Leaderboard

Rebirth of a Railway By Peter D Spencer Professor of Gnomolige June 2011 It’s been 2 years now, since fingers and keyboard cametogether to record the continuing saga of the GVR. (Gnome Valley Railway) owingto personal illness problems that left me mentally and physically unfit tocarry on as the Chief Engineer and Chairman of the GVR. It became apparent thata change from house to a bungalow was now a necessity. It was agreed that myson Christopher and partner take over the house and business (Tuxcraft) andMargaret and I would look for a bungalow. Luck was on our side, the bungalowright next door came onto the market, so a deal was struck. StoryLine of the GVR. Following the increase in the demand, and the decreasein the amount of Barley Sugar ore being mined local, Barley Sugar Puddingbecame a very valuable export product. The by-product of this production,Gnomezade, was also very sort after and soon became a delicacy in the nextgarden which was in fact against the consumption of such liquids. Gnomezade wassoon being smuggled through the hedge to be consumed in small underground hideouts. This illicit operation was being organised by the notorious, AlkiGnome,who was sort after by the Gnome Valley security force after the discovery of anillegal drain pipe on one of the settling ponds at the Barley Sugar Factory.Tracing the exit of this pipe uncovered the large production of Gnomezade justthrough the hedge in the next garden. TheGVR. expansion programme was to extendits workings into this new garden, but AlkiGnome was thought to be supplyingthe workforce with illicit Gnomezade as a growing number of the railway’s staffwere unable to attend working owing to drink related problems. The youngergeneration of Gnomes were fast becoming unsociable, unruly and were to be foundin hidden locations binge drinking. This change in the Gnomes society causedsubstantial disruption to the development of the GVR’s plans. Land clearanceand the preparation of the track bed were taking considerably longer thanplanned. With the chairman of the railway having to take a forced break fromhis duties, the Valley constabulary were able to use this period of time to getthe situation back into some sort of control. This was achieved by a highreward being posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction ofAlkiGnome and his gang, and the clamp down on all the known drinking dens. Thisslowly bought the situation back under control, just in time for the return to workof the MD and chief engineer. So here we go again, as the management had just beeninformed that the next door establishment had advertised and arranged an openday for the shop, and required the GVR. to be available for visitors to see. Asthe date of the open day was to be at the beginning of December it left only 3months to lay track bed, track and get something running. Sub contractors werecalled in, namely big Mick, John D and Ken Radcliff. Armed the tools, lengthsof fibreglass track bed salvaged from the previous layout and supplied withplenty of liquid refreshments, proceeded to dig out old plants and weeds. The building of the retaining walls came next; thiswas a night mare as the weather had turned rather foul. The track bed soonfollowed and was surprisingly ease to reassemble considering how long it hadbeen down at the previous site. Ruff and ready as it was we just had enoughtime to get some power to it all and test run a few train, when, time ran out. The day came, bright sunshine and a small breeze. Clubmembers started to arrive around 11’ am, this was very helpful as we were outof steam from all the construction work. Visiting locos numbered some 9 unitsof all breads, sizes, shapes and power. We had a few that ran ob Analogy, aswell as those that required DCC. This was not a problem as we had wired thewhole layout for Analogy as we expected some to be present. As for the DCCrequirements, it was only a case of switching all switches to the on positionand swooping a couple of wires. So with all this in place every one got achance to run. At one point we had 5 trains (all DCC) running at once as wellas a battery radio controlled train all running at the same time. The weatherchanged dramatically in the afternoon as rain threatened to stop play, but wewhere able to continue through the showers. It was the wind that coursed thetrouble with locos and rolling stock being blown of the track. We were amplysupplied with liquid refreshments and being as it was near Christmas, a wellstocked plate of mince pies. Every thing seemed to go well and from thefeedback it was a very successful day. Since this event we have decided that wecould also hold an open day for G Scale Society members. This will be on BankHoliday Monday the 5th May. All are welcome, and we plan on astarting time of 2, pm and hopefully running on until 5, pm. If you could phoneto let me know you are coming it would help, and also tell me what you willbring, i.e. Analogy or DCC or both we can then sort out a running order. A start was made first in the old garage (now calledthe train room, posh or what) A rough diagram is shown here, As you will seefrom the accompanying photos the Gnomezade Bottling Plant is in the cornersharing a spur with R. SOLES Boot and Shoe importers, as well as the bulkGnomezade storage facility. More next time.

According to a list prepared by Stuart Brasier for the N Gauge Society, this a Great Northern Rly fish van. Based on diagrams 34 & 49, the prototype was 17'6" over headstocks with a vacuum fitted 10'WB underframe. I'm not sure of a source of drawings or photos. Regards Michael