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I was delighted to be one of the DHRS invited guests to Adrian Shooter's Beeches Light Railway, surely the ultimate garden railway...............
.......... with a replica Indian station.............
.......... complete with Hundustan Ambassador (with a Chiltern Rail parking pass in it).
The place exists, but never had a station...............
The facilities are all listed with a pukka notice..............
..... and this is the "Latrine, asian"!
The station interior was kitted out for dining.
The star of the show pulls in............
......... having been coaled the easy way............
................ with a Stanley knfe in the non-returnable bag!
The track is in two loops: one around the garden and house and one around the paddock above the house. This pointwork in the station is where you change direction round the loops - something which happened at least once on each trip.
The whole made a delightful picture.
The (Festiniog built) coaches looked (and felt) the part..............
............. and were also complete with the appropriate notices.........
......... some of which were very cheap!
There were also notices.................
......... encouraging motorists to slow down!
It seems that ex-Post Office railway stock's getting everywhere these days: they've got a couple of "traction units" (the bits on each end) as well as this complete example and there may well end up as another loco.
There's a new-looking shed for stock and materials storage, which has been built around the trees!
Ready for off.................
Climbing up from the lowest point of the line, past the turnouts for the sheds.
Heading up towards the top of the top paddock.................
............ and going the opposite way around the bottom loop, just about at the bottom of the 1 in 16 up-grade - no gentle potter, this!
"Go on, give it some wellie!"
The bottom loop of the garden railway runs round the formal garden (the house is out of shot to the right)............
......... and all the plants are perfectly to scale! Notice the loco and stock sheds in the background.
Heading up the 1 in 16..............
.......... with all the lineside photographers on hand to record the scene!
Round the bottom loop again..................
........ but this time turning off the main line to go into the station.
The Railway has a Simplex, which at first glance looks to be old..............
............ except this modern engine panel (and the engine note) give the game away: this is a brand new loco with a modern Perkins engine (but an exhaust whistle)...............
.......... and an electric cooling fan on an old-style radiator!
It was all TOO much for some of us................
My thanks to Adrian (and his wife Barbara) for entertaining us so royally. |
