The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

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Andrew
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sat May 23, 2020 2:14 pm

Hello!

The (WH)WHR took on a distinctly industrial vibe today, with the two RH battery locos in service to celebrate the return to action of No 5 "Margaret" following a battery pack replacement.

Here they are doing their thing between gardening tasks. It was all so nice that I did begin to wonder why I bother with those expensive and complicated steam engines...

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Enjoy them while you can - it's planned that the "Hercules" will give up its chassis to a scratchbuilt Kerr Stuart diesel, and if that works out the "Little John"'s body may be replaced by that of an armoured Simplex. All in good time, of course...

Finally, another in the infrequent and not very interesting series "Wildlife of the "(WH)WHR" - I was surprised to find this little fella in one of the tippers when I put them away. I think he was probably surprised to be there too - I reckon he got blown out of the tree he was feasting on...

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Cheers all,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by sjrixon » Sat May 23, 2020 4:21 pm

You did well to get out in the garden. It's really, really, really windy here! Would have blown my skips off the track.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by LNR » Sun May 24, 2020 12:57 am

Glad you got the batteries sorted Andrew, and got to enjoy some running.
Grant.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Jimmyb » Sun May 24, 2020 9:10 am

Andrew, nice to hear things came out all right in the end :thumbleft: - everything seems to take that bit longer

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Sun May 24, 2020 10:08 am

tom_tom_go wrote: Sun May 17, 2020 11:14 am
Any chance of seeing your Regner out on your railway soon Rik?
I might dust it down and give it a run, if I can remember how to operate it .... 🤔

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:46 pm

I think I did lockdown wrong. Not only did I not learn a language or write a novel, but I barely ran any trains. What was I thinking?!

Yesterday evening I finally got round to clearing the overgrown track and operating a train or two.

Here's "Margaret" heading up the line with a lineside clearance train - some open wagons, a tanker presumably containing weedkiller, the PW team perched on a flat wagon, and the new guards van. In the background of the first picture you can see the wasp stripes of the Big Black and Yellow Van, the vehicle which actually battered its way through the vegetation, propelled by new-ish loco No. 6, which also had a turn on the wagons later in the day...

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All good fun, and the line seems to be in reasonable condition - must run a steamer or two next...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by LNR » Mon Aug 03, 2020 1:30 pm

Andrew wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 12:46 pm I think I did lockdown wrong. Not only did I not learn a language or write a novel, but I barely ran any trains. What was I thinking?!
You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself, :lol:
Good to see your back on the straight and narrow, nice pics. those trucks do look the business. I reckon the look on your guards face is saying "I have the power, with a single hand to bring this train to a halt".
Glad you could enjoy the sunshine.
Grant.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:18 pm

LNR wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 1:30 pm I reckon the look on your guards face is saying "I have the power, with a single hand to bring this train to a halt".
With hands that big he probably wouldn't even need the brake!

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Aug 03, 2020 6:49 pm

Hello again,

While running with some of my smaller, lighter wagons yesterday, a familiar problem reared its head on the approach to Penlan station: after the loco had cleared the points into the platform road, one or more of the wagons decided to take the other route, heading into the siding instead. I checked the back-to-backs and made some adjustments, which brought some improvement, but not enough.

I think the problem is to do with the alignment of the track here - it looks OK to me, but the wagons just seem to "want" to go straight ahead into the siding rather than take the gentle left hand curve in to the platform. I had some spare check rails to hand, so temporarily fixed them in place ahead of the point, with the idea being to guide the wheels into a better alignment before they reach the moment of truth:

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It seemed to work - I think there'll always need to be a speed restriction here for lighter rolling stock, but the results were very much better. I'm tempted to make them a permanent fixture, but before I do I thought I'd ask the experts - is there a reason why I shouldn't? Other than that it looks a bit odd, of course, but I can live with that for the sake of better running...

Thanks,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by tom_tom_go » Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:46 pm

Why don't you make the check rails into an unmanned crossing?

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:59 am

Love those photos Andrew. You have worked hard to clear the undergrowth. Worth it in the end yes... :thumbright:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:24 am

tom_tom_go wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:46 pm Why don't you make the check rails into an unmanned crossing?
I've done something similar with a point at Beeston Castle station. I put a barrow crossing across the section which was causing problems. I find with LGB points, the check rails aren't quite long enough for some stock. A different problem but a similar solution.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Old Man Aaron » Wed Aug 12, 2020 4:29 am

Looks terrific as always.
Andrew wrote: Sat May 23, 2020 2:14 pm It was all so nice that I did begin to wonder why I bother with those expensive and complicated steam engines...
I know just what you mean - Working at my (relatively) local heritage railway, that hasn't seen steam since 2012, has a way of giving one a better appreciation for internal-combustion locos. I think it's the reason I got so much enjoyment out of watching one of my battery locos on test after repair, trundle along some flex track plonked on the lawn. I digress..

Certainly don't envy the job of chasing up those mystery derailment spots in the track, but I like your solution.


Regards,
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by TonyW » Wed Aug 12, 2020 10:59 am

This picture shows a turnout in Longmont, Colorado. The main line is the turning to the left, with straight on being a little-used branch. Note the check rail on the left immediately in front of the point blade, so placed to stop flanges on the right-hand wheels from "picking" the point blade and attempting to go straight on.
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:27 pm

Thanks Tony - it's good to know they have the same problem in The Real World! I'll fix my rails in place...

Thanks for the suggestion of disguising the check rails as a crossing too - it's a good idea, but it's not a very prominent location so I'll probably just leave it be...

More pictures of the railway in action soon, for those that like such things...

Cheers

Andrew

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by BertieB » Wed Aug 12, 2020 10:50 pm

These sort of derailment issues drive me insane. My new locomotive, which was built at least partly because its configuration would avoid it, still liked to come off on some corners (turned out to be a combination of sloppy trackwork AND sloppy loco build though).

Lovely pictures of the railway; I’m happy to look at more...

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sat Aug 15, 2020 8:00 pm

Evening all!

I've just returned to rain-drenched Bristol after a mostly very sunny week in Devon. Not much railway-related goings on to report, apart from catching "Royal Scot" and "Britannia" looking very fine together as they powered along the sea wall at Teignmouth...

Back in the garden, here are a few photos of last weekend's trains, mostly a jolly little goods featuring the three new Phil Sharples wagons, as requested by Rod - we aim to please!

Here's the ensemble heading up the bank:

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At Penlan there's supposed to be a small granite quarry, in addition to the timber trade, so the drop-sided open was shunted into the siding...

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And at Clarach, half-a-dozen barrels needed collecting, having sat on the platform for about two years! Here's the return working heading through the shrubs...

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And then heading back to Trefechan with the now-loaded granite wagon also in tow...

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The intention was to steam up my Regner and run a passenger train to complement the goods, so I dug out my oldest passenger rake, the Ffestiniog four-wheelers. Alas, it was a busy weekend and that never happened, so on Saturday evening I shunted those into the tunnel ready to try again on Sunday. That didn't happen either, but they did get a quick trundle up the hill to Penlan to go back into store under the house again! Maybe when the weather improves I'll try again...

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Cheers all,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by LNR » Sun Aug 16, 2020 1:23 am

Very nice passenger consist.
Grant.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by FWLR » Sun Aug 16, 2020 9:34 am

Fantastic photos Andrew... :thumbright:

Thank you. I always love to see your locos and rolling stock on your brilliant line. :thumbright: :thumbright:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Aug 16, 2020 4:13 pm

Afternoon all!

It's late summer, it's a train of open wagons, it can only mean one thing - the plum harvest!

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Actually, it's been a really big crop this year, and the plums are coming thick and fast, but I felt I really out to move at least some of them by train.

And which loco was chosen for this plum job? Why, the pride of the line, Russell, of course...

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Having picked up the empties, Russell headed down the line to the tree on Leach's Curve, then waited patiently (ie I turned the gas off!) while the plums were picked and loaded...

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After running round at Trefechan Russell stormed up the bank once more to Clarach, where the plums will be unloaded for onward transportation...

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They're still sitting there as I type this, I really must go and fetch them in. Then I'm hoping my wife may be persuaded to make one of her splendid plum cakes...

Cheers,

Andrew.

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