Another great Open Day at Steamworks. This is Jack, visiting with his owner, impersonating the dog from the old His Master’s Voice advertisements (I think it was called Nipper). That is Oliver’s wind-up gramophone, of course, which is now a
What looks like a pile of rusty old steel is actually four very useful sets of points being delivered to Steamworks in Southwold, at the crack of dawn this morning. That’s Southwold Stationmaster Ian Overton above with the crane driver,
Ian controls the crowd at the BVLR station. Oliver drives while Robin rides shotgun (at the back). Note that authentic Southwold Railway fencing John Bennett 29th May, 2019
A record 252 visitors joined us on Bank Holiday Monday for our best day yet. The BVLR, thanks mainly to Oliver, Robin and Ian, performed brilliantly and the little Opel ran perfectly all day. Bob turned up with some more
That is Robin in there somewhere as Rosie is about to enter service on Saturday. That is the Opel behind. Ian is the Guard as Oliver takes the driving seat. Bags of the new anthracite coal on the right there.
Humpty Dumpty makes an appearance, thanks to John Barber, as an exhibit on the BVLR ride. Little Miss Muffet is also in the Bluebell Wood. Along with some bluebells! Linda and Keith painting the valance dags on the BVLR station
On a gloriously sunny Easter Saturday we were delighted that 172 visitors joined us at Steamworks. That is Oliver driving the Opel locomotive which ran splendidly all day on its new and much more suitable coal. The BVLR station canopy
The latest picture of the “Blyth” locomotive boiler with ready for its 58 tubes in the Darlington workshop of North Bay Railway Engineering Services. I confess I find it rather emotional watching this machine come back to life. Many thanks
A working Southwold Railway pocket watch just acquired. It is inscribed on the back “J.SMYTHE SOUTHWOLD RY”. That name does not appear in the list of station masters in the new book by Rob Shortland-Ball so I wonder if anyone
To Darlington then. Peter Southgate and I visited the North Bay Engineering workshop in this interesting town yesterday to see the work well under way on the boiler of Blyth, the 2-4-0 Sharp Stewart replica which will operate down at