Gallery
On this page we would like to feature interesting pictures of anything railway or transport related. Have you got any pictures that you'd like to share? Please send them to wealdenrailwaygroup [at] googlemail [dot] com.
Welsh Highland Railway - September 2011
Giles Barnable has supplied some pictures of a recent visit to the Welsh Highland Railway. Click here to find out more about the Welsh Highland Railway
 Pontfadog station on the route of the Glyn Valley Tramway  Beyer Garratt locomotive number 87 (ex-South African Railways) pauses at Rhyd Ddu station with a train bound for Pont Croesor |  This 7.5 inch gauge Isle of Man-inspired locomotive gives rides at the Conwy Valley Railway Museum at Bettws-y-Coed.  Sister locomotive number 143 arrives as Rhyd Ddu with a train bound for Caernarfon. |
Running back towards Caernarfon through typical scenery.
North Norfolk Diesel Gala - June 2011
Andrew Knights has supplied some interesting pictures of the Diesel Gala at the North Norfolk Railway, also known as the Poppy Line. As their website says, "The North Norfolk Railway offers a 10.5 mile round trip by steam train (vintage diesel trains on some journeys) through a delightful area of North Norfolk designated as being of outstanding natural beauty."
Click here to visit the North Norfolk Railway website.
Click here to visit the North Norfolk Railway website.
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Mangapps Railway Museum - June 2011
Below are some pictures taken by Andrew Kinights on a visit to Mangapps Railway Museum at Burnham on Crouch, Essex. You can visit their website for more information. Thanks Andrew!
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Pictures from France - by Giles Barnable
Railway Roundabout (part 1) The French commonly decorate their roundabouts with items of local interest, but I’m not sure why this one in Saintes (Charente Maritime) is home to this little 0-4-0T. It’s not all it seems, however, as I’m told that the cylinders below the cab mark it out as a fireless locomotive. I think there have been some cosmetic additions to simulate a normal steam engine.
Railway Roundabout (part 2) Perigueux (Dordogne) is a railway town with a full workshop, hence this larger locomotive displayed beside the road. The railway is just the other side of the fence, so the engine was merely craned across the boundary. The central island of the roundabout has a signal and a set of points on display.
The sight of some narrow gauge rails vanishing through a gap in a hedge near Cognac led to the discovery of a small pleasure line in the grounds of a rural community centre. There was a steam engine hidden in a shed, and this diesel mocked up as an old-time American 4-4-0. My visit was shortly after the “tempest” of 1999 and several tress had fallen across the line, one narrowly missing the station and this train.
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Not only modellers get to kitbash their trains into something else. These two views show what can be done with ex-SNCF permanent-way “draisines” to make a passenger train.
CFBS’s Fête de Vapeur (Steam Week-end) in April 2009 - This year’s Swiss visitor will be well-known to LGB-addicts. They even gave it the ex-Swiss coaches to pull, which was a nice touch. (By Giles Barnabe)
CFBS’s Fête de Vapeur (Steam Week-end) in April 2009 - The CFBS’s Cail 2-6-0T pauses while running round at St Valery. (By Giles Barnabe)
CFBS’s Fête de Vapeur (Steam Week-end) in April 2009 - French metre gauge tram loco running “the wrong way round”, sets off from St Valery for Noyelles. Note the dual gauge track which joins the two towns. (By Giles Barnabe)
CFBS’s Fête de Vapeur (Steam Week-end) in April 2009 - In 2009 they were running a mixed train, hauled by this little ex-industrial Corpet Louvet 0-4-0T. Seats in the single carriage proved so popular on the Saturday that a second coach was added on Sunday. (By Giles Barnabe)
CFBS’s Fête de Vapeur (Steam Week-end) in April 2009 - A some what whimsical addition to the mixed train’s cargo was this toy lion! (By Giles Barnabe)
CFBS’s Fête de Vapeur (Steam Week-end) in April 2009 - As usual there was a visiting locomotive from the K&ESR, which is twinned with the CFBS. In 2009 it was ex-SE&CR class P number 753. During a break at St Valery the driver, who seems a perfect match for the locomotive, is seen deep in conversation with an appreciative visitor. (By Giles Barnabe)
Detail shot of No. 64305, a DB 2-6-2T on the Nene Valley Railway. (By Giles Barnabe)
Special train on the Nene Valley being used for publicity purposes. This was in the middle of the miners’ strike and the fireman was off the footplate scrounging for fallen wood and old fence posts every time we stopped. (By Giles Barnabe)
A view of the engine sheds on the Tharsis Railway, a formerly British-owned mining line in Southern Spain. Gauge is 4ft and the diesels were, I think, by Alsthom. (By Giles Barnabe)
In the Tharsis scrap siding there were several of these little 0-4-0Ts by Dubs. Amazingly this one had been operating as late as the 1970s, according to the repair plate fixed to the firebox. (By Giles Barnabe)
Some Spanish broad gauge diesels built by Alco seen at Gibraleon. The train was a freight made up largely of acid tankers, sulphuric acid being manufactured locally. (by Giles Barnabe)
Our school got a day’s holiday for Corpus Christi in 1961 and the Model Railway Society spent the day on the Hawkhurst branch, which was about to close a few days later. We travelled from Charing Cross on a dmu to Tonbridge, then by this local train to Paddock Wood, hauled by H class no. 31308. The electrtic units in the platform beyond are not yet in service as the Canterbury line was in its final steam days. Hawkhurst train departed from a bay platform on the UP side of the station and then ran beneath the signal box on their way out of the station. (By Giles Barnabe)
Ex SE&CR H class no. 31177 at Hawhurst, and about to return to Paddock Wood at the tail of the train, hence the rear lamp. (By Giles Barnabe)
