Epping and Ongar Railway

Over the weekend a new steam railway opened in Essex. The Epping to Ongar railway was a branch off the Central line on the London Underground.

It ran until September 1994 when it was closed as a loss-maker and it looked like it may be lifted and lost for good.

A private company stepped in and bought the line promising to start running trains within 5 years. This never happened and it fell to a group of enthusiasts to get the trains running again using a Epping Ongar Railway liveried DMU.

This continued till 2008 when a change of ownership occurred and the decision was made to close the line so that major works could be carried out before the line was re-opened to public running.

As well as the infrastructure work the locomotive stud was expanded to include ex-GWR Hall "Pitchford Hall", ex-GWR Large Prairie no 4141 and Diesel Class 37 no. D6729. This has pitched the railway into the front line of preserved railways in the country.

I have not yet been able to visit but hope to do so in the next few weeks but in the mean time it's worth having a look at their website eorailway.co.uk

I have also found a set of nice photo's from the weekend on Flickr 

Gardening

My daughters birthday was this weekend but next weekend we have a load of people coming for her birthday which will hopefully include an operating session on Sunday.
To prepare for it I have been tidying the garden and all the trees down the railway side have been cut back as they were overshadowing the railway. New bamboo screening is being fitted against the wire fence to replace the old reed screening plus I have removed the second platform from the railway so it currently has no station. It will be replaced with the plastic Hornby platforms as they can be picked up cheap from exhibitions and some model shops.

Hattons Garrett

Hornby Magazine have an article in their June issue about the forthcoming Garrett from Hattons and I am really glad that I pre-ordered one!

It will feature a motor for each set of driving wheels and have a DCC sound speaker under the chimney ready fitted so sourcing a sound chip suitable for this magnificent beast has to be the next step.

Currently the CAD drawings have been signed off and the metal is being cut for the first moulds to be approved sometime in July. The final release date for the model is now early 2013.

Got a bargain

Today I think I got a real bargain. Went into the local model shop looking to see if they had any more coach kits and saw a Hornby Railroad Flying Scotsman with a price tag of £39.99. I asked if that was the correct price and was told it was so it was out with the wallet and this lovely little model was mine.
Its a very neat model with wire handrails and very fine looking motion. Pickup is via the main driving wheels and the front 6 wheels on the tender so it should be a good runner. I hope to give it a run this weekend but that does depend on getting the garden finished (the railway is currently under a pile of tree branches!) and the weather holding up.

A quick update

I have put the class 24 in the diesel loco's list and I will be updating the projects pages as well as adding a new one for a Dapol coach kit that I have purchased with my birthday money.