My visit to the W&L (miniature version)

[Keith S]

Last month prior to visiting England, I put it about that I was going to be in the East Anglia area and wouldn't mind visiting a garden railway, if anyone was interested in a visitor. I received a reply on the forum from Keith N, who is a member of the 16mm association, and he invited me to visit and see his railway! So I took the train and walked to his house, which was exciting enough you see because it was my very first day in England, and it was interesting just to walk to someone's house- it's strange how the most mundane activities take on a new meaning when you are visiting a different part of the world (although I felt very at home in England, since my family is English)

Anyway, I had a very nice time, we had tea and biscuits and Keith had a "Countess" in steam- what a lovely model. I've seen them on the internet of course, but I was very impressed with how much like the real thing the Accucraft model is- I like my somewhat whimsical generic rolling stock but it is impressive indeed when you see a scale model in steam.

I've also never really seen a garden steam locomotive in its natural habitat. Despite taking on the hobby, there are no garden railways local to where I live and certainly no steam-powered ones, so I only have experience with my own models. I've temporarily set up track outside, but again, seeing a locomotive working in a real garden railway with a proper roadbed and scenery is much nicer, and very much nicer in real life than it is on the internet.

Keith has a very nice set-up, with his model-building space inside a replica signal box and a track plan that allows for continuous running as well as some variety in alternate routes and opportunities to do a bit of shunting. It also has some mild grades to make driving the radio controlled locomotives more interactive. I was told that, being winter, some of the buildings had been put in storage and the garden wasn't as nice as it would be in the summer. Since I'm from a part of Canada where nothing lives between October and May, I found the plants and scenery to be nice and bushy anyway.

Also, Keith has built his own version of the "momentum van" (see the discussion in the "rolling stock" section) and I was very interested to see what it did on a radio-controlled train.

I didn't take as many photographs as I should have, because we were very busy talking and playing with the trains, but I did put together this short little video of Keith's train doing a circuit of his garden. It was just above freezing, so the locomotive made a pleasing amount of steam.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to see a proper railway, and I've been inspired to add a few more realistic details to my own rolling stock,as well as to spend more time thinking about my own garden and how to get some trains in there!



<object width="640" height="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/skwYI370eo4?ve ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/skwYI370eo4?ve ... n_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="480" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

[Keith N.]

It was great having Keith S. from Canada round last month. I wouldn't normal play trains in sub-zero temperatures in January but it was great fun and as you can see the steam/smoke effects were brilliant especially when the train passed under bridges.

For those who haven't seen it already here is the link to a film of the line that Mark Found made a few years back:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKMk4IJxQTA

Happy days!

Cheers!
Keith N.

[IrishPeter]

I am actually quite fond of getting the steam locomotives out on cold days - mainly because the steam effects are so good. Sadly this winter was short and very cold - cold enough to keep me in, and without those 40F/5C sunny days that usually lure me out!

Nice looking line!

Peter in AZ

[Annie]

Great steam effects, - an entertaining video to watch