Hi Keith

 More photos of mine for your perusal.The first 4 pictures were all taken inside the old Swindon Railway Museum on the
3rd July 1965.

Pic 1 - 3717 `City of Truro'. Which I worked on at Bridgnorth in 1984/5 to get it back into steam for Great Western 150 trips on 
            the main line.

Pic 2 - Dean Goods 2516.

Pic 3 - The cab of 2515 showing the very polished cab fittings.

Pic 4 - Display of the right hand motion of 4-cylinder locos, having taken down both sets of this motion in very cramped conditions
           underneath the boiler of a Castle I can say it is no easy matter.

The other 2 photos show me posing 53 years apart leaning on 14xx tanks. The first on 1466 at Totnes Quay branch on 30th June 1965
and the second on 1450 at Bridgnorth last Saturday 19th May boxed in by a class 50 on the left and Hagley Halls frames on the right.
I've tried to get this last pic a few times but 1450 was always down at Bewdley but has come to Bridgnorth for a wash-out. It now has 
been repainted during the Winter in GWR livery.

Hope these photos will be of use to you.      Cheers Geoff Matthews
​            They are indeed, thanks you very much Geoffery.

Yesterday and today saw the return of steam at the Helston Railway as part of their 1940s Weekend. Peckett 0-4-0ST "Kilmersdon" seen at Truthall Halt this afternoon in the sunshine.
​                                             Many thanks Mark.

I have been watching this for nearly a fortnight but have been holding back because there have been a few test trains and non-passenger workings on RTT that have been booked and with six different paths, cancelled or changed at the last minute, but this one is running!  A DRS operated managers inspection run covering the South and South West area this week with inspection coach 'Caroline' 975025 http://www.departmentals.com/photo/975025-5 and 37405.  The class 37 is on the London end of the formation:

Tuesday 29th May Bristol Temple Meads to Bristol Temple Meads via Penzance

http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/K96058/2018/05/29/advanced

Regards
Karl (Friends of Penmere Station). Many thanks for your observations Karl.

On Saturday 26th Merchant Navy class 35028 Clan Line visited the West Somerset Railway with a mainline trip by UK Railtours with the "Quantock Intruder" from Paddington to Minehead. The engine did not return to Paddington with the trip,but remains at Bishops Lydeard on the West Somerset Railway until Tuesday Before returning to Bristol. Today Sunday, Clan Line is on public viewing at Bishops Lydeard to look over and  to buy souvenirs for fundraising towards the engine.                                                                                       Clan Line will be visiting Cornwall for the first time with The Cornishman Express a mainline rail trip Bristol-Par on Sunday 17th June.
Regards.
John Simons .

A new episode as once again we join Colin and his bike as he follows the railway, as best possible, between Crediton and Barnstaple.  Click here and scroll down to see the latest and previous pictures.

Also try this link for more details of the river diversion.  

https://www.railengineer.uk/2018/01/09/a-short-story-of-a-railway-and-its-river/

​

A Ticket Machine will be soon installed on the up platform at Camborne Station, the foundations have been put in place with the site being fenced off at the moment, this is at the end of the station building.
So it will be no excuse for not having a ticket!  as heavy penalty fares are applicable over the national rail system.

Phil Hadley’s recent video of a walk along the remains of the Newham branch is very interesting for somebody like myself who can remember it when it was operational. I nearly choked on my tea when my photo of D6322 at Calenick Level Crossing popped up – my first-ever photo of a diesel locomotive and taken 50 years ago on 4th June! I have walked the line a few times in the past myself while it was still in use, usually while pushing my bike towards Penwithers Junction from this level crossing as it was on my cycling route from home to Truro. I never saw a train while doing this, and I don’t recall ever expecting one! I was aware of the line’s existence at a young age as the primary school I attended was located up the hill on the opposite side of Calenick Creek (and still is, only much enlarged since then). My years there - 1958 to 1964 – neatly covered the transition from steam to diesel traction, but whereas the presence of steam trains was very obvious the diesels sneaked past unnoticed. These were not necessarily always Class 22s – while Truro had a Class 08 yard pilot this could also be employed on the branch, as confirmed by the sighting of D4009 crossing the Arch Hill bridge over the A390 on its way back to Truro one morning in 1967.
 
The 1971 Truro area remodelling involved a simplification of the signalling and during the dismantling of the signals at Penwithers Junction a lamp got away from the workmen and ended up at the foot of the embankment where the Newham branch joined the Falmouth line. I found it lying there and still have it. I also recovered a cast iron sign from a long-abandoned occupation crossing gate not far from Penwithers Junction – since there was no sign of such a crossing on the line itself and little trace of a matching gate on the opposite side I felt it was fair game! Carrying that back along the line to Calenick flattened the saddle bag on my bike, but I got it home and 46 years later I still have that too, showing signs of restoration started in 1978 but never completed. One day…… Shortly after commencing his return walk along the trackbed Phil pauses to look at a gate post with an empty hinge attached – could this be the remains of the gate my sign was attached to? Decades of uncontrolled vegetation make it difficult to be sure but it’s on the right side of the line at around the right location…..
 
Having already owned up to the unauthorised use of a ganger’s trolley for a last trip along the line just before the rails were torn up, I have one other embarrassing story connected with a now track-less Calenick Level Crossing a few months later. During a visit to Truro station in late June 1972 a typical Cornish drizzle set in. I must have been expecting it as I was wearing a coat (wet Junes are nothing new!) This concerned me a little because whilst there my bike’s rear brake cable failed, so I made a mental note on the return journey to stop short of the top of the hill leading down to the level crossing and walk down. Unfortunately I misjudged the Cornish drizzle’s effect on my remaining brake and sailed over the top too quickly to get off. Rapidly gaining speed down the hill panic got a grip as I realised that using only the front brake would end in disaster and the stone wall at a sharp right in Calenick beyond the level crossing was likely to prove even worse for my sense of wellbeing! There was only one course of action – having cleared the level crossing in a blur (and not in continuous contact with the road) I steered left into a patch of stinging nettles and prayed for sufficient retardation to avoid a wipe-out! Luckily this worked, after a fashion – I hit a hidden rock, bike and rider parted company in mid-air and I landed on my back in the nettles a few yards short of the stone wall! Partly thanks to wearing that coat I suffered only a few bruises and stings but my bike was not so fortunate with a collapsed front wheel and severely bent pedal. Thankfully there were no witnesses to this near-catastrophe and I’ve rarely mentioned it to anybody……….!!
 
Neil Phillips  Thanks for the memory and we're so glad you survived.
     For Phil Hadleys video click here Newham Branch Line Pt 1