My Journey in becoming a Steam Enthusiast, Part 6 – The Watercress Line (1997)

1997 was a significant year for the Watercress Line, as it marked it’s 20th anniversary as a preserved railway.  My father and I visited the line twice that year.  The line’s impressive home fleet was supplemented by some very special visitors.  Continuing from last week’s post, here are a selection of photographs of the Watercress…

South Devon Railway – pictures taken in 2010

As promised in yesterdays post, here are a few pictures taken at a visit to Buckfastleigh in 2010.  That day, pannier tank 57xx 5786 was shunting stock around the yard. Meanwhile the beautiful (in my humble opinion) and only surving Collett Goods class 2251 0-6-0 number 3205 ran services. Meanwhile, a few other locomotives were…

My Journey in becoming a Steam Enthusiast, Part 4 – When the Dart Valley became the South Devon Railway

In previous posts I have often mentioned that although my model locomotive focus is mainly Southern, I have interests in all regions.  This is particularly true when it comes to the Great Western Railway! Having family who live in Devon, visits to what was once called the Dart Valley Railway were fairly regular, as were…

My Journey in becoming a Steam Enthusiast, Part 1 – the Kent and East Sussex Railway

Todays post is the first part of a series of reflections and experiences of my journey of becoming interested in real and model steam trains.  Not being old enough to have experienced steam trains running on day-to-day services, my early experiences of steam trains were as a result of having a father interested in steam…

Review – Bachmann 8F Austerity Class

Class: Austerity 8F 2-8-0 Use: Heavy Goods Region: Various BR regions – War Department and LNER post-nationalisation & Europe and Hong Kong Era: 1943-1967 Preserved examples: 90733 Remembrance  (ex-Swedish locomotive) Manufacturer: Bachmann Motor: 3 pole Loco-drive Power: Heavyweight DCC options: none on previous versions, 21 pin dcc ready versions announced 2012 Reviewed Model – Bachmann 32-250 400 Sir Guy Williams (click here to…

Locoyard Update

Just a super-quick update tonight.  I’ve spent what little spare-time I’ve had during the past couple of evenings, wrestling with a soldering iron (yes, a painful experience!) and have now successfully chipped the Bachmann 8F Austerity.  It is pictured above in the yard after some time running in and some sterling work hauling some mark…