High Tide at Humberston

This photo appeared in my cloud storage 'memories' feed this morning, taken on Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May 2008. We were staying at the Haven site at Cleethorpes and I had caught the last CCLR train of the day to Humberston North Sea Lane to return to the caravan. To my surprise on heading through the flood gates at the top of the bank the tide was fully in and the far side of the Humber estuary was invisible, giving a surreal effect of being somewhere else completely.

(Click on the image for a larger version)

This has remained one of my favourite Cleethorpes images, in fact in 2020 a version appeared over my desk as a reminder of better days. It is still there now, a reminder of a stretch of railway that is currently out of use and the hope that it will see trains again one day.

Colin

Back to the Drawing Board

Don't worry, I'm not about to scrap another layout project! 'Back to the Drawing Board' was the theme of the 2024 Friends of the Kirklees Light Railway gala, themed around comics and cartoons.

I arrived at Clayton West station on the Sunday in time for the 11.00 departure, with visiting locomotive 'Muffin' from the Lappa Valley Railway preparing to pilot KLR-based 'Sian'. 'Muffin' was designed by David Curwen and built by Berwyn Engineering in 1967 for Longleat, transferring to the LVR in 1976. Along with 'Dougal' she was briefly associated with Les Anderson's Axe and Lym Valley railway in 1974.

Returning on the same train from Shelley was another double-header of LVR 'Zebedee' and home loco 'Fox', two contrasting red tank locomotives. 'Zebedee' then paired up with 'Muffin' to work a shuttle to Skelmanthorpe so I couldn't resist the opportunity to travel behind the pair of them. 'Zebedee' was built by Severn Lamb to David Curwen's design in 1974, following the same outline as the aforementioned 'Dougal' as an 0-6-2T. In 1991 the cab was extended during an overhaul and she became a 0-6-4T with a very plain looking rear bogie.

There were a few issues getting the brakes set up for the shuttle service and on arrival at Cuckoo's Nest halt it was announced the train would terminate short there. Several passengers, including a contingent from Cleethorpes, jumped over to the passing train back to Clayton West, those who waited were rewarded with a change of plan and a spirited run to Skelmanthorpe after all. The Lappa Valley have a slightly smaller stone arched bridge over their line, also built on a standard gauge trackbed.

Back at Clayton West my next run was a full return trip with a locomotive that needed no further introduction, 'Bonnie Dundee' from the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. In case you are wondering, she was representing the publishers of the several popular comics! For this trip we were honoured with a genuine Scottish driver in the form of John Kerr, who seemed very happy with her performance. Given that the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway were inspired by 'Katie' and 'Sian' during the conversion of 'Bonnie Dundee', even in tank locomotive form, it is no real surprise that she performed so well.

To finish, a view of the 7 1/4" gauge line at Clayton West, where 'Ivor' was visiting from the Pugney's Light Railway. I thought this view was quite modelable, possibly using the station canopy in the form of a half-station and hidden exit to the fiddle yard... 

Colin
 

To Caistor and Cleethorpes

I thought some railway content on the blog was in order after a few weeks of  Doctor Who. On Sunday, with clear skies after the stormy weather of the previous days, I headed across Lincolnshire to Caistor for the annual model railway exhibition. Despite many flooded fields I found that the roads were largely clear, the only bit of surface water encountered being a big pool on the A46 (although I discovered on my return home that the outgoing route I had taken via Bawtry was now closed due to flooding).  

Town hall shows can bring a mixed variety of layouts, the highlight for me being Paul Windle's 'High Stamley', an atmospheric 009 layout placing the railway in the landscape in a relatively small space. It also runs very well to a pattern that the operators know and provides movement most of the time, including on the road. There's also a very large dog from a popular animation hiding in a corner!

Further narrow gauge interest was 'Welton Park', the O9 layout from the Market Deeping club that was at Narrow Gauge Now back in July. On the standard gauge front two layouts representing the BR blue era caught my attention, 'Boston Frodsham' and Ken Gibbon's 'Lapford Road', which I hadn't seen for a  few years. What was noticeable here was that with a few exceptions most of the stock was of an older generation sensibly detailed up, including Triang-Hornby Mk2 coaches, an Airfix class 31 and Airfix kit brake vans. Other layouts were full of the latest toys but perhaps lacked the consistency across the board.

It is not a huge show and after an hour and a half, (and a small expenditure on some narrow gauge items from a trader) I opted to head the relatively short hop to the coast to Cleethorpes to call in on the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway. The Guest 0-6-0DM 'Rachel' was in charge, and do not worry, giant spiders have not attacked her, she was dressed up for the Halloween season. After a train ride and some lunch I walked up the floodgate to get a couple of photographs.

To be pedantic you are beside the Humber estuary at this point and the actual sea is tantalisingly in the distance, so as the weather was so nice I walked up the marine embankment to a point just past the currently disused CCLR Humberston station, from where I could see the sea, Spurn Point and both of the Humber forts. Ironically exactly a year ago to the day we had stayed in a caravan just here and I had watched and photographed the sunrise from the balcony. I regretted not having my "proper" camera with me on this visit, but the picture below from my phone has turned out reasonably well.

(Click for larger version)

The days that followed have turned to much less pleasant weather and the brief trip to the coast has allowed the longer days of summer to stay fresh in my mind for a little longer. As the nights draw in and the clocks go back I tend to find that these memories help. What will also help is working out what the next modelling project will be, that may take a little longer but don't be surprised if an influence from Caistor creeps in...

Colin

'Monty' - a Familiar Exmoor

The active visiting locomotive at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway's 75th Anniversary gala was Exmoor Steam Railway built 0-4-2T 'Monty' from the Evesham Vale Light Railway. Smartly turned out in maroon you could easily be fooled into thinking that this well maintained machine had left the Exmoor works looking like this when first built.

But 'Monty' is in fact a very much rebuilt 'Markeaton Lady', built in 1996 for the much-missed Markeaton Park Light Railway in Derby. Under the ownership of John Bull the loco looked very different, especially as over the years she gained a lovely patina of a working locomotive, a huge contrast to the polished, if sometimes a little wet, appearance she presented at Cleethorpes on Sunday.

The photo above was taken in 2008, and I think was possibly the last time I saw 'Markeaton Lady' in use at Derby. The railway was a handy stop-off when visiting 7mm Narrow Gauge Association events in Mickleover and Burton-upon-Trent, usually a quick visit for a return trip on the way home. The blue Exmoor locomotive clearly had an effect on me, as my own O9 Exmoor model took on the front-end appearance and the colour influence, despite being an 0-6-2T.

Before I built my Exmoor ('St. Edwin') I had originally contemplated an 0-4-2T version on a Minitrains outside-framed chassis. The picture above neatly illustrates why this would not necessarily have worked, as the vertical Minitrains motor would actually be too far forward to fit in the cab. The dimensions could have been juggled a little but as I didn't actually have the chassis at that time it was all rather academic and the 0-6-2T version on an inside framed Bachmann chassis was the result.

The new run-around loop at the CCLR's Lakeside station offers a few new photographic opportunities, I was actually sat on the train taking this photo of the loco approaching the train to take out the next working to Kingsway. Having a loop here makes all the difference to day-to-day operations for the railway by removing the need to top-and-tail workings and just making things much more railway-like for observers such as myself...

The track re-laid last year through the floodgate and up to the first foot crossing is still looking in excellent condition as we see 'Monty' heading out through the gate and onto the coastal stretch of the line. It was remarked during the day that you cannot see as much of the coast as you once could along here, growth in the protected area of the old dunes has restricted this somewhat but there are a few breaks in the vegetation where the water can be seen. From the elevated point on the flood defences you can see a lot more and watching passing ships in the estuary passes time between trains.

The photographs in this entry have not been presented in the order they were taken, in fact the first picture was later in the day when the rain had started. The contrast in weather to this shot is marked, this was before lunch and was one of those moments where due to the lighting conditions the camera on my phone actually produced a better balanced image than my camera. But the weather did not affect my day at the CCLR, even if it did try to interrupt the official proceedings with a storm the day before!

Update: I have now uploaded a larger selection of images at higher resolution to Flickr: Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway Gala 2023

Colin

Cleethorpes Coast at 75

The Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway celebrated 75 years of miniature railways at the south end of the resort over the weekend of July 15th and 16th. Although the 1948 railway was on a different alignment it is regarded as the first incarnation of the present railway for continuity purposes. It is quite a story of private and public ownership, steam, electric and gas-hydraulic propulsion over the years.

To tell this story a new exhibition has opened at Lakeside station telling the story in words, pictures, video and exhibits. A very familiar feature is this mock ticket hut that was constructed for the 'Rails to the Sands' exhibition back in 2010 to the design of Tim Dunn, although yet to feature on his 'Architecture the Railways Built" TV show! You could walk through it in it's previous location, but it now has a very effective background picture depicting the electric age at Cleethorpes in the mid-20th century. This should prove a good 'photo op' for families and children.

Two miniature steam locomotives feature in the display, and will remain on site for the summer season. The first is the locomotive that started it all - the GNR Atlantic that ran in 1948. Remarkably cine film footage of the original line has emerged and is on show, revealing it was painted red (!) Now re-gauged from 9 1/2" to 10 1/4" gauge it is restored in GNR colours.

The first locomotive built specifically for Cleethorpes was the Dove Pacific 'Cleethorpes Flyer'. Certainly not a fine scale machine in engineering or appearance it was based on an LNER Peppercorn outline, but was transformed in later years to depict a British Railways 'Britannia' class locomotive 'Rob Roy' and is usually based at the Eastleigh Lakeside Railway. It has been reunited with an original nameplate for display.

In 1954 the Cleethorpes Miniature Railway was electrified with the arrival of three accumulator powered locomotives with a modern outline. All are now scrapped, but a fourth identical machine was sold to Kerrs Miniature Railway in Arbroath and survived for a longer time before it too was scrapped. Imagine the surprise when the CCLR's owners discovered the cab end on an auction site! John Kerr is co-owner of the CCLR so this is a nice bit of history linking both lines.

On display outside was a 15" gauge visitor depicting an earlier era of seaside miniature railway history was Bassett Lowke 15 'Prince Edward of Wales' visiting from the Rhyl Miniature Railway. It shouldn't be forgotten that rival Lincolnshire resort Skegness boasted a railway operated by a sister locomotive in the early part of last century. It had been planned to run this machine however there were various concerns regarding flange clearances and haulage power so it joined the display of locomotives at Lakeside including CCLR past ('Flower of the Forest') and future in the form of the RVM blue diesel.

Another visitor was running on the main line, in the form of Exmoor Steam Railway built 'Monty' from the Evesham Vale Light Railway. I was familiar with this from a previous life as 'Markeaton Lady' and we will take a closer look at this delightful machine in a future post. As always with these events I tried a few favourite locations for lineside pictures and a few new angles too...

To celebrate the anniversary the CCLR shops are stocked with new designs of postcards, fridge magnets and other merchandise, whilst the Signal Box Inn had a specially brewed CCLR Golden Ale on tap.

Update: I have now uploaded a larger selection of images at higher resolution to Flickr: Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway Gala 2023

Colin

A New 15" Gauge Seaside Locomotive

An interesting new prototype for an O9 model was revealed at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway today, on the 73rd anniversary of opening of the first miniature railway at the site.

This brand new 15" gauge diesel locomotive has been specially built by RVM Engineering of Hastings and has seemingly evaded the camera of visitors to the Hastings Miniature Railway for some time (yes, I've been searching...). I'm sure Hastings will be glad to get the shed space back! 

Photo: CCLR

At first glance it screams out to be modelled in O9 using a Farish '08' chassis, I aim to get confirmation of dimensions to see how feasible this would be. Even a version on a Kato chassis wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination...

I have been aware of this build for a while, largely through a CCLR Director making a comment that my MG Models 'Classic' diesel looked rather like something else they knew of. You can see the resemblance in the lines of this new design around the bonnet and cab front windows.

Clearly like model locomotives the choice of coupling is to be determined by the purchaser and they have no doubt got an order in with a lifesize Narrow Planet for nameplates!

Colin

120 not out - Bonnie Dundee's 3rd Innings

Some positive news from the east coast, this time from the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway, who announced on Monday: 

"Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway are proud to announce the arrival today of historic locomotive ‘Bonnie Dundee’ after a complete overhaul. On long term loan to Cleethorpes from the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway Co. Ltd, ‘Bonnie Dundee’ was built by Kerr Stuart in 1901 to operate at the Dundee Gasworks.

Rescued by preservationist Ian Fraser in the 1960s, the locomotive spent many years operating at Ravenglass before being taken out of use requiring extensive repairs. After negotiations between the two parties, a deal was drawn up that in return for the long term loan, CCLR would fully fund the overhaul of the locomotive. This has been undertaken by John Fowler Engineering of Bouth."

Given a tip-off that steam would be raised on Friday 30th April I re-arranged my working week and headed for the coast. The forecast was for showers... 

A superb job has been achieved by John Fowler Engineering, gone are is the somewhat "agricultural" valve gear that was there pre-rebuild and the paint finish is almost shiny enough to see your face in. Not bad for 120 years old...

I was invited to observe a test run to Kingsway and back, the power of the loco was apparent, whilst not up to full 'Ratty' strength there is certainly enough power for anything the CCLR will need, although a run up the bank on the Humberston extension (still sadly out of use at present) will be an interesting experience.

Light engine runs over, it was agreed that the next passenger departure would be steam hauled, with engineering staff observing from the train. So a few lucky members of the public got to ride the first public passenger train 'Bonnie Dundee' has hauled in may years. DA1 was included at the Lakeside end of the train in order to allow the train locomotive to be released at Lakeside loop, with DA1 drawing the train into the platform, a consequence of not running through to Humberston.

With the loco off on a second round trip I headed to the floodbank to get some shots at the lineside, it was really interesting to watch the reaction of the public on the adjacent footpath to steam being in use on a Friday afternoon.

The final turns of the day were made top-and-tail with ex-Fairbourne Railway 'Rachel', which replaced DA1 at the Lakeside end of the train, 'Bonnie Dundee' shunted DA1 into the yard and then joined the Kingsway end of the train. 

Having watched another journey depart and return, I realised that it was time to head home. I took quite a few photos, the full album is in Flickr - Bonnie Dundee Returns! You may have noticed that the weather held out, it was a real shame not to be able to enjoy a pint in the Signal Box Inn, but that can wait for another day. I didn't see any rainfall until I was reaching the top of the Wolds on my way home and then a deluge as I crossed back into Nottinghamshire.

Colin

Without a Loop

Unable to run to Humberston station this season the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway has been operating a half-line service between Kingsway and Lakeside stations. At Lakeside a problem presents itself as the through platform (3) has no loop and the former terminus platforms (1 and 2) have lost theirs. A pattern of operating has been developed that avoids reversing empty stock or shunt-release.

On Monday 28th October, in bright, low, light I was able to record the sequence using the LNER O4 2-8-0 and the ex Bush Mill Railway 'DA1'. Here the O4 approaches Lakeside station entering the passing loop.

The train draws to a halt before the point that splits the line between platform3 (where DA1 is waiting) and platform 1 on the right.

The guard uncouples the locomotive from the train.

The O4 draws forward into platform 1 as the guard prepares to change the point to allow DA1 to move onto the train.

The guard signals to the driver of DA1 as it moves towards the train.

DA1 draws the train forward into platform 3 to terminate.

With the train in platform 3 the O4 backs out of platform 1 and moves forward onto the train.

The train is now ready to depart back to Kingsway. After departure DA1 will be moved back up the platform to repeat the sequence for the next arrival.

I do like to record these movements in the hope that at some point it will prove inspirational to a layout project, almost anything is possible!

Colin

Exmoor on the East Coast

Just before I packed away the 'Beck Bridge' diorama at its recent showing I posed my Exmoor tank 'St Edwin' on it an took this snap...

The next day I headed coastwards to Cleethorpes where the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway was playing host to two Exmoor locomotives. The first, 'Sandy', a blue 0-6-0T from the private Wotton Light Railway was doing a very good impression of what my model would look like in reality...

The second was the familiar 0-4-0T+T 'St Egwin' from Evesham Vale, looking really at home on the seaside line.

The day culminated in a triple-headed journey over the presently closed extension to Humberston, running with the blessing of the railway inspector over a level crossing with non-functioning lights with the road closed to traffic by flagmen.

There are a few more photos in my Flickr collection. I've also just found a good video from the Saturday on Youtube.

Colin

Flower of the Forest - at last!

It is 13 years since I completed my first 'scale' locomotive in O9, constructed from drawings  of the Ravenglass-built tram locomotive 'Flower of the Forest'. These were published in the only copy of the 'Ratty Modeller' newsletter I ever got my hands on, obtained when Owen Ryder exhibited his 'Boot' layout at Wakefield many moons ago. It's all his fault...

Construction and finishing are covered here - the basic finish was all I felt I could achieve at the time and the name 'Cumbria' chosen as I had the plates and it seemed appropriate. As I reached one of those round number birthdays this year I decided to investigate what might be possible to commission re-finishing the loco to more closely resemble the real thing.

She arrived back on shed at Shifting Sands this morning, seen here raising steam with 'St Edwin'.

The model has been expertly re-finished by James Hilton Custom Model Railways with the green repainted to a more appropriate shade, and custom lettering on the sides and "smokebox" end.

I chose James for this work as I needed someone who could not only refinish the locomotive in the desired colour, but also to create the artwork for the lettering and plates as a one-stop shop. James took great care working from my reference photographs to get the lettering to look right, especially as the real thing is hand-lettered to no standard font.

Whilst the etched plates are not legible they do have the correct pattern of lettering, the real locomotive is dedicated to the memory of Ian Fraser, the Ratty supporter who commissioned the real locomotive to run in his garden.

Having the model in this condition is a great reminder of the time the real thing spent running at Cleethorpes, and the influence it must have had on Shifting Sands!

Some readers may be wondering why I chose to take the unusual (for me) step of contracting this work out. Well, my own time is presently quite limited and quite frankly I decided to treat myself!

I'm really pleased with the outcome and can recommend the service James provides, even working around existing paint finishes and details is no obstacle....

Colin

Cleethorpes Coast Celebrates at 70

As mentioned in my previous post 'Shifting Sands' attended the 70th anniversary weekend of the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway over the weekend of 14th and 15th July. This turned out to be a very enjoyable weekend indeed, aided by the visiting locomotives, frequent service and other attractions.

Star attractions were of course Katie and Sian, I was lucky enough to persuade the driver of Katie to line them up for a shot at Kingsway on the Sunday morning.

Alongside 'Shifting Sands' in the Griffin Hall building were displays from the local model engineers, G scale models and two narrow gauge layouts that were great examples of small space modelling. Firstly, in 009, was 'Dolwyn', based on the Glyn Valley Tramway and featuring some superb scratchbuilt structures based on examples in the locality.

(Photo courtesy Billy Hanner)

In O-16.5 'B.A. Cookes Engineering' was a busy industrial scene featuring a little standard gauge action alongside the narrow gauge. The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association was being well promoted too.

(Photo courtesy Billy Hanner)

I will admit to lurking by 'Shifting Sands' and listening to comments from viewers, I suppose it would have been nice to have operated it but the logistics might have proved difficult, as would keeping the right balance between playing trains and family time. I did however pose for a photo....

The eagle-eyed will see that the backscene is almost at the back of the glass case, in actual fact the fiddle yard was sticking out of the back of the cabinet and the back was actually a specially installed bespoke piece of hardboard in place of the usual glass doors. Fitting it all took a bit of pre-planning and creation of some adaptor pieces, taking it all apart again only took a few minutes!

I have uploaded my pictures from the weekend to Flickr here, my thanks to Billy Hanner for the pictures of the model railway layouts as I seemingly forgot to take any.

Colin