Open Day On The Garden Railway...
Hello everyone. We sometime's hold very private open days at our 00 gauge garden railway, the "Sutherland Steam Railway". Today was a very special open day in which our friends from Rocky Ridge Railroad (Rugby) came over for a running session. There was alot of preparation involved in the latter part of the week to get everything ready for today but we got there in the end. It was a very, very enjoyable day with, to my surprise, the weather forecast of mixed sunshine & showers being proved very wrong as we didn't receive a single drop of rain! How pleasant! Maybe the english "summer" is finally here? We'll see! For this open day, both ourselves and our visitor's from the RRR provided items for operation. What was there to see? Well... 
00 Gauge Garden Railway, "The Sutherland Steam Railway":-The garden railway, as with all open days, ran throughout the event and performed faultlessly. The turntable was also in operation, providing demonstrations of its electronically activated drive. ex-GWR 4-6-0 No6862 "Derwent Grange" spent most of her day being continually rotated on the turntable for our visitors. Meanwhile, the visitor's were also allowed access to the "behind the scenes" area's of the line, such as the shed, the place from which the line operates. Many different steam locomotive's, hauling many different loads, made their way up & down the line throughout the day. The new "Devon Belle" observation Saloon made its 'public' debut and was attached to most trains, mostly joined by our Pullman Dining cars. Extra locomotives were on display at the turntable, in the main shed and at Sutherland Jnc sheds. The electrically operated signalling, controlling the line between Ashford Jnc & Sutherland, was also used today and proved both visually and mechanically effective. 
'O' Gauge (32mm) Lego Model Railway:-As we had special visitors coming along it was decided to put out our model railway layout as well, the 'O' Gauge "Lego Line". This 6ftx4ft model railway has been exhibited at many show's in recent years, most memorably the National Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham. With preparations for its operation being made mid-week, the "Lego Line" was moved from its base to the SSR around midday yesterday. Having been stored overnight, the layout spent the event operating happily for both family & visitors in the garage. With two trains running at all times, the layout proved visually pleasing and interesting. Due to the bad weather forecast, it was decided that operating a railway in the garage was "the safe option", in case of pouring rain! This was certainly proved when we were setting the line up on Friday and a very heavy thunder storm hit us! Lucky we, and the layout, were safe & sound inside! The layout operated faultlessly throughout the day and proved very popular. 
45mm Live Steam Demonstrations:-This was something we had all anticipated, 45mm live steam operating in the garden along with the 00! Our friends from the Rocky Ridge Railroad kindly brought along 0-4-0 Roundhouse loco "Billy" and a relatively large oval of track on which to run her. The owner also provided three loaded flat wagons to give the engine something to haul. "Billy" is a standard Roundhouse locomotive and is butane-gas fired internally. The locomotive is also Radio-Controlled with the reversing gear & regulator being operated in this practise. The cab includes, as well as the R/C gear, a pressure gauge & gas tank. The pressure gauge reads up to 100psi but the loco runs on around 30psi I believe. "Billy" steamed many times during the afternoon and I had two oppotunities at driving her around continually around the circuit. (Thanks alot for that Adrian!). The engine steamed up in around 10-15 minutes and then ran for a further 15-20 minutes, easily hauling her 3 wagons with much steam to spare. The engine ran faultlessly throughout the afternoon and I believe her owner left us feeling very pleased with his little locomotive! We must thank our RRR friends for taking the time to bring "Billy" over and demonstrate her for us. 
Steam Toys (Wilesco D405 & D365):-As well as providing "Billy", the RRR also provided Wilesco D365 Steam Roller "Old Smokey" (seen to the left in the pic above). We then provided our Wilesco D405 Traction Engine & her green living van. Together, the two little "steam toys" ran very well and were steamed at numorous times during the day. I must admit it was very nice to see the two Wilesco's ticking-over together with "Billy" occasionally steaming past! The D365 is a model of a typical steam roller, used in the early-mid 20th century on road's throughout Britain. The D405 is, not a prototype, but a model of a typical steam tractor. Both engine's include 15psi boiler's, fired by "dry spirit tablets", safety valves, steam whistles and conventional valve gear fitted as standard. There is no reverser on the engine's however and the flywheel has to be spun to determine a direction whilst the cylinder is under-steam. There is also a clutch which enables the engines to either tick-over standing still or move theirselves along. Thanks most again go to our RRR friends for bringing the D365 over to run alongside our D405. 
So, thats what went on! The day was very, very enjoyable as I've said and we hope we can do it again sometime, maybe next year?! (The video below features all of the above at differing times during the day). Thanks for reading folks...more posts coming soon! We're Pullman Dining on the "Shakespeare Express" tomorrow! Good evening.
Hello everyone. We sometime's hold very private open days at our 00 gauge garden railway, the "Sutherland Steam Railway". Today was a very special open day in which our friends from Rocky Ridge Railroad (Rugby) came over for a running session. There was alot of preparation involved in the latter part of the week to get everything ready for today but we got there in the end. It was a very, very enjoyable day with, to my surprise, the weather forecast of mixed sunshine & showers being proved very wrong as we didn't receive a single drop of rain! How pleasant! Maybe the english "summer" is finally here? We'll see! For this open day, both ourselves and our visitor's from the RRR provided items for operation. What was there to see? Well... 
00 Gauge Garden Railway, "The Sutherland Steam Railway":-The garden railway, as with all open days, ran throughout the event and performed faultlessly. The turntable was also in operation, providing demonstrations of its electronically activated drive. ex-GWR 4-6-0 No6862 "Derwent Grange" spent most of her day being continually rotated on the turntable for our visitors. Meanwhile, the visitor's were also allowed access to the "behind the scenes" area's of the line, such as the shed, the place from which the line operates. Many different steam locomotive's, hauling many different loads, made their way up & down the line throughout the day. The new "Devon Belle" observation Saloon made its 'public' debut and was attached to most trains, mostly joined by our Pullman Dining cars. Extra locomotives were on display at the turntable, in the main shed and at Sutherland Jnc sheds. The electrically operated signalling, controlling the line between Ashford Jnc & Sutherland, was also used today and proved both visually and mechanically effective. 
'O' Gauge (32mm) Lego Model Railway:-As we had special visitors coming along it was decided to put out our model railway layout as well, the 'O' Gauge "Lego Line". This 6ftx4ft model railway has been exhibited at many show's in recent years, most memorably the National Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham. With preparations for its operation being made mid-week, the "Lego Line" was moved from its base to the SSR around midday yesterday. Having been stored overnight, the layout spent the event operating happily for both family & visitors in the garage. With two trains running at all times, the layout proved visually pleasing and interesting. Due to the bad weather forecast, it was decided that operating a railway in the garage was "the safe option", in case of pouring rain! This was certainly proved when we were setting the line up on Friday and a very heavy thunder storm hit us! Lucky we, and the layout, were safe & sound inside! The layout operated faultlessly throughout the day and proved very popular. 
45mm Live Steam Demonstrations:-This was something we had all anticipated, 45mm live steam operating in the garden along with the 00! Our friends from the Rocky Ridge Railroad kindly brought along 0-4-0 Roundhouse loco "Billy" and a relatively large oval of track on which to run her. The owner also provided three loaded flat wagons to give the engine something to haul. "Billy" is a standard Roundhouse locomotive and is butane-gas fired internally. The locomotive is also Radio-Controlled with the reversing gear & regulator being operated in this practise. The cab includes, as well as the R/C gear, a pressure gauge & gas tank. The pressure gauge reads up to 100psi but the loco runs on around 30psi I believe. "Billy" steamed many times during the afternoon and I had two oppotunities at driving her around continually around the circuit. (Thanks alot for that Adrian!). The engine steamed up in around 10-15 minutes and then ran for a further 15-20 minutes, easily hauling her 3 wagons with much steam to spare. The engine ran faultlessly throughout the afternoon and I believe her owner left us feeling very pleased with his little locomotive! We must thank our RRR friends for taking the time to bring "Billy" over and demonstrate her for us. 
Steam Toys (Wilesco D405 & D365):-As well as providing "Billy", the RRR also provided Wilesco D365 Steam Roller "Old Smokey" (seen to the left in the pic above). We then provided our Wilesco D405 Traction Engine & her green living van. Together, the two little "steam toys" ran very well and were steamed at numorous times during the day. I must admit it was very nice to see the two Wilesco's ticking-over together with "Billy" occasionally steaming past! The D365 is a model of a typical steam roller, used in the early-mid 20th century on road's throughout Britain. The D405 is, not a prototype, but a model of a typical steam tractor. Both engine's include 15psi boiler's, fired by "dry spirit tablets", safety valves, steam whistles and conventional valve gear fitted as standard. There is no reverser on the engine's however and the flywheel has to be spun to determine a direction whilst the cylinder is under-steam. There is also a clutch which enables the engines to either tick-over standing still or move theirselves along. Thanks most again go to our RRR friends for bringing the D365 over to run alongside our D405. 
So, thats what went on! The day was very, very enjoyable as I've said and we hope we can do it again sometime, maybe next year?! (The video below features all of the above at differing times during the day). Thanks for reading folks...more posts coming soon! We're Pullman Dining on the "Shakespeare Express" tomorrow! Good evening.
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