April ~ you must be joking

Well supposed to be April but this morning's weather nearly scuppered plans for any trains running ~ certainly too chilly for the English varieties of Katie and Russell.



The van nearly lost in the snow!




And the railway on the far side of the pond buried!

Snowploughs ~ who needs one?

This edited clip is of our attempted running of one of Robin's engines after the snow fall earlier today. This is a model of a "Shay" logging engine which in real life would have been used in much rougher conditions than a genteel English back garden in early spring ~ not that Mother Nature seems to appreciate that thought! The engine manfully steamed around on its initial circuit until running into a little too much snow right in front of the camera. In the fuller version of the clip (unfortunately too large at nearly 2 minutes for downloading) the engine could then be seen to be struggling to break through ~ it was rocking in a quite alarming manner with vigorous wheel spin until the steam was turned down. After a little manual snow clearing the engine then steamed happily around ~ if it had been Thomas it may well have appeared to display a triumphant smirk at having vanquished nature.

Katie climbing over the bridge

This is Katie pulling wagons up the gradient and over the bridge in her home garden on the afternoon of Tuesday 23 October 2007.

Katie is a typical narrow gauge saddle tank locomotive design. Though not a model of any particular engine, she draws inspiration and features from a number of famous builders like Hunslet, Bagnall and Pecket etc.

Russell on the left blowing less steam than Katie ~ but we must not be sexist here!

This is picture of Russell and Katie both in steam.



And this is Katie pulling a small train of wagons

Russell through the cutting

Here's a view of Russell going through the cutting by the old patio.