Light and Narrow Gauge Railways

What’s this? No posts for 4 years, then 2 in one day? A bit like buses 2 come along at once.

Which is the reason for this post. Besides the interest in railways, I also have a passion for old buses, particularly those of the former Ribble Motor Services of my home town of Preston. (Long since subsumed into the horror that is Stagecoach Buses – highway robbers if there ever were).

Both of my parents worked for Ribble from around 1947 to 1979 in my dad’s case, although mum left when I was born, some years before that. I have a soft spot for the original Ribble company and I am just about old enough to remember the old red & ivory livery, before the National Bus Company Poppy Red came in around 1969/70.

I am not the only one who holds fond memories of Ribble Motors and some enthusiasts have saved some of their historic vehicles to be enjoyed by current and future generations. Every so often there is a running day, sometimes in conjunction with the British Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland.

Based in part of the old Leyland Vehicles works, that was the origin of many of Ribble’s buses, who were loyal customers of Leyland for many years.

One such event took place in Leyland over the August Bank holiday, and while I have published the pictures over on RMWeb, I haven’t shown any of them on here.

This is outside the BCVM in Leyland, it’s Ribble 1568, a 1936 Leyland Cheetah with Brush bodywork. Almost 90 years old, it shows the beautiful lines of a classic bus of that era.

More pictures and words over on RMWeb https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/122692-for-those-interested-in-old-buses-and-coaches/?do=findComment&comment=5927794

The last post on here was almost 4 years ago and related to a trip to the Severn Valley Railway headquarters for the 5.5MM Association AGM.

While I haven’t been to every one since 2021 (it has clashed with other exhibitions in some years), I did make it this year, and have come away with a renewed sense of purpose to create and document more of my work in this scale.

Unlike in previous years, I chose to drive to Kidderminster this year. Since the West Coast route franchise moved from Virgin Trains to Avanti West Coast, the service has deteriorated to the point where it can no longer be relied upon, not to mention it is now almost impossible to book advanced tickets until about a week before your intended travel date. And in addition it is actually cheaper in terms of fuel used to drive than to travel by train, much though I would prefer to do so.

Unless government gets a proper grip on the privatised train operating companies (unlikely under the present government), I’m afraid it looks like most of my long distance travel will be by car in future.

Avanti West Coast is now known as Avanti Worst Case Scenario in this house at least.

IN chaos theory, the butterfly effect proposes that a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon can cause storms in Texas, in other words, something seemingly insignificant can have a knock on effect apparently unrelated to it.

I made a trip to Kidderminster on Saturday to the AGM of the 5.5mm Association, a very pleasant day out with like minded friends. The train journey there was uneventful, but the journey back home after the meeting became an increasingly bizarre series of events.

The journey from Kidderminster to Wigan involved two changes, at Smethwick Galton Bridge, and at Wolverhampton. It was supposed to be West Midlands Railway for the first two trips as far as Wolverhampton, then Avanti West Coast from there to Wigan.

As I am sure you have realised by now, it didn’t work out like that.

I missed the train I was supposed to catch from Kidderminster, and ended up on one 15 minutes later. This meant I missed the connection at Smethwick Galton Bridge by about 3 minutes. Rather than wait for the West Midlands Railway service an hour later, I caught a Transport for Wales train to Wolverhampton.

The Avanti West Coast train from Wolverhampton to Glasgow (via Wigan) was delayed, so I decided to catch the next Cross Country train to Manchester Piccadilly, then a Northern train back to Wigan. I used to commute regularly into Manchester Piccadilly, so I know the route well.

Upon arrival at Manchester Piccadilly, I discovered there were no direct trains to Wigan for at least an hour, so knowing there were connections at Salford Crescent for Wigan, I caught the next train there.

Salford Crescent to Wigan services are provided by Southport trains (via Bolton) and Kirkby trains (via Atherton). The first train due was a Southport service. This is where things started to get even more bizarre. There was a power cut at Bolton station, so while the trains could run through, it obviously wasn’t safe to let passengers out at a station in total darkness. In fairness to Northern, they had laid on replacement buses from Salford Crescent to Bolton.

I was looking out of the window as we passed through Bolton, and I can confirm the station was invisible from the train.

Arriving at Wigan I made my way to bus station for the bus home. The local council had decided in its infinite wisdom, to start roadworks on the Ring Road, which is a dual carriageway. Despite its name, it actually runs through the centre of the town. This has caused some bus services to be diverted in the town centre. Add in a replacement bus driver unfamiliar with the roadworks and it was recipe for a very strange journey home.

Leaving the bus station by the diverted route, he reached the junction with the Ring Road where he should have gone straight across to pick up the bus’ normal route. Instead he turned right, intending I think to take next left off the Ring Road, which is the way he would have gone if we had been on the normal route. Needless to say, he couldn’t turn left because of the roadworks and after much cursing he did a U turn at the next lights on the dual carriageway before joining the one way system and crossing the Ring Road where he should have done if he had been on the normal route.

From being 15 minutes late out of Kidderminster, I finally got home 2 hours after I should have done, hence the link to chaos theory!

Thanks for joining me!

Welcome to this, my new blog

I have for many years now (nearly 50 years!) built model railways, mostly but not exclusively UK outline. During that time I have been drawn to model those railways which could be said to be on the fringes of the railway world.

Narrow gauge lines struggling to survive; light railway lines half buried in grass, running occasional trains through remote locations; industrial railways serving vital industries, but now mostly gone and returned to nature; American short lines eking out an existence on the remnants of a once proud but now fallen flag. In short, the quirky, the unusual, lines with character.

Not for me the big shiny express locomotive with 12 coach train, I have nowhere to run such huge trains, plus to me they look faintly ridiculous charging around trainset curves. Not to mention that such trains usually comprise models straight out of the box, without any attempt to weather, or to personalise them in any way. Whilst they may give their owners pleasure (& to each his own) I’m afraid such models just leave me cold.