Friday, March 29, 2024
Easter engineering works
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Spring repairs and updates
Last year saw some relatively minor (if awkward) repairs under Birkenhof station while the General Manager continued to ignore the subsidence further along the line. This year, that will be addressed, and some materials have already arrived with more in the supply chain pipeline.
Already, the green edges to the long viaduct have been removed. One particular decking board is suffering from extensive rot, but while I'm in there I shall probably replace the lot and drive in at least one new support as one has rotted away.
There are sundry smaller areas of rotting timber, of which this is probably the most serious. The decayed timber has now been removed, and will be replaced with plastic in the near future.Saturday, January 06, 2024
Winter operations
Last year was a poor year for running trains on the H&DLR. During the autumn and early part of the winter, predations by the blackbirds (mainly) have uprooted four platform benches, broken two lamps, demolished a building at Holzapfel, dislodged the scenic items in the loco siding at Birkenhof and thrown all the accumulated moss all over the track, and scraped all the earth down the bank onto the track. There's no immediate prospect of trains running all the way round. Apart from that, everything is hunky dory...
There was definitely another building and a platform bench here last year.Well, the lamp at least still works.
Moss liberally strewn around the railway.
I don't think this lamp will work again, which is a shame because it's a very nice lamp (and it wasn't a cheap one, either).
There's a railway under there somewhere.
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Summer running
Well, this report starts with yet more track repairs to try and improve connectivity through a key set of points.
399.03 has been out and about.
The substantial rebuild that saw an LGB motor block fitted under the tender seems to have worked out well as the loco sees more use than ever before.
The Stainz have been running on the Steiermärkische Landesbahn set...
And for the first time in a couple of years, Pearse Europa class live steamer "Camusterrach Pier" came out to play.
And no, neither "Camusterrach Pier" nor the Stainz were running as fast as these photos suggest!
Saturday, July 15, 2023
A slow summer...
It seems to have been a slow summer with few running sessions. Urgent repairs haven't helped, and indeed the repairs described in the previous post were only fully completed a week ago. Some little wedges intended, I think, for use laying tiles have been repurposed to level the track along the outer loop at Birkenhof.
Thursday, June 15, 2023
Urgent track works
Sunday, April 02, 2023
Sunday, March 19, 2023
New year, new loco...
Probably the longest period ever on the H&DLR with neither a post nor indeed any trains moving. It seems to have been a long winter; normally that doesn't stop the trains, but this time it has. In better news, track cleaning and repairs have started.
Blackbirds and no doubt other creatures have been scraping back the earth on the bank in search of food, with the consequence that the track has literally disappeared in some places.But in an encouragement to press forwards, a locomotive ordered 15 months ago has finally arrived.
It's a model of the East German V 10C locomotive, built in large numbers for industrial railways in a variety of gauges. Märklin have just released the outside frame version, in the blue livery of the Mansfelder Bergwerksbahn.
Saturday, July 23, 2022
The VIIk arrives...
A little later than planned, an LGB model of the Saxon "VIIk" or, to be more accurate, class 99.73-76 2-10-2 steam locomotive has arrived on the H&DLR.
In common with other Saxon narrow gauge models on the H&DLR, it will shortly receive etched nickel silver number plates and associated shed and operator plates.Friday, May 13, 2022
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Tuesday, February 08, 2022
French narrow gauge
Continuing the French narrow gauge theme, a tramway locomotive recently arrived on the H&DLR. Now these have a simple 0-4-0 chassis, with pickup skates, which is similar to the Stainz chassis. Experience suggests that on the H&DLR's track, short wheelbase locomotives can struggle to maintain pickup, especially through the older LGB R3 pointwork.
As the locomotive has a lighting connection on the rear, this can be used to feed power in, for example from a pickup van. A number of pickup vans already exist on the railway, but one suited to the operation of the Tramways des Deux Sèvres train seemed in order.
The newly arrived Côtes du Nord van has been modified with pickup wheels and a socket to provide this for the tram.Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Down another rabbit hole...
This time, French metre gauge railways. The H&DLR has owned a Corpet-Louvet 0-6-0 for some 20 years, and over that time it has been a useful engine. Latterly, being battery powered, it has tended only to come out in winter when the track is too grimy to run track powered trains. During a recent battery powered operating session, the lack of genuinely appropriate rolling stock became rather too apparent.
But with Christmas on the horizon, and some relatively recent LGB models of French prototypes still available, this was soon rectified.
Sunday, December 05, 2021
Winter services
The battery fleet is a backup for those days when the track is too wet and/or dirty for track power to run.
However, previous cleaning activities meant that once some of the lineside vegetation had been cleared, track powered trains were able to run.
The last train of the day always calls at all stations, and is often the railbus. It's seen here pausing at Holzapfel for the final customers of the day.