This was formerly the blog of The Sandwell Valley Railway which was a G Scale garden railway in West Bromwich, England. I now live in Bromsgrove and I'm building a new garden railway, The Wychbold and Stoke Prior Railway.
The Wychbold and Stoke Prior Railway has been closed for essential track maintenance.
Around two years ago I ballasted part of the mainline. IMHO it looked pretty good.
However, the mainline was rapidly disappearing under a blanket of moss and weeds.
The only way to get back control is to take up the ballast and the track.
Needless to say, the filming of Thomas' next adventure is currently on hold.
"The trains all come through the middle of the house since the company bought the land."
I remembered the song from my childhood and thought what a good video I could make using it as the soundtrack.
Firstly I needed to make a suitable house. The size of the house was dictated by the size of the tunnel needed for the trains to pass through.
Making the house took the best part of a month, although I did take a holiday in the middle of construction. Filming took 4 days and editing another 2.
Here's the finished film.
This is the third film featuring Devious Diesel's shenanigans since he arrived on the railway.
Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends have been quite busy over the last few months filming another garden railway adventure.
Here's a short promotional video for the film which will be uploaded to YouTube on 11th June.
In preparation for filming Diesel Saves The Day, I have refurbished the Saltworks Sidings area of the railway.
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| Preparation |
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| Re-painted |
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| Sir Topham Hatt's Paint Store has been repaired |
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| The Right-hand side of the garden |
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| All yards need some rusty wheel-sets |
For my gabions I used 6mm galvanised welded mesh. A 600 x 900mm sheet can be purchased from Wickes for £5.50. This is enough to make 20 gabions.
My finished gabions measure roughly 107 x 40 x 33mm which in G Scale equates to gabions measuring approximately 8 feet wide by 2 feet 6 inches tall and 3 feet depth. I've no idea of the sizes of real gabions but these look about right to me.
My G Scale gabion wall is, at long last, finished.
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| The finished wall. |
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| Under construction. |
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| A close-up. |
Overnight it had rained heavily and in the morning some of the railway was flooded again.
However, in the afternoon the sun broke through and I couldn't resist running a train.
I've made a start on the most urgent jobs that need to be completed before I can begin filming Thomas' next adventure.
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On the mainline the crumbling concrete has been broken up and it's now shuttered ready for re-concreting.
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| The trackbed has been prepared for the siding at Brookside Station. |
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| I've taken an angle grinder to the planter and this is what the low stone walls will look like. I now just need to make the mould and get casting. |
It's approaching the 2024 operating season for the Wychbold and Stoke Prior Railway (WASPRly) and there are lots of jobs that need to be done before trains can be run.
I've made a list of jobs around the railway that I would like to complete this year.
This was one of the first bits of the railway to be constructed in 2020. I didn't put enough cement in the concrete mix and it has started to crumble, not to mention the excessive moss growth.
I intend to replace this with a cut-down paving slab.
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| Main Line |
Last year I eased the curve and concreted the footings. This year I aim to make the embankment. I will be constructing it from broken slabs.
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| Missing Embankment |
This is Brookside Station in the middle of the branch line. The siding will be completed this year.
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| The Siding at Brookside Station |
At the approach to Stoke Prior Station, I need to repair this wall. I'm also getting some derailments of the longer wheelbase stock on the curve so the track will need relaying.
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| Curved Viaduct at Stoke Prior Station |
Another job for this year is is to complete this gabion wall.
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| Gabions |
My next Thomas and friends garden railway video is now in the pre-production phase. I'm hoping to start filming within the next couple of weeks and the release date is likely to be sometime around Easter.
For the last two videos, I started out by writing the story before working out a filming schedule, and I've done the same for this adventure.
The idea for the story came from a suggestion I received last year that Diesel could be banished from the main line and only allowed to carry out shunting duties, but could then be given the opportunity to redeem himself. I really liked the idea, but couldn't think how to complete the story.
Recently, now that the garden is drying up following periods of wet, cold and windy weather, I've been tidying up the railway and compiling a list of jobs that I would like to tackle this year. One of the bigger jobs is to re-profile the embankment on the mainline at the top of the garden.
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| The Embankment |
When I built the railway I chopped off the edge of the lawn vertically. It was always my intention to create a 45 degree slope from lawn level down to the line, and to add a low retaining wall at the bottom of the slope. As you can see bits are now falling of it and making a mess.
To make the low retaining wall I'm aiming to make concrete moulds from this planter.
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| Retaining Wall? |
An idea popped into my head - I could make a short film showing how it looked before and after the work, and perhaps Thomas could help too.
I would need an excavator and, of course, Thomas could take away the spoil. I could combine this with Diesel's redemption and suddenly I'd got a complete story.
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| Thomas and the Excavator |
Here's the story:
Diesel is in Disgrace
Diesel was in complete disgrace! Within weeks of arriving on the railway, he had destroyed Sir Topham Hatt’s new paint store and badly damaged himself. Then no soon as he was back from being repaired, he had gone on to cause a massive pile-up of trucks.
As he had predicted, Sir Topham Hatt didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one little bit.
A crane had to be hired to lift Diesel and place him back on the track. Once he was back upright again, he was confronted by an irate Sir Topham Hatt. “You are a very, very bad engine. You have proved to be completely untrustworthy. From now on you will not be allowed on the main line. Your duties will be shunting trucks at the Saltworks. If I see so much as a buffer of yours outside the sidings, I will send you away, never to return. I do hope that this time I have made myself perfectly clear?”
A pitiful Diesel mumbled, “Yes Sir. Perfectly Sir. Sorry Sir.”
A Landslip
It had been a very wet winter. It had rained and rained for day after day. Sections of the railway had been flooded and trains often struggled to get through, with water lapping at their axles. However, in spite of this Sir Topham Hatt proudly boasted that he had not had to cancel one single train.
However, he was well-aware of the damage that water could do to cuttings and embankments. So, at the beginning of each day, before the first timetabled service, Thomas was sent out along the main line to carry out a thorough inspection.
Thomas chuntered as he went along, “I don’t see why it’s always me that has to get up early. Why can’t some of the other engines take their turn, once in a while? It’s simply not fair.”
And then after a period of quiet reflection he brightened up. “I know, it’s because I’m the only engine that Sir Topham Hatt can rely on to keep my eyes wide open and do the job properly.”
He cheered up immediately and resumed his careful watch, and it was a good job that he did, because as he came out of the tunnel into the daylight he saw immediately that the embankment had been washed away and one track of the main line was completely blocked!
At the next station the track inspector reported what they had found. As the up line could no longer be used, a revised timetable was put into operation with the down line being used to carry trains in both directions.
Clearing the Line
Thomas’ branch line duties were temporarily handed over to Paxton, who unlike Diesel had proved to be a very reliable engine, and Thomas was given the responsibility of transporting workmen and machinery to the site of the landslip.
His first job was to carry away the large pile of mud that was blocking the line. Once the line was open again, the site was inspected by a civil engineer. He declared that the bank was still unstable and it would all have to be cut back to an angle of 45 degrees and a retaining wall should be built at its base. This meant yet more work for Thomas.
So day after day Thomas continued to haul the special train.Cutting back the embankment was slow work, but several times a day Thomas hauled away the spoil.
Thomas in Trouble
Then one day as he approached the work site, he felt a pain all down his right side. This was immediately followed by a loud clank. His driver reacted quickly by cutting off steam and applying his brakes. On getting down from the cab he could see straight away what the problem was. Thomas had lost a side rod! He was going to be out of action for some time.
Who was going to pull the works train now?, he wondered.
There was only one engine that could be spared to help out, and that was Diesel!
Sir Topham Hatt went to see him.
Diesel Saves The Day
“Now Diesel. I’ve got an important job for you to do. This will be a chance for you to redeem yourself. I need you to take over from Thomas and pull the works train. I am relying on you to do a good job, for once in your life. Do you think that you can you do this for me?”
“I’ll do my very best Sir.”
Diesel set off to tow Thomas away. He returned later to take over Thomas’ duties.
So day after day Diesel hauled the special train, delivering workmen and materials to the site, and as he went about his work he began to feel a new emotion. It felt quite strange at first. He’d been so used to being mean all his life, he didn’t recognise what it was straight way. It was a lightness of spirit, verging on what he could only think might be happiness. Finally it dawned on him. He was being helpful, people appreciated what he was doing, respected him for it, even thanked him. This new emotion was, satisfaction, satisfaction in knowing that he was doing a good job, and he liked it. He felt valued, one of the team. He felt proud.
When the work was finally finished and Diesel was about to haul the last train away, he was approached by a beaming Sir Topham Hatt.
“Diesel. You have excelled yourself. You’ve done a first class job. I’m proud to have you as a member of my loco fleet. Well done.”
“Thank you, Sir. I’m glad to have been of service to the railway.”
Does this mean that Diesel is now a reformed character?
Have we seen the last of his tricks? Perhaps, or perhaps not. I fear, only time will tell.
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