The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

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Soar Valley Light
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Soar Valley Light » Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:00 pm

Always nice to see things stirring on the (WH)WHR. I like your photo's Andy, looks like it was fun, no matter how brief.

Like Rik, my line is covered in leaves again. That's where it's not overgrown! I took an hour to cut a 5 yard stretch out of the creeping thymes last weekend. They make for hard work but they look good.

I love the brake van on your train in the pictures. Great to see some operational fun being had in running it round. :thumbleft:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sat Nov 20, 2021 12:13 pm

Soar Valley Light wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 8:00 pm
I love the brake van on your train in the pictures. Great to see some operational fun being had in running it round.
Glad you like it! I think of that as my "jaunty" brake, because my wife referred to it that way once. I thought it was just the colour (possibly a little inaccurate, as it turns out), but she tells me it was also its general beach hut-like feel.

Don't tell anyone, but I don't always run round the guards van... Glad you noticed I was doing it properly this time though!

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:46 pm

Afternoon all!

It's an easy enough mistake to make... How was I to know the shopping list said "Parmesan" and not "Palmerston"???

Palmerston 1.jpg
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RH locos taste notoriously bad in risotto, but I thought I'd better make the best of things, so took the new loco out into the garden for a run. A fairly gentle period of running in seemed a good idea, so today's train consisted of just the Pickering brake composite, a fairly typical out of season Welsh Highland train until they gave up on a passenger service altogether outside of the summer months.

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Palmerston 3.jpg
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Palmerston 4.jpg
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Palmerston 5.jpg
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I have to say, I'm VERY pleased with it. It looks stunning and ran beautifully straight out of the box, appearing to be controllable, powerful and happy with slow running - I look forward to testing it further. At some point I'll be brave and undertake the loco's complex lining job (and add the nameplates), but I don't think there's any hurry - I'll enjoy it just as it is for a while...

Hope you're all enjoying your weekends,

Andrew.


PS Having run what turned out to be the only passenger service of the season, I'll put away the buildings now and revert to goods only operation until Easter-ish...

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:20 pm

What a little beauty, you have an early Christmas present and still have the weather to use it.
I'm sure you are much happier than your post conveys!
The best things in life are free.... so why am I doing this?

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:30 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:20 pm What a little beauty, you have an early Christmas present and still have the weather to use it.
I'm sure you are much happier than your post conveys!
Yes, very happy!

It was such a lovely run that I've actually just put the loco away rather than risk having too much of a good thing! I don't want to tempt fate...

I'm looking forward to putting some slate wagons behind it next time out, and maybe a general goods train of Ffestiniog wagons...

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by philipy » Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:22 pm

Andrew wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:46 pm Afternoon all!

It's an easy enough mistake to make... How was I to know the shopping list said "Parmesan" and not "Palmerston"???
What a cheesy joke! :lol:
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Trevor Thompson » Mon Nov 29, 2021 8:42 am

That looks a VERY nice loco.

Trevor

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:01 am

philipy wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:22 pm What a cheesy joke! :lol:
We aim to cheese...

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:11 am

Trevor Thompson wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 8:42 am That looks a VERY nice loco.
It really is. I'm no engineer, but even I can recognise the amount and the quality of the work that's gone into packing all the usual live steam gubbins into a really very small space without impacting on either the looks or (as far as I can tell so far) the performance. It's got a pretty small boiler, so I think I'll have the loco facing the other way for a while ( usually have my engines facing uphill) so that I can see the sight glass and pressure gauge more easily while I get used to running it and work out how many squirts of water to add and when. I also need to get used to controlling the gas valve more accurately to avoid wasting steam, but that's true of all my locos, and probably partly due to the difficulty of having an end-to-end line with a gradient, demanding more steam one way that the other...

I look forward to trying it with a heavier train, although the Pickering compo's no lightweight, there's an awful lot of wood in there!

Moe photos in due course - you'll be sick of the sigh of the thing...

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Soar Valley Light » Fri Dec 03, 2021 6:53 pm

Andrew wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:11 am
Moe photos in due course - you'll be sick of the sigh of the thing...

Andrew.
HI Andrew,

I doubt that, it's a real beauty. That test train looks wonderful, it really does recreate the old WHR.

Keep the pics coming please. :thumbup:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Dec 28, 2021 4:53 pm

Afternoon!

Today was the third in a row when the sun came out at about midday, and I decided I could no longer miss the opportunity to run a train and still call myself a garden railwayman, so out I trudged. It was still cold, blustery and damp underfoot, so I decided that battery operation would be best, selecting RH Little John "Margaret" to pull the rake of assorted Welsh Highland, Ffestiniog and Croesor Tramway slate empties:

M&D slate 1.jpg
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At 13 wagons and a guards van, the train was as long as the loops at Trefechan and Clarach would allow, and the weight of the train, the gradient and the damp rail proved too much for "Margaret", which just about managed to slip and slide its way up to Penlan, where the train was terminated, with the loco running round to head back down the hill:

M&D slate 2.jpg
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When the going gets tough, the tough head for the cupboard under the stairs to dig out their Regner - we'd have steam after all!

Good old "Daisy" was more than up to the task, happily trundling the train up to Penlan and back:

M&D slate 3.jpg
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M&D slate 4.jpg
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M&D slate 5.jpg
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M&D slate 6.jpg
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A trip up the hill with "Margaret" and a shorter rake, plus a little shunting, finished off a short but satisfying running session. More on New Year's Day, maybe...

M&D slate 7.jpg
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Cheers all,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Peter Butler » Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:11 pm

You must be tough Andrew, I heard the Severn Bridge had closed today due to bad weather, and that can't be far away?
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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:31 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:11 pm You must be tough Andrew, I heard the Severn Bridge had closed today due to bad weather, and that can't be far away?
It was really windy this morning, but by the afternoon, although the loco was chasing its own steam plume some of the time, the wind seemed to be mostly at tree-top height and the garden was relatively calm.

No, the bridges aren't far away. Since the last timetable change, some of the trains serving our local station, Bedminster, head up the Severn Beach branch after they've called at Temple Meads. It's an odd place, but I'm rather fond of Severn Beach, so shall enjoy taking a ride up there once risk levels have dropped enough to make leisure travel by train a fun prospect again.

Cheers,

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Dec 28, 2021 6:31 pm

Good to see trains running, Andrew. Must admit I've not yet been tempted out into the garden since I battened down the hatches in November.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Lonsdaler » Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:29 am

Some lovely rolling stock there Andrew. I'm glad someone is seeing some clear skies!
Phil

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Sat Jan 01, 2022 3:48 pm

Hello all, and Happy New Year!

It's a bit of a tradition with me to try to start the new year with a running session, however brief, but this year's mild weather encouraged me to really go to town.

Here's the scene before lunch (an equally traditional fry-up...), with no fewer than three locos awaiting their duties. "Margaret" sits down in the siding at Trefechan, ready for any shunting that might be required, while up at Clarach "Palmerston" and "Daisy" wait for the appearance of the gas match:

NYD2022 A.jpg
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"Palmerston" was the star of the show, hauling an all Ffestiniog rake for the first time - it must have turned right by mistake and headed up the Welsh Highland instead of terminating at Porthmadog...

NYD2022.jpg
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NYD2022 C.jpg
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NYD2022 D.jpg
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"Daisy" had been rostered as a stand by substitute, but the opportunity to run her was too good to miss, so she trundled the goods up and down too:

NYD2022 E.jpg
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All in all it was pretty successful, but I've still got lots to learn about the England. When I can maintain steam it runs beautifully and is very powerful, hauling that heavy goods up the line without problem, but I'm struggling to keep the gas lit - a partially blocked jet maybe? I plan to wait until my wife's away for the weekend then steam it on the rolling road on the kitchen table so that I can sort out the jet if that is the issue, then really get used to running it when I'm not squelching around a boggy garden...

Anyway, hope you're all enjoying New Year's Day!

Andrew.

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:25 pm

Andrew wrote: Sat Jan 01, 2022 3:48 pm "Palmerston" was the star of the show, hauling an all Ffestiniog rake for the first time - it must have turned right by mistake and headed up the Welsh Highland instead of terminating at Porthmadog...
Not without precedent, it seems ....
PalmerstonAtBeddgelert.jpg
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Palmerston approaching Beddgelert

Source - https://www.welshhighlandheritage.co.uk ... rston.html

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by Andrew » Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:54 pm

Nice picture! I think that's from just after full reopening in '23...

Palmerston and Co were definitely regulars on the Welsh Highland, it was the goods train consisting of just FR wag(g)ons which seemed less likely - I couldn't resist though!

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:21 pm

Andrew wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2022 12:54 pm Palmerston and Co were definitely regulars on the Welsh Highland, it was the goods train consisting of just FR wag(g)ons which seemed less likely - I couldn't resist though!
Now you've set a challenge ....... :lol:

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Re: The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

Post by ge_rik » Tue Jan 04, 2022 2:49 pm

The best I can do is one of the curly roofed vans at Snowdon Station (now Rhyd Ddu)
239406673_2989816194669663_4724725870119922242_n.jpg
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