Owd Bob

I did my back in big style phil' yesterday so i could'nt really handle the weight of fettling with a steamer yesterday.

It's not quite the Snowy conditions i like to play out in but the line was White enough being covered with a nice thick layer of frost today! I'd nowt better to do so as daft as a brush out i went well wrapped up, i tried to run the battery powered steamers, i say tried as the wheels slipped on the frosty frozen tracks, but i did get to manage a full circuit eventually! T'was funny though watching the loco's move just a few inches in every ten minutes. The saddle tank has now gained the 'Bess' nameplates as the 'Jack' loco' they were fixed to has now had to be moved on to pastures new. Ah! well! what a shame! never mind...onwards and upwards .

We started as teenagers waggin' schoo' in the mid' 1970's, and we cycled the 7 miles to SP depot to hide and hang out from the truant officers, there was always a empty brake van or two on Ince Moss we could hide in for the day, and brew up in! Most of my first 'SP' pics' come from the 1978-79 era, the shed was still open then but all my negs from then are on 110 cassette film! Looks like i need a 110 slider thingy to fit in my cheap Aldi scanner now! I loved it when stuff started to be tarted up and it was a welcome move from the always filthy looking Blue & Yellow, i think my fave colours were the White window framed Deltics, the Stratford 47 White roofs and Red buff era, & then the Scottish large logo' 37's Basically anything was better than the dull miserable looking Blue.....or so we thought at the time! I've noticed a small round plate on a lot of the class 25's bang in the lower middle of the cab front,....is this where the cable would come through for Royal Trains? Found these two yesterday.

A few more badly scanned efforts.

Many thanks for the kind words & compliments Edwardian, all the best to you and all the other members and visitors for the coming year. It just happens that i've been asked to do a write up and provide a few pics' for a certain mag' Edwardian and soon i hope! Hopefully this year things will settle down and real life things will fare better for us. I have no plans to destroy the line any further as it's been trimmed down just enough for me to handle and look after from now on, as always at this time of the year i've had a good inspection of the line and i'm starting to plan the jobs and repairs, i have noticed that some ballast has lifted with the frost and ice, and will need some sorting out, i've a station and its buildings still to transfer to a better site of access, and a few bags of decent soil needs chucking down in the beds and tubs around the line-side . I've plenty of loco', wagon and coach mending & detailing to sort out and even in the Winter the plants still grow and will need cutting back before they get out of hand before the very hot Summer to come .

I've been recently scanning my old negs' and i've found more yet to scan Reddish stuff, so i must have made at least four trips back then and not the two i first thought! Hopefully i can sort them all out soon, most of my pics' are only fit for research & modeling purposes only anyway and i don't mind sharing them. The peak was a shock to me that day as well, i once saw a class 82 or was it an 84 in the shed and have a pic' of it somewhere around here.

I never did take many pics' at Reddish depot so here are some with the buildings in just in case they can help anyone, i only ever called in twice in the early '80's whilst working in the area, probably around the time the line closed.

A few fading prints from my collection. Merehead open day 1989? and two from Warrington. Ince Moss Wigan, March 1999, the HGV driver took a wrong turn thinking he was going into the springs branch depot but ended up crossing the WCML over a bridge that should'nt really have taken this much weight according to the sign! He was'nt allowed to get back over, and the loco was stuck and left there for several days from memory.

Another fading pic' or two, the Green one was at the Merehead open day. Others from Warrington & SP, York, Ayr & Guide Bridge.

A few old fading prints from my collection, i always remember being on my Hols' around Somerset and Wiltshire and seeing a poster for an open day at Merehead Quarry, i think i caught a special shuttle train from Westbury to the quarry site, it was a lovely hot sunny day.

So what? Anti Nowhere League.

I'll try and look through my really bad fading prints E3109 and see if i have any pics' of Reddish depot that may help you. Heres one from Guide Bridge in 1980-ish.

She still scrubs up lovely so don't be that cruel Lads.

Thanks Chaps! All very good and feasible answers, i have to say i don't remember any open days around that time especially being so late on in the year, and the paint was really clean and fresh, i'm now wondering if it was ever used on a railtour? Whatever it was for it really stood out and made a nice change at the time from all the other numerous boring and seemingly endless amounts of 25's i was used to seeing around the North West back then. Dave' many thanks for the excellent link, it's really great to see it getting its new tyres and hopefully it'll be back up and running again this year? I'm hoping to keep a watch on it from now on.

Just going through my old pics' as i'm transforming and detailing my 'O' gauge Heljen class 25 into 25 235 complete with the Red beams and silver buff heads, funny how the number was all squashed up with no gaps either between the 25 and 235. I always wondered why or for what reason the 'Rat' was tarted up? If anyone has any ideas please let me know as to why. I also see after some 'Googling' that this loco is now preserved which pleases me now no end! Photos taken at SP on 15th Nov' 1981. The loco' then hung in and around the Springs branch depot and Wigan area for a few weeks after first seeing it, and it became one of my fave 25's Sorry about the poor quality as is with all my old pics' the colours are fading fast.

Sorry it's a bad copy of my pic' taken at Wigan N.W. 7.48pm. Jan' 13th 1992 loco number unknown.

When i finally get all my old pics' retrieved from that feckin' photo bucket site Phil' i will post them build pics' up here, i'd always thought working in brass sheet and solderin' was beyond me and my limited skills until i did the cab and saddle tank for the Katy chassis, and it was easier than i had always feared Not that i'm thinking of doing it all again mind! My mate who's at a loose end and having taken early retirement is thinking of buying a 3D scanner thingy and wants to try scanning/copying my locos & stuff, it's ok for beer, fag & petrol money i reckon' and we don't think he'll ever make a fortune or get all his dosh back by just using my stuff but it might be fun & worth a try though.

Thanks Folks! Its amazing what using too much plastic weld type glue and too thin a grade of plastic card will do often it's mostly accidental and only sometimes just done a bit on purpose.

Well the snow has'nt come back around here yet, so i've not been out to play trains again this last week but i found these few pics' from a loco' build i finally finished and got posted off to its new owner this Summer, here it was being trial run on my own 0-4-0 chassis borrowed from the Irish Diesel, this was the last of three i was asked to build, the second one i ended up keeping for myself when the sale fell through

What an interesting and informative ride that was rp43, thanks for sharing it. I was going through my old class 56 and class 60 photo album this morn' and this class 56 pic' made me chuckle as i'd forgotten all about that incident. I do remember the loco' being sat there for a week or so Then i wondered what happened to this old sign? RIP SP The class 60 is 60 061.

I think i'm right and this member was on another Garden Railways web-site i used to frequent and wants to know if it is now worth him transferring some of his excellent Garden railway builds and loco' projects over here for us to see ??? So if i'm right in my thinking then please post away. 'Night Thunder' i'm really sorry i had'nt spotted this post sooner, and hope you are still watching and willing to do so?

I was just reading about your house move troubles this morn' Andi, i do hope everything can be settled for you soon and you can show us the creation & build of your next garden railway.

Why should i be any different to the British TV and radio station ads' Mike which as usual have been shown, heard and rammed down our throats since mid Oct' and i'm doing my predicting now for more Snow before xmas day around here.

I love to make the most of it lads whilst its still here, so i had another few hours this morn' but the frost last night was bitter and it's still minus summat this morn' so another hour in it was enough for this big tart! I'm sure they'll more of the White stuff to come yet! (he hopes and says acting like a big Kid.) ...don't eat the Yellow Snow....

Thanks CME. I will do that one day but as always it's easier said than done The Timpdon hand held units i have are the UTX 3's. No more snow as was predicted today so i've been test running the 'Foreigner' as i've finally just wired it up and fitted a 'Swift Sixteen' brass chassis that i bought several months ago There's now a bit of detailing and painting to do on it but it performed well, and finally that's all that matters as this loco' has given me nothing but running troubles for years.