that I am going over to York by car after Xmas, and they still have plenty of snow, and if I am lucky I have a mate who I am selling a mamod to, I may be allowed to take Edrig or a mamod (IF BRITOMART GOD DAMN WORKS!)