Churnet Valley Railway
Super Power Weekend Take 2 - For those of you who attended Super Power Saturday you will be aware we suffered from a huge amount of rain which culminated in the Canal breaching and washing the railway line away South of Consall. Unfortunately the event was cancelled. The railway is repaired, and this is now Super Power Weekend Take 2. We are planning to run the event over 2 days to make up for the original date and make the most of having three resident S160's.
Adult Ticket Price [Aged 16-59] £20.00
Child Ticket Price [Aged 5-15] £15.00
Children Under 5 -- FREE
Join us for this groundbreaking event, all in aid of returning trains to Leek for the first time since 1970! Witness the sight and sound of three USATC S160s operating together for the first time in the UK since 1944, and for only the second time within preservation globally! Resident American Sisters nos. 5197 and 6046 will be joined by no. 2253 Omaha, making a flying visit courtesy of Peter Best and Dartmouth Steam Railway. There will be four non-stop return journeys, commencing from Froghall and departing for Ipstones and back offering 20-miles of S160 haulage. Each return journey will be operated by a different pairing of S160s, and tickets will permit all day travel on all four services.
Starting in the quiet and sedate Churnet Valley line, each journey will explore Staffordshire’s hidden valley that interweaves with river and canal, before venturing deep into the Staffordshire Moorlands with spectacular views as far as the eye can see whilst the locomotives challenge one of the steepest gradients found on a railway in the UK. Fancy a bite to eat during your day out? Then enjoy the traditional atmosphere in our Signals Tea Room at Froghall Station, offering freshly brewed coffee, cooked breakfasts, hot and cold lunches, cream teas and a delicious selection of cakes. Signals Tea Room is wheelchair accessible and child-friendly. Our Moolander Kitchen car will be included on the train, serving both hot & cold light refreshments to all travellers onboard.
Bristol O Gauge Group -- 2020 Exhibition
Sunday 26th January 2020
LOCATION (Map at foot of page)
University of the West of England (UWE)
Filton Road, Bristol, BS34 8QZ
OPENING TIMES: 10.00am -- 4.00pm
ADMISSION: Adults £9.00
[£7.00 for Gauge 0 Guild members on production of a valid membership card.]
All Wives / Partners & children under 14 are admitted Free.
The exhibition is held annually on the last Sunday in January. It is a mix of 70+ traders, up to 10 layouts & demonstrators giving advise on the required skills to fulfil your modelling requirements.
Once again this event supports the Children's Hospice South West charity, in 2019 the show and it's wonderful visitors were able to donate £1,200.00 to this cause so if you can please give generously again this year.
The following layouts have accepted our invitation to attend the 2020 exhibition.
Test Tracks from:-
West Wilts O Gauge Group
Weymouth MRC
Layouts confirmed:-
Thiswaye from Plymouth O Gauge Group.
Bridgwater [1904] from Trevor Gibson
The layout is set in the Edwardian period of 1904; with all the stock being kit or scratch built items representative of the glorious Prussian blue days of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The buildings and structures are accurate models of the prototypes, built from drawings and photographs and are scratch built from laser cut mdf and plastic. Operations are to a sequence representing, in compressed form, a typical days working on the branch during the golden age of the S&DJR.
Stodmarsh from Kevin Cartwright
Tony's Forest from Robin Edwards
Laramie Engine Terminal from Peter Kirmond.
Laramie Engine Terminal is an O Scale model railway layout depicting a part of the Union Pacific Engine Terminal at Laramie Wyoming as it was in the late 1950s.
In the hot summers of 1957 & 58, the Union Pacific’s Big Boys (amongst the largest steam locomotives ever built) were brought out of store for their final moment of glory pulling massive trains from the Californian fruit harvest east over Sherman Hill between Laramie and Cheyenne in Wyoming. This layout aims to capture what it was like fuelling, watering and turning these monster beasts for this 50 mile each way shuttle. The layout is built by Peter Kirmond (with a little occasional help from friends).
Potters Quay Foundry from Chris Bolton
Franklin from Bob Harper
Stodden Hundred Light Railway
1930's presented by Andrew Jones of Luton MRC. The Stodden Hundred Light Railway is a depiction of a rural railway on the borders of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, in the mid 1930s, just before everything changed with World War 2. Serving the market town of Kimbolton and the villages of Pertenhall and Swineshead, this is a branch off the main line which runs from the iron ore pits around Kettering to Great Barford near Sandy, where connections are made with the LNER and the LMS. Being an economically stretched railway, the SHLR had to make do with cast off locomotives and passenger coaches from the more major railways or industrial users.
GETTING HERE:
Nearest Railway Stations:
Filton Abbey Wood [0.63 miles]
Bristol Parkway [0.92 miles]
Patchway [2.01 miles]
Maps;
Please use the NORTH ENTRANCE, using the Coldharbour Lane entrance will take you into the main University complex which is ONE BIG 1 way system, and you will end back where you entered. Note that Car Parking on Sunday is Free.
THE ROBERT BURNS RAILTOUR
Saturday 25 January 2020
The anniversary of the birth of the renowned Scottish poet Robert Burns on 25 January 1759 is celebrated worldwide as Burns Night. Despite his short life of just 37 years, his evocative verses and heart rending songs like Auld Lang Syne earned him recognition as the greatest Scot of all time in a television survey in 2009. With Burns Night falling on a Saturday, it seems only right to dedicate an excursion train to the memory of the great man. So here is a ‘Winter Wonderland’ excursion designed to lift you out of the winter blues. Take a trip over the Pennine Hills where arguably the scenery is at its most dramatic in winter, complete with some snow on the hills (not guaranteed, but very probable!). At time of writing it's unclear if this is a Steam hauled trip or just a Diesel service, suspect the latter given the route past Stockport if we get more information will update.
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| Destination York |
Starting at Euston and calling at Watford, Milton Keynes and Northampton, our journey takes us via Stockport. Here we veer right, taking a route that was once an important passenger-carrying link towards Guide Bridge. Changes in the pattern of train services mean that this today is a freight line, with local stations enjoying (?) just a nominal service of one or two trains a week, retained to avoid the time-consuming and expensive closure procedure.
At Stalybridge the gradients begin as we experience views across the wild terrain for which the Pennine Hills are famous. Climbing past Diggle we reach the summit at Standedge and enter the West Riding of Yorkshire. The views continue through Slaithwaite to Huddersfield. We gaze out across the wasteland that was once the extensive Healey Mills marshalling yards before passing Wakefield Kirkgate and Castleford, reaching the great city of York at lunchtime.
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| YORK SEEN FROM THE AIR |
York is a destination that makes perfect sense at any time of year. Obviously the National Railway Museum (free of charge) is right next to the station, while on the opposite side the city walls, the Minster, the little shopping streets of the Shambles and plenty besides are just a few minutes’ walk away. A portrait of our immortal bard hangs outside the Burns Hotel, a welcoming little pub at 23 Market Street. You have around three and a half hours in York before rejoining the train for the homeward journey.
Our chefs have a passion for food with a Scottish twist. Dining guests will be served a full Scottish breakfast on the outward journey, with a similar theme running through the four course dinner. There will be haggis on offer (freshly caught of course) but this will be purely an option as we know that this is very much a matter of taste. Personally love it!
All timings are provisional and intended only as a guide.
| Station | Depart | Arrive |
|---|
| London Euston | 08.20 | 21.35 |
| Watford Junction | 08.40 | 21.10 |
| Milton Keynes Central | 09.10 | 20.35 |
| Northampton | 09.35 | 20.05 |
Starting in the quiet and sedate Churnet Valley line, each journey will explore Staffordshire’s hidden valley that interweaves with river and canal, before venturing deep into the Staffordshire Moorlands with spectacular views as far as the eye can see whilst the locomotives challenge one of the steepest gradients found on a railway in the UK. Fancy a bite to eat during your day out? Then enjoy the traditional atmosphere in our Signals Tea Room at Froghall Station, offering freshly brewed coffee, cooked breakfasts, hot and cold lunches, cream teas and a delicious selection of cakes. Signals Tea Room is wheelchair accessible and child-friendly. Our Moolander Kitchen car will be included on the train, serving both hot & cold light refreshments to all travellers onboard.
