Achilles Report No8: The Pools on New Years Eve...

Hi folks. Well, here it is: the last 'official' post of 2011 (there is one more to follow). Today we were at Ryton Pools (CMES) with my 5" gauge loco; "Achilles". We arrived at just before 11am for the New Years Eve Steam-Up. Having unloaded the loco we duly prepared her and were on the track within 45 minutes. Unfortunately, the blower was still not working correctly and so we retired after 3 laps. This did not mean that we were going to dispose though. Myself, Emma and Dave worked on the blower unit for around 20 minutes, discovering all 3 holes still partially blocked. A thin piece of wire soon cleared the holes as much as possible and so I steamed up again. This time, there was no stopping the blower. It was fantastic. "Achilles" was steaming beautifully. So, having oiled up again, off we went. The loco ran perfectly well with her driving car + 2 CMES cars behind the drawbar. My family came along too and three of us shared the driving. We also filmed the loco and the resulting footage is spotted above. We disposed at 3pm and left at 3:35pm. It was a very nice afternoon. Happy New Year everyone! Sam...