The Welsh Weekend Begins with "Holy War"...

Hello readers. Today myself & Eddie were crewing on the Bala Lake Railway again, aboard Hunslet 0-4-0 Saddle Tank "Holy War". We arrived late last night, having left the Midlands just after 7pm. It was about 10:30pm by the time we had unloaded the car and dragged all of our junk up the stairs to the station flat. I tell you what, sometimes it feels like you could fill the hold of a 747 with the amount of junk we end up taking! To my surprise, rather than unpacking, Eddie had some kind of fit and was spotted emerging from the boiler cupboard with a pretty historic vacuum cleaner. He then set about vacuuming every being with more than 2 legs - fair play. The accommodation is used regularly but not regularly enough to not require a clean when you arrive. The vacuum cleaning went insane with every room, chair, bed and wall being worked through. To be fair though, I have made it well known that I will not share my shower with anything with more than 2 legs, from a tripod to the Dudley Moore Trio...

"Norman Bates With A Vacuum Cleaner"

With the vacuuming complete we unpacked and readied for the morrow'. This morning we were at the engine shed at the usual time of 8:30am to light up "Holy War". The little blue 0-4-0 performed very well today, running along the lakeside easily with the day's four trains. Passenger numbers were much better than expected and it turned out a very good day for the railway as well as us on the engine - all good. Eddie drove two trips today, and I drove two trips, which is always very pleasant. The constant tapping of the regulator came back into play once again as "Holy War" is a bit of an animal. She's a perfectly set up locomotive that, if not held back, will run away. At the end of a most enjoyable day, having shunted the stock, I drove "Holy War" into the shed and up to the workbench as close as I could before securing her and disposing of her. Eddie then shunted "Alice" in behind, followed by "Maid Marian". "Maid Marian" will be our locomotive tomorrow. Bala Lake engines do about a fortnight each before swapping over and the stalwart "Holy War" has apparently more than done her bit in 2014...

"0-4-0 Quarry Hunslet Saddle Tank No779 of 1902"

So, with all of the engines back in the shed and things ready for tomorrow, we retired to the café for the usual evening natter and cuppa'. Tonight we are off to the Eagles (after a clean up) and Eddie has already laid down his usual "3-Course Challenge", a firm favourite of Bala Lake exploits these days. No matter how much persuasion you try to hit back with, Ed will still persist until you have three courses. My lord its an expensive night out with Eddie - you have been warned! Cheers guys, Sam...