Garden Railway Forum

This was such an awesome day that it deserved its own topic. Will very kindly took a day out of his schedule to have a running session at this private 5 inch gauge line he and a small group have restored from deraliction. Of course the primary reason was to give us an opportunity to drive his live steam quarry hunslet Attila, but there was plenty of other interest as well. Here are the pics

Will runs into Stokerton with the first train of the day, checking that the line was runnerble and opening up the tunnel

Then we were let out on the battery loco "Meg" (Ride on Railways Hercules). The guy driving is James a.k.a Dolwydellan Light Rail who also tagged along for the day, along with another mate involved with the FfR

Locos "Welsh Pony" and "Glyn", both non operational at the moment

Attila, being towed round by Meg for the High patent boiler filling method. Seen at the top end of the line, Highfield

Paul (Moel-Y-Guest light rail) having a disaster with the turntable

Driver's eye view from Meg down the long straight from Moles Hill to the level crossing

Finally just after lunch, Attila was steamed up and ready to go, with an Ffestiniog Railway inspired headboard

Rush hour at Moles Hill, with my dad driving Attila

Passing the time at Moles Hill waiting for an up train with a scale type shot, the Joys of Life Railway was built as a (very) large scale model railway

Will takes Attila past the signal box at Moles Hill towards the tunnel

Finally, Attila blows down at the end of a very fun day
Many thanks for Will for letting me drive his pride and joy, and also to everyone else to came and made it a great day.

How Fantastic Is That!?

I'm very pleased for all involved and not the slightest bit jealous. At all.


Honest.

Very nice , looks like you had a fun time

Looks like a great day

was indeed a good day

plenty of running done and even had time to give a few passengers a few trips!

cant wait for the open day

I wish my Bluebell even RAN as nicely as Atilla LOOKS! What jolly fun time you must have had there, and novel boiler filling method

mhlr wrote:and novel boiler filling method  :lol:

having done both methods (the other method being using the hand pump which took about an hour!) I can tell you that taking it for a trip round and using the axle pump is the quickest way by far!

MoelygestLR wrote:having done both methods (the other method being using the hand pump which took about an hour!) I can tell you that taking it for a trip round and using the axle pump is the quickest way by far!

Can't you use a pump bottle???

ask Will not me!

Wasn't too much of a bad day. I'll have been running Attila for a year in October, I suspect in that year it will have done about 100 real miles, the logbook has been a shambles this year, really must be better next so I don't have an accurate figure. Perhaps I do need a second engine to even out the wear.

does this mean there is going to be a celebratory steam up in october then?

No, it's only a year.

any excuse

I don't need an excuse, it's my engine , and as you know the owners are quite free reign with running.

Looks like it was all great fun.

I'm just trying to persuade you to have another running session so I can learn some more

P.S. what happened to the summer bbq idea? summers nearly over!

Well, it may have been a while but i have finally recovered from my 3 1/2 week trip on the fr! and laalratty said that the photos i got of Jol were so good that i should put them up on here! soooooooo here goes!



The entrance to Stokerton station



Platforms 1 and 2



uncovering the beauty of a 5" gauge model, Attilla!



Chris (laalratty) concentrating on the line ahead while at the controls of Meg



View back towards Moles Hill



Will finally prepares Attilla for use after lunch





I'm not jealous, honest!



Heading towards Highfield with yet again, Chris at the controls of Meg



Token exchange at Moles hill



Chris is let loose at the steamy



Erm, i think will was trying to grab for a tree again!



Attilla storming off with a passenger train at the end of the day



Blow down at the end of the day

I have to say thanks Will for letting me come along!  :D What a great day it was and sorry for the delay!

As well as Dolwyddelan's pics I've now got the final part of my holiday trilogy of videos done
So here it is
<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BVAZfv7p-mE?fs ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BVAZfv7p-mE?fs=1&hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Or alternitively
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVAZfv7p-mE
It's a bit short, but I was having too much fun to do lots of filming!

SillyBilly wrote:Wasn't too much of a bad day. I'll have been running Attila for a year in October, I suspect in that year it will have done about 100 real miles, the logbook has been a shambles this year, really must be better next so I don't have an accurate figure. Perhaps I do need a second engine to even out the wear.

I have a logbook for one of my engines as I thought it prudent to keep one for something over twice my age, first entry was "bought loco on 'can't remember the date' " closely followed by a load of coupling rod lengths and bushing details from when I rebushed the motion.  After that I kinda forgot to do the book, so your not the only one  :lol: