Railway Research Trip; The Steeple Grange Light Railway

Another research trip, another railway, and something a bit interesting and unusual. 

Derbyshire has quite a few preserved railways, but nowt as eccentric as this one. The Steeple Grange Light Railway is built on the track-bed of a standard-gauge quarry branch line, itself an offshoot of the famous Cromford and High Peak line. We parked up at the National Stone Centre, then strolled down the track bed to the station.

This was the target of the visit; ZM32, the ex-Horwich Works shunter, one of the smallest locomotives employed by BR. The whole line here though is rather fun, comprising preserved industrial locomotives and stock, including quite a few mineral-sector battery locomotives. The passenger vehicles are ex-Coal Board mining stock 'Manriders'.

A lovely little machine; the plan is to something inspired by this loco for Garden Rail.

The ride on the train was great fun; propelled up by ZM32, the view from the end of the Manrider was an interesting way to see the line. Plus, as it was ex-mining stock, we were sat very low down in the carriage.

Up at the terminus, which was delightfully basic, and very modellable. 

The trackwork is nicely overgrown and weathered.

Back at the station; I know I'm sad for liking this stuff, but I was very taken with the moss growing on this old wagon turntable which was propped up against the retaining wall.

There's actually two lines here, a short one going off from the main station into another bit of quarry. A quick run on the open carriages (again, eminently modellable) with a battery locomotive.

Pic in Trackside magazine.

 

Medical Monday; Cutting Crew (Excision of a lesion from a robot's inner thigh)

Time for another Medical Monday! Today, a fake wound for one of the robots, for a surgical course.

So, on to another simulated surgical procedure. This time, removing a cyst. 

We do this quite often as a practice procedure up in the Lab, where we use slabs of belly pork. Now, we can't do this with the robots, because we try not to combine mucky meat with our nice clean machines.

We also can't have people cutting up the robots for real, because they cost more than a terraced house. In the past we've done this with fake scalpels, but last year I did a skin belt with a bump inside which could strap-on to Sim Man's inner thigh. It was a lump of hot-glue, with a bit of fake blood, sealed inside a kind of pocket of fake skin.

This year, for added realism, I decided to hook it up to a syringe driver to pump fake blood into it. And because I'm a bit of a sneaky bastard, I decided not to warn the surgeons either.

The pump was concealed under the trolley at the back, and the Nurse-Plant quietly triggered it. And then, the surgeons took a little longer than anticipated to get to the cutting. The pocket had been quietly filling-up like a pool toy hooked up to a pump...

To say it caught the trainees by surprise, would be an understatement. The plan had been for a dribble of blood, not "Oh Hell We've Hit An Artery, Sound The Major Haemorrhage Protocol!"

It continued to bleed all the way through the scenario, which did add to the realism, the team having to patch him up. It went down well with the faculty, who I'd also not warned.

And that's what it's all about. Next year, I'll have another go at upping the realism.

 

A trip to the Keighley Model Railway Exhibition

Last weekend, I took a trip to the model railway show at Knowle Mills, Keighley. A bit of a spur of the moment decision, after spotting the advertising banner.

Originally, I was planning on going up to the Tanfield Railway Gala, but circumstances got in the way and I had to stay around home. This was a decent consolation prize mindyou.

In terms of railway exhibitions, this is a bit different, in that it's more of a Clubrooms open day, with lots of under-construction projects. I'm afraid I didn't get the name of this 009 layout, but it had lots of interesting features like a working level crossing...

...and a boat which sailed around the river.

A nicely detailed N gauge American layout. Yellow Land Rover (Wins The Game).

Speaking of things American, the centre of the room was hope to this massive HO scale layout- huge trains, working sounds.

One downside of being in a mill; my phone was really struggling to cope with moving targets. Should have taken the SLR.

Bears!

Then onto the massive 0 scale layout, "Ravensbeck".

Lots of really nice cameo scenes on this one.

If this impressive layout did have a downside, it was the lack of a backscene, which made photography a little tricky.

One layout which didn't have that problem was the superb, atmospheric "Echoes of the Black Canyon". Mirrors at each end, thunder and lightning effects, and a deep, deep scenic backdrop.

Then "Hope Street". Another creative, beautifully detailed layout. I love this cameo with the horse-drawn coal dray.

I was going for that mill-town atmosphere with another 0-scale layout, "Coverdale"

I wish I hadn't seen this one though, because this not only takes my personal choice of 'layout I'd like to build', but also the one tempting me to spend a lot of money... I have a few bits of Dublo, and my Grandads-brother had an awful lot of Dublo when I was a kid. Something magical about tinplate trains clattering and roaring about.

I feel like it's tempting me to build something retro. I prefer this sort of thing to the really scenic modelling; I've a soft spot for little trains racing around and around a layout.

Yeah, might have to get myself a Hornby Dublo Co-Bo, even though the last thing I need is another project...

Overall, a nice show. A good atmosphere in the place, even at opening time, and I like to see projects underway, stuff actually being built. The junior section had a nice layout too (I couldn't really photograph it, as it was surrounded by kids, though that in itself is a good sign for the hobby).  A proper variety of layouts too, British and Foreign, and scales from Z up to G.

A quick stop to watch the Pacer roll past on the KWVR on the way back to the car.

As is tradition on blogs about visits to model railway shows, here's the swag. A right mix of stuff; the milk tankers are just because I like them (I had a Wrenn catalogue as a kid, and always wanted some. To link to the earlier pics, Wrenn took over the Dublo range, so there's a link there). The wagon kit on the bottom-right is blog-fodder, the people are for a BRM project, the box van and goods shed are for the next Hornby build, the signal-box interior for another future BRM. The horse was a weird impulse purchase; it might end up on the garden railway, it was just on its own on a sales stand I felt a bit sorry for it!

This battered, but lovely-running Minitrix Warship had been bought to the chassis for a Hornby project next year, but it's growing on me. A paint-strip and respray might be in order instead.

The real bonkers, impulse purchase though. It was my Birthday recently, and when I saw this on the Ellis Clarke stand, I had to get it. I've wanted a model of "Evening Star" since I was little (I had an Airfix kit off  my late Grandfather's also-late Brother, Verdun- the chap with the Dublo layout, mentioned earlier). I have no use at all for this loco, and not even a layout to run it on. But like I say, as soon as I saw it, I had to get it... I might end up having to build a project around the loco, to justify keeping it!

 

 

Garden Rail Saturday; 16mm Society Show at the Barrow Hill Roundhouse

We recently went to the Yorkshire 16mm Railway Society show, which was being held over the border at the Barrow Hill Roundhouse. Years ago, this show used to be held at Elescar, in Sheffield, but when that attraction fell on it's backside, they moved the show elsewhere. Some years ago, we attended one run at the Richard Dunns leisure centre in Bradford (another venue that also fell on its backside due to be killed-off by the owning Local Authority... sensing a theme here?). Having done the superb show at Llangollen in the Spring, we were keen to do another garden railway-specific exhibition this year. Plus, it allowed us to nail several birds with one stone, as we needed to recce the place for a visit we're doing at the end of October, and get some pics for an upcoming Hornby article.

Nice first loco to to greet visitors, a Class 02. I have a feeling this one used to work on the industrial branchline near where I grew up.

These pics are for the Hornby article; top-and-tailed train on the demo line.

Detail pics in the yard.

Nice old buildings.

Inside the goods van.

Texture shot on an old Speedlink wagon.

Cabbing a Deltic.

Love those old dials and switches.

The garden railway show itself wasn't too bad. Small compared to Llangollen, but a lot going on, fit in around the full-sized locomotives. It was a little difficult to get decent pics with all the background stuff though.

Yep, I know I was drooling over this at Llangollen, and I still am.

Though this comes a close second... if I had a spare 2 and a half grand.

A rather nice Ffestiniog England, though the ex-Groudle loco is more the right proportions for our own garden line.

Overall, a nice day out- different atmosphere to Llangollen, the only other garden railway only show we've done. Lots of interesting bits and pieces picked up too for the next lot of projects, and a jolly chat over lunch with the editor of Garden Rail.

Looking forward to coming back here in late October for a shoot; more on that later in the month...