The (Windmill Hill) Welsh Highland Railway

[Soar Valley Light]

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.

SVLR Andrew

[Andrew]

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!

[Andrew]

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 (127.32 KiB) Viewed 7761 times

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.

Palmerston 2.jpg (239.57 KiB) Viewed 7761 times

Palmerston 3.jpg (230.43 KiB) Viewed 7761 times

Palmerston 4.jpg (302.24 KiB) Viewed 7761 times

Palmerston 5.jpg (254.01 KiB) Viewed 7761 times

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...

[Peter Butler]

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!

[Andrew]

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...

[philipy]

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!

[Trevor Thompson]

That looks a VERY nice loco.

Trevor

[Andrew]

What a cheesy joke!

We aim to cheese...

[Andrew]

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.

[Soar Valley Light]

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.

SVLR Andrew

[Andrew]

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 (165.59 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

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 (231.82 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

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 (209.85 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

M&D slate 4.jpg (232.41 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

M&D slate 5.jpg (297.17 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

M&D slate 6.jpg (214.05 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

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 (206.48 KiB) Viewed 7226 times

Cheers all,

Andrew.

[Peter Butler]

You must be tough Andrew, I heard the Severn Bridge had closed today due to bad weather, and that can't be far away?

[Andrew]

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.

[ge_rik]

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.

Rik

[Lonsdaler]

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

[Andrew]

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 (388.01 KiB) Viewed 7493 times

"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 (213.8 KiB) Viewed 7493 times

NYD2022 C.jpg (290.07 KiB) Viewed 7493 times

NYD2022 D.jpg (271.83 KiB) Viewed 7493 times

"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 (221.14 KiB) Viewed 7493 times

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.

[ge_rik]

"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 (34.05 KiB) Viewed 7415 times

Palmerston approaching Beddgelert

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

Rik

[Andrew]

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!

[ge_rik]

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 .......

Rik

[ge_rik]

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

239406673_2989816194669663_4724725870119922242_n.jpg (323.72 KiB) Viewed 7399 times

Rik