By 12:30pm "John Owen" was in steam and on the track. Emma then drove the loco down to the carraige sheds where we collected 2 'coaches'. After a few laps with Emma on the regulator and, me giving my family a ride, it was time for the "Saturday Special". This was a one-off public opening of the railway during a Steam Up, held between 1:30pm and 3pm. Therefore, we collected an extra coach and made up a 3-coach rake for passengers. Other locomotives that were going round also collected a coach or two. At 1:30pm we pulled into Ryton Halt ready to go. 12 passengers boarded our train with me driving and Emma as Guard. We left Ryton Halt and got 1/2 way around before a handpump problem befell the Sweet Pea. I nursed the engine back to Ryton Halt as much as possible before failing her there. She was then removed from the track with the 3-coach train being dispersed between an 0-6-0 Simplex Side Tank & an 0-6-0 Pannier Tank.
"John Owen" was then blown down and put to bed. The day hadn't been totally dissapointing though as the railway had made money and also a good few locomotives had been seen on the track. These included the tiny 0-4-0 "Sweet Violet", seen above, which is the 3.5" gauge version of the Sweet Pea. (The 7.25" gauge version is known as the "Sweet William"). Behind the "Violet" can be seen an 0-6-0 "Butch" side tank loco. Other loco's on the track included a 5" gauge LNWR Precursor 4-4-0, a 3.5" gauge Southern 'Betty' 2-6-2, a 5" gauge 0-4-0 Battery electric and another Sweet Pea, as well as 3.5" gauge Molly 1F loco, to name but a few. I hope you've enjoyed reading this post and more will be coming soon....I will be at CMES next Sunday, driving the usual passenger trains, 1pm-4pm...
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