It is probably not widely known that Mr I.N. Spectre is actually not the only member of his department, there is a 'backroom boy' who for some reason seems to be of French origin, Monsieur L.E DePuty. He seems to get on extremely well with the lads from the E&D PW Dept who, for their own reasons no doubt, keep on his good side by plying him with his favourite tipple, which being French, is wine of the sparkling variety.
The lads all went on holiday to S.Wales recently and took their Wickham trolley to use as transport whilst exploring. Imagine our Frenchman's joy when he realised that they were staying only a short distance from a preserved railway which M. DePuty had read about many times in learned journals and which fitted his drinking habits well, BURPS!
Arrangements were made to visit the line on a couple of occasions and a very pleasant and convivial time was had. In order to justify his expense account claim, M. DePuty did a fairly cursory inspection of the line whilst he was there (I have translated it into English for the record):
I commenced my inspection at the line's main terminus in Umbridge. A very well appointed station and very well kept. Most unusual for a narrow gauge line but presumably as a result of the preserved line character. I understand that this entire station was dismantled and transported from it's original location in the W.Midlands and re-erected here in Wales as part of the preservation movement. An excellent job!
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Moving out of the covered train shed and into the countryside, I came across a small, very unusual 0-4-0 tram type loco, with exposed side mounted, vertical motion. It ran very well but I have to question the Health and Safety aspects of that mechanism. Also unusual was the colour scheme of Royal Purple. I had assumed that this was in honour of the forthcoming Coronation, but I believe that the new King is called Charles not Dennis?
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Moving on, a very fine Double Fairlie "Merddyn Emrys" was waiting at the head of it's train at the next station. Beautifully kept and a lovely smooth mover, it is a pleasure to watch.
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In general the trackwork is well maintained and there is little to find fault with, so I will append a couple of pictures here of general interest to set the scene.
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Whilst out and about, I was pleased to see one unusual working, the railway's own fire brigade passed me on a training run. Fortunately their services have never been called upon in reality but I imagine they would be very efficient in the event of a fire or other disaster.
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Having said that, there was very nearly a nasty incident which might have been a call on their professional skills. Merddin Emrys with a train full of tourists rounded a curve to find a strange little "FeldTraktor" of Austrian origin pottering about at random without due authorisation! Stern words were had with the driver and the offending vehicle was removed without any more ado.
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The E&D PW lads in their Wickham trolley. They had just dropped me off to look at some stock and I took this as they passed me by.
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I would like to end this report with a word of thanks to the manager of the line, and his good lady, for their hospitality, coffee and super delicious home made cake!
But Scum Class Works (only an hour North of Potters Orchid!) would be very happy to meet his travel costs from the UK, once we can finally provide him a functioning line to properly inspect.
