April started well with a vist to the 16mm National garden railway show on the 2nd of the month.
This was possible thanks to Andrew Mitchell, who took us there in the van , along with the " Westfield Light Railway".
A 6am start from Long Eaton saw us arrive in plenty of time for the layout to be fully set up and running by the time the doors open to the public, and by 10am , we had "Stephanie" in steam and working the passenger coaches , replaced by "Cyril" for a short spell while "Stephanie "was refueled and watered.
The show itself was excellent , with some truly brilliant layouts on show , and many traders to temp your money away !
From the member to member sales, we aquired 2 open wagon's and a box van to add to the growing number of wagons.
I also purchased Andrew's birthday present , a Mike Chaney "Kitten" , a meths fired 040t named "Jess" , which has become no 13, which I got to test during the week while Andrew was at school, and running on the blocks, she seems to run fine.
We now hope for good weather on may 11 !
Our next outing was to Butterley, for the monthly 16mm meeting , which is held during the summer month's.
We took "Stephanie" and "Lady Margaret" , the later played up from the start, and it took the expert touch of Matt Acton, to get her to steam properly, but when he had finished she ran far better than she had ever run in our ownership, apart from problems with the radio control, which will get fixed at a later date.
Ebay purchases , see a long low sided wagon and a bogie well wagon join the fleet, along with a Locolines "Vale of Ffestiniog" body kit , which I will take a look at before sending it off to Bill in Maidstone, for him to build for us.
Hopefully, she will be radio controlled, fitted with lights and a sound unit and will certainly be something a bit different !
On the 19th , we paid our first visit to Bob Newton's line in Rainworth, taking the same 2 loco's.
Bobs railway is built over two levels, with a spiral to climb back to the upper.
This is where radio control comes into its own, as you had to be on the regulator quite a bit, running at just the right speed on the level , so as not to run away and derail on the way down, then open her up to climb the spiral.
I think for our next visit there, if we dont have RC working, we will take "Willi" as with her being a geared engine she does not run away.
The following week we had the chance to visit and run on Ian Shields line in Ravenshead, another fantastic railway, which was not so hard to drive on this time !
2 more loco's were added to the fleet during the month in the form of no 5 "Spitfire ", a modified Accucraft Edrig and a very powerful 4 wheel diesal no 29 which at present carries the name "Cwmorthin ", but may be renamed later.
No 29 is painted in a two tone green livery, which , with variations has now been adopted for all diesal repaints on the E.V.L,R.
Towards the end of the month, we set off early from home to catch a train , just after 6am from Long Eaton to Welshpool.
We had visited a couple of years ago, but this was the first chance we had to ride on the line.
Loco's in use that day were the 2 original Beyer Peacock's , 822 " The Earl " and 823 "Countess " and the latest photo's can be seen on the Welshpool page.
This was possible thanks to Andrew Mitchell, who took us there in the van , along with the " Westfield Light Railway".
A 6am start from Long Eaton saw us arrive in plenty of time for the layout to be fully set up and running by the time the doors open to the public, and by 10am , we had "Stephanie" in steam and working the passenger coaches , replaced by "Cyril" for a short spell while "Stephanie "was refueled and watered.
The show itself was excellent , with some truly brilliant layouts on show , and many traders to temp your money away !
From the member to member sales, we aquired 2 open wagon's and a box van to add to the growing number of wagons.
I also purchased Andrew's birthday present , a Mike Chaney "Kitten" , a meths fired 040t named "Jess" , which has become no 13, which I got to test during the week while Andrew was at school, and running on the blocks, she seems to run fine.
We now hope for good weather on may 11 !
Our next outing was to Butterley, for the monthly 16mm meeting , which is held during the summer month's.
We took "Stephanie" and "Lady Margaret" , the later played up from the start, and it took the expert touch of Matt Acton, to get her to steam properly, but when he had finished she ran far better than she had ever run in our ownership, apart from problems with the radio control, which will get fixed at a later date.
Ebay purchases , see a long low sided wagon and a bogie well wagon join the fleet, along with a Locolines "Vale of Ffestiniog" body kit , which I will take a look at before sending it off to Bill in Maidstone, for him to build for us.
Hopefully, she will be radio controlled, fitted with lights and a sound unit and will certainly be something a bit different !
On the 19th , we paid our first visit to Bob Newton's line in Rainworth, taking the same 2 loco's.
Bobs railway is built over two levels, with a spiral to climb back to the upper.
This is where radio control comes into its own, as you had to be on the regulator quite a bit, running at just the right speed on the level , so as not to run away and derail on the way down, then open her up to climb the spiral.
I think for our next visit there, if we dont have RC working, we will take "Willi" as with her being a geared engine she does not run away.
The following week we had the chance to visit and run on Ian Shields line in Ravenshead, another fantastic railway, which was not so hard to drive on this time !
2 more loco's were added to the fleet during the month in the form of no 5 "Spitfire ", a modified Accucraft Edrig and a very powerful 4 wheel diesal no 29 which at present carries the name "Cwmorthin ", but may be renamed later.
No 29 is painted in a two tone green livery, which , with variations has now been adopted for all diesal repaints on the E.V.L,R.
Towards the end of the month, we set off early from home to catch a train , just after 6am from Long Eaton to Welshpool.
We had visited a couple of years ago, but this was the first chance we had to ride on the line.
Loco's in use that day were the 2 original Beyer Peacock's , 822 " The Earl " and 823 "Countess " and the latest photo's can be seen on the Welshpool page.