Kite Flying Weekend and Model Railway Weekend

Kite Flying

The Kite Flying weekend was a quiet affair.  It appears that in the same way that railways can have the "wrong sort of snow" or the "wrong sort of leaves" then kite flyers can have the "wrong sort of wind".  They lost one kite (it broke a 200lb line!) and ended up high in a tree!

As far as the railway went we had the grand total of around 40 passengers.  However it did give us a chance to steam Shirley (who hadn't been used for a month) and Lady Mari Jacqueline who had just had her leaking backhead repaired and this was her first outing since that repair.  For both engines all was well.  I had commissioned the  Miniature Warning Lights a few days previously so it gave me a chance to see how reliable the track circuits were.  All was satisfactory with reliable operation every time.

A quiet day, but a very satisfying day.  Quite different to teh Model Railway Weekend!

Model Railway Weekend 2006

Over this weekend the Westinghouse Model Railway Society organise a Model Railway Show in the Wiltshire College Lackham Sports Hall.  This is about 1/4 mile away from the LM&WR so signage is important.  (Mind you the college also organises tractor rides that can stop close to the railway......)

After Spring Lambing, this is normally the second busiest event in the LM&WR programme. We plan to have two trains in steam for most of the day and usually they are both running reasonably full.  Also at this weekend we brought into use a two aspect intermediate "headway" signal that we use to split the track into two.  It is fully automatic and relies on the operation of track circuits by the station Home signal (a 3 aspect colour light).

As "Person in Charge" I take Stumpy round to check the condition of the track.  With this new signal testing is very simple!  On power up the intermediate will be at Red.  On the first circuit I take Stumpy round very slowly and I observe the intermediate at RED.  As I am the only train on the circuit I authorise myself to pass it at red!  I complete the circuit and on the second time around, having now operated the Home signal track circuits in the correct order (berth track clear, replacing track occupied - meaning that any train is fully past the signal) I observe the intermediate signal at GREEN.  Also as Stumpy's driving position is set some way back from the leading wheels, I can also observe the intermediate replace to RED.

The two days were relatively uneventful, I only had to remove Lady Mari Jacqueline's injector twice.  The first time was early  on the scond day to remove some wildlife that found it a warm place to kip!  Teh second time I could find nothing wrong, but once having removed it, then replaced it, it worked without problem for the next 6 hours!

We gave around 600 rides over the two days and after having tightened up one track circuit connection, both the intermediate signal and Miniature Warning Lights performed faultlessly all day!

We had a couple of slower periods and in that time Paul took the opportunity to familiarise Tim (a new recruit) with Shirley and Lady Mari Jacqueline.  We also had one train with the youngest driver (my son Robert at 16yrs 3 months) and our youngest passenger (Toby at 8 weeks)

These latter two events are recorded in the picture gallery.  Click here for the pictures.

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