Sunday 21 April 2024

Ryton: Battery Boxes & Sunshine...

"The 47 lookalike stands at Ryton Halt before services began"
Evening all. A quick post from today, just to document my afternoon out. Today I was rostered for one of the Sunday afternoon passenger workings at Coventry MES' Ryton Pools track. I arrived a little before 12:00, in good time for the 13:00 planned start. Having met up with the rest of the day's crew, we began getting out the two rakes of passenger stock and two of the club's battery electric things to pull them. For me, as I've said before, they do nothing. They're a working tool for doing a job and, I have to say, it's a job that they do very well. Soon enough, the two Compass House electrics were ready at the station for what would be a steady afternoon of work. In the end I think we carried just over 200 people, so the funds for the club were worth coming up for. I did a bit of driving (not so difficult with what is essentially a feed rate switch) and a fair bit of guarding. In between trips it was nice to chat with the rest of the ever growing membership about this and that...
"The oldest of the club electrics: the 37: at the end of play"
At 16:00 the gate was closed and we made our way, with the last rake of ECS, back to the steaming area ready to put everything away. After a swift bit of shunting, the job was done and it was time to wash up and head for home. Short and sweet. Sorry to anyone who loves battery electrics...they're just not for me. Give me a boiler and a firebox any day instead! Thanks all for reading...

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