Summer at the ØVJ

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 8:04 am

God morning.
Yesterday evening was a perfect time for driving some trains. Low summer sun and no wind (but lots of mosquitoes

)

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"Valborg", above and "Moster Lisa" below

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Sommer greetings from Michael

IrishPeter · Post by **IrishPeter** » Fri Aug 16, 2013 7:10 pm

Nice photographs. I like the lower one especially. Pretty little station with atmosphere. A good job done there!

I know what you mean about Mosquitos - Norway's "nation bird" - also Scotland, Alaska...

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Sun Sep 01, 2013 8:58 pm

Thank you Irish Peter for kind words

Because of a warm and dry sommer (one of the best) the mosquito torment have ceased. This photo is from this evening driving event. Tecnically we are in the beginning of autumn, and the trees have slowly began to change colours and the evenings are getting darker

Greetings from Michael

IrishPeter · Post by **IrishPeter** » Mon Sep 02, 2013 1:46 am

After horrible wildfires in June, we have had an unusually wet summer. Right now it is 23C and 71% humidity which is very unusual anywhere above ground in Arizona in summer. We would usually be somewhere about 30C and 40% humidity right now. As a result we have had rampant weed growth all summer. It has been so thick at times that I have had to cut or pull weeds so the trains could pass! We usually do not get much weed growth under our pine trees.

Lovely shot of your Lady Anne resplendant in her coat of black paint with red lining. That is a very nice locomotive. I especially like the way in which you have adapted her to the Norwegian Railway scene with the big headlamps. The more I discover about the Scandanavian NG scene the more I like it, though I hate to tell a Norwegian this, but it was the Swedish 891mm gauge lines that first caught my attention.

Peter in AZ

Keith S · Post by **Keith S** » Mon Sep 02, 2013 3:02 am

The reddish box-van just behind the low-loader in the first picture looks very realistic with its weathered boards. May we see a closer picture of that van?

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Mon Sep 02, 2013 9:03 pm

Irish Peter: Funny you should mention it.... I´m actually a Swede, but have lived here in Norway for 25 years. My favourite ng railways are mostley situated in Sweden. This one; http://www.oslj.nu/ 600mm am I going to visit on the end of this month.
And I guess you know about this; http://www.jtj.org/index.shtml A long time since I been there, but it´s just 70-80km. away from my sommerhouse, so maybe next summer

Keith S: I have been looking through a lot´s of photos, but I don´t have one of the box van alone. I built three of them a year ago, and the red one was the last one to be finnished.

Regards from Michael
Maybe this thread..http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about6927.html

IrishPeter · Post by **IrishPeter** » Mon Sep 02, 2013 10:24 pm

I have heard of both the OSLJ and the JTJ, but the Lennakatten (ULJ) was the first Swedish line I discovered. I had looked up Uppsala cathedral for some reason, and one of the photos Google pulled up what looked to be a rather nice metre gauge steam locomotive in the foreground. This caused a lengthy diversion on to the subject of 'Swedish Narrow Gauge railways' and a new interest was kindled. The first interesting piece of information was that it was not metre gauge but 891mm or three Swedish feet.

The current object of study is the 71km line out of Vastervik - http://www.smalsparet.se - IIRC - which is harder to find information on than the Lennakatten. Thankfully our voluable German friends seem to have discovered it, so there seems to be a bit about it in German which I can more-or-less understand in its written form!

One little oddity is that my favourite railway in the British Isles is the Isle of Man Railway. 15 of the 18 locomtives delivered to that 3 foot (914mm) gauge line share the same basic design as the Beyer Peacock as the early 2-4-0Ts built for the 3'6" (1067mm) sections of the Norwegian system. Small world syndrome again! I will be visiting the Isle of Man again later this year, and getting my annual dose of 3' gauge.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

gringodon · Post by **gringodon** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:21 am

Very nice photos! It said you posted Jul 18th, I don't know how I missed them. Very nice. Would you have more?

We have had our share of mosquitoes this year too. That can make photo taking a challenge sometimes.

Keith S · Post by **Keith S** » Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:45 pm

Thanks for the additional pictures. The weathering on your rolling stock makes the pictures look real. I love it.

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:56 am

Again: I really appreciate all the nice comments from you guys

And even though somone says that Norway is a big country in garden railways, I don´t see too many of them here where I live...
And now for Irish Peter I´d like to show some 1:1 locos in Norway. The staff at the Øvj has been out visiting other railways this sommer. The narrow gauge railway in the front is the 750mm "Urskog- Høland banen" And the normalgauge train to the right is "Caroline" a George Stephenson loco from 1861. She runs 4 or 5 times/ year + when there are railway jubileums

Maybe we will do some filming today, if the weather allows it

Regards to all
(It´s not me that took the picture. I wasn´t there at that time..)

Chris Cairns · Post by **Chris Cairns** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 9:02 am

That is a very nice meeting of the gauges Michael - just a pity about the intrusive overhead wires.

I've not visited Norway for railways yet but I've ridden behind "Caroline" when it was carrying out shuttles at Gavle during the Swedish Railway 150 celebrations.

Chris Cairns

PS - the builder is Robert Stephenson & Company, the first company set up specifically to build railway engines.

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 9:35 am

Yes of course

Robert Stephenson

Narrow Minded · Post by **Narrow Minded** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 10:00 am

Chris Cairns:88560 wrote:That is a very nice meeting of the gauges Michael - just a pity about the intrusive overhead wires.

or even;

Big Al · Post by **Big Al** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 12:16 pm

Nice pictures, like the original and the overhead less versions.

Keith S · Post by **Keith S** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 5:51 pm

How did you do that, Greg? You almost pulled it off, except you missed a bit of diagonal wire in the smoke cloud!

Big Al · Post by **Big Al** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 6:26 pm

It was hard to spot but I just noticed you put a bush at the base of the stanchion and I expect smoked out the rest, very clever nice touch up job.

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 7:35 pm

I´ll take this oportunity to be a bit finicky:

just a pity about the intrusive overhead wires.

The NSB line was electrified in 1951, and one of the dobbelheaded ng-locos is built in 1954, the one called "Prydz"
And the meeting of theese locos is also a quite modern event as the "Caroline" was already taken out of service in the twenties.
Besides that I love the editing "Narrow minded" does
Michael

Chris Cairns · Post by **Chris Cairns** » Sat Sep 14, 2013 8:11 pm

Nice one Greg, although the horizontal scratches look like you have now put National Grid wires in front of the trains.

Michael we are used to steam running under the wires here in the UK and indeed some of the locos have had to be reduced in height to allow such running. Although we do not get as much mainline steam in Scotland we still have a large part of our network which remains non-electrified - the annual season of Jacobite steam trains on the West Highland line extension is very popular with the tourists.

Chris Cairns.

rebelego · Post by **rebelego** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 9:02 am

Keith S:88596 wrote:... you missed a bit of diagonal wire in the smoke cloud! :P

And the electric fence down left.

Both engines can be seen at the Norwegian Railway Museum.
PDF info sheets in Norwegian:
NSB 2a 17 Caroline
UHB XXVII 2 Urskog

St.Michael · Post by **St.Michael** » Sun Sep 15, 2013 4:32 pm

Hi again... now as I have started to point out inaccurate statements, I´ll have to point out that loco nr.2 "Urskog" does not appear on the picture, it is situated as rebelego says, at the Norwegian railway museum. The locos on the ng.line is "Prydz" and possible "Setskogen"
And the old Stephenson loco 17 "Caroline" is most of the time stored without access for visitors.. But the nr.16, Carolines sister, is a part of the exhibition for public. And finally: My own misstake

:oops: "Prydz" was delivered in 1950.. so that means I was wrong about the trains not running without the overhead wires...

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