Amerton Railway

Hi,

Yesterday (Sunday) we took a trip to the Amerton railway, which is a small but friendly line situated on a farm that also serves as a children's playcentre (soft play etc), craft shop, bakery, animal rescue centre (including birds of prey, snakes, rabbits etc), farm animal display, garden centre, restaurant, hand made ice cream shop, jewellery shop and farm food shop - including some great real ale brews - including FIREBOX by RCH! Oh and it got even better when I stumbled across a model shop! Yes a model shop on a farm - how cool is that!?! I was able to get some sheet brass, some more peco 009 track for the hidden sidings and a wild swan book on etched brass loco construction secondhand (£5.95 was an amazing price!). wow! http://www.amertonfarm.co.uk/

Anyway, the railway's star attraction 'ISABEL' is in bits for a major overhaul at the moment, so we had the visiting loco (built in 2006) 'Emmet'. A 10 minute ride (no stops, just a continuous loop of about a mile) was £1.80 and as it's a continuous loop, trains depart about every 15 mins (5 mins for crew to layover, shovel some coal etc). The fireman was especially friendly and took us on a tour of the sheds, where I found a vertical boiler De Winton style loco. Definitely worth a visit! Images below:



Back to modelling then, well nearly, cameras first... Unfortunately my camera refuses to flash anymore and makes some odd sounds on focusing (don't worry, dodgy images will only be seen on this entry - a new camera is in the post - check this deal - http://www.buyacamera.co.uk/search.asp?RecId=panca274).

Some of the images below have thus been taken with no flash, just household lighting and then altered in photoshop, so the noise is bad, the focusing even worse - it's just plain horrible - sorry!

But the point is that considerable progress has been made. The SAR brake has had its details (hinges etc) added and has been soldered together (just needs a roof now). Also FR Bug box No1 (the zoo car) was completed - the images below were supposed to show the huge difference in size, but the camera problem ruins the point- oh well... One of my wife's cakes and a cup of tea sit ready to be devoured by a tired modeller!

FR Bowsider No 19 was completed - need to get some bogies for this yet (and a roof plus the handrails at the ends).

WHR ex C&U Admiralty brake (1001):

WHR Buffet car (with half height sides), the other car I have already completed will become Ashbury 25 as the WHR(P) propose to make their replica a full height version, thus I had misled the blog reader previously in stating I had soldered together the buffet car. A good article about these cars is in Heritage Railway magazine this month (near the back).

and the crowning glory - the Romanian coach 2060 - really pleased with this, the folds around the doors are complicated but make for an accurate kit - well done worsley works again.

An order was posted today for 2 more WHR saloons (2040/1) with the new beading style [why oh why did they need to alter it?] and FR straight sided iron framed bogie 15 - another 3 to solder up then!

and the hour changed (BST) so work on the layout itself will recommence soon too. I have started tidying up the garage ready!

Colin