Ruritanian Railways - 2012

[whatlep]

Members of the Ruritanian Olympic team left Zenda on Monday afternoon in stunning summer weather. Prince Rudolf himself accompanied our athletes and authorised use of the Royal Train for the occasion. Hopes are high for medals from our Tiddleywinks relay squad and the ladies freestyle caber tossers. A stirring "huzzah" for all the boys and girls!

The special train was caught passing a long rake of ballast hoppers, hauled by Mallet 99201 running bunker first and waiting for a path after the Royal Train's passage.

The royal train was finally captured from the hills overlooking Polapiko as it neared our nation's border. Can it only be days ago that floodwaters inundated the local area?

Taking advantage of the good weather, the Radio Zenda's photographer captured the ballast hoppers....

...and the local train awaiting custom at Polapiko. As the postal contract has brought extra traffic, local trains frequently feature one or two four-wheel vans in passenger livery for mails traffic. The rear van has been carefully positioned for rapid loading and unloading from the depot normally used for customs inspections and general goods traffic.

 

[trammayo]

Great pics Peter - I always smile when I read Polapiko (reminds me of a place not too many miles from Dublin) - hope the Team Ruritania reach the winners' podium!

 

[playmofire]

Excellent photos, and the floods seem never to have happened.

All good wishes to the Ruritarian teams.

 

[Gizzy]

Members of the Ruritanian Olympic team left Zenda on Monday afternoon in stunning summer weather. Prince Rudolf himself accompanied our athletes and authorised use of the Royal Train for the occasion. Hopes are high for medals from our Tiddleywinks relay squad and the ladies freestyle caber tossers.

I assume the Underwater Basket Weaving Team failed to qualify for 2012....

 

[Don Gilham]

Lovely pictures Peter - but you mentioned the olympics !! *twitch*

 

[JRinTawa]

Excellent, much better in the sun than, umm, in flood

 

[whatlep]

Hope the Team Ruritania reach the winners' podium!

There might be trouble if they do. I was chatting with my chum Hargreaves at the Foreign Office yesterday and he says no one has yet been able to find an authenticated copy of the Ruritanian National Anthem

Hargreaves name will also go in the book......

 

[yb281]

Hope the Team Ruritania reach the winners' podium!

There might be trouble if they do. I was chatting with my chum Hargreaves at the Foreign Office yesterday and he says no one has yet been able to find an authenticated copy of the Ruritanian National Anthem

Hargreaves name will also go in the book......

Dear Mr Hargreaves, a copy of the official Ruritanian national anthem as requested. All hail Prince Rudolph.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M

 

[beancounter]

Peter,
there seems to have been some link between His Serene Highness and the west coast of Scotland. I have been asked by Doogie Drummond, Superintendent of Motive Power on the Ardnacraish Light Railway, if you would pass his respects to H.S.H, plus the following message:

"See you Rudie,

hoo's ye doin awa' doon there in yer wee country? It's been a while since ye called at Ardnacraish in yer Royal Yacht; has ye no been havin' yer summer cruise tae stock up on whisky fer ra palace? Ah seem tae remember ye were fair partial to a wee swallie o' "Auld Sporran" fra' oor Ardnacraish Distillery. Ye was sayin' hoo a quick one helped ye to keep yer palace maids on their toes. If yer wantin' some of the latest batch, ah'll ask Big Callum doon at the warehoose tae send some tae yer man Whattie, awa' doon south somewhere. Ye can pay in ra usual way - a wee bit o' barter fer some o' yer braw Zenda sausage. It's fair grand fer pluggin' holes in ra boilers o' oor locos.

slangevar

Doogie"

I believe translation services can be provided by a Mr R.C.Nesbit...

 

[whatlep]

Dear Mr Hargreaves, a copy of the official Ruritanian national anthem as requested. All hail Prince Rudolph.

Son of a Slobovian nightsoil worker! As every decent person knows, our noble and ancient anthem is to the same tune you Englishers, the Russians and the Swiss all stole from us so many years ago. The original and genuine goes like this:

"Long live our noble Lord,
His hand is on his sword
Ready to spring.
His wisdom is profound
His judgement always sound
Our foes recoil and wince
God save our Prince!"

There will be a test later.

 

[yb281]

Dear Mr Hargreaves, a copy of the official Ruritanian national anthem as requested. All hail Prince Rudolph.

Son of a Slobovian nightsoil worker! As every decent person knows, our noble and ancient anthem is to the same tune you Englishers, the Russians and the Swiss all stole from us so many years ago. The original and genuine goes like this:

"Long live our noble Lord,
His hand is on his sword
Ready to spring.
His wisdom is profound
His judgement always sound
Our foes recoil and wince
God save our Prince!"

There will be a test later.

I stand corrected sir........................ actually, this was my first choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjMOJU26EsU

 

[Bram]

Who are you calling a worker, don't you swear at us

 

[whatlep]

I stand corrected sir........................ actually, this was my first choice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjMOJU26EsU

Ah, Princess Kathryn's second choice for a revised national anthem. HSH Prince Rudolf was not impressed by that or by her first choice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTXyXuqfBLA though the French ambassdor thought it quite tuneful.

 

[New Haven Neil 2]

Blocked on fraggle rock! An international outrage!

 

[whatlep]

Tuesday's focus is on the unsung heroes of Ruritanian Railways, the shunting locos. With the past two years' increased traffic, shunters have become a vital addition to the fleet, enabling more productive use of main line locomotives as we will see.

Our journey begins at the invisible ballast processing plant, where the quarry company's own shunter is momentarily at rest, awaiting the next load of empties for loading:

Once a train is known to be on its way, the shunter runs into one of the platform lines at Polapiko to await the incoming train seen in the background:

The train engine - today Mallet No.2 - can then be released and do something else while the hoppers are loaded:

In this case the Mallet ran back to Zenda light engine, though more often there are goods vehicles or mail vans awaiting collection:

The shunter was then free to split the rake of empties and position the first five for loading. Normally this starts with the rearmost vehicle, but on this occasion the main line had to be cleared for the arrival of the up Trans-Carpathian express, so the front vehicle was loaded first.

Spot on time, the express passed Polapiko at speed, hauled by twin ex-Austrian "Whizzycranks" 2095 class diesels:

In the next instalment, we'll turn our attention to shunting activity at our nation's capital, Zenda and find out what happened to that solitary Mallet!

 

[3Valve]

Great sequence Peter.

 

[whatlep]

Great sequence Peter.

Thank you. Join me now at Zenda Haubtbahnhof where the up Trans-Carpathian has just arrived. The new Kof shunter is in the background, busy with vans at the postal depot. Now it has the duty of swapping the first coach on the Trans-Carpathian with one of the vans which has just been loaded with mail for Prague and beyond.

First get the new van onto the tail end of the incoming train and then draw the whole shebang out of the station. It's a good job Ruritania has beefy shunters...

Now carefully position the incoming post coach at the depot....

....before drawing the train back into platform two. The loaded van is at the front and the train is made secure using a wheel scotch. The passenger train's engines have reversed through the station and will draw ahead onto the main line....

...as will the shunter. Oh look, there's the Mallet we saw earlier in the day. The shunter will move to the loco headshunt at the end of platform 1, while the 2095 diesels back down onto what is now the down Trans-Carpathian return working to Prague in platform 2. Quick work is the order of the day in Ruritania!

The shunter lies at rest while the various vans are attended to by the depot staff.....

...while the down Trans-Carpathian gets ready to leave.

 

[jameshilton]

It's cool to see a sequence of operation on the line Peter and I can see the advantages of DCC when you show that too - as you really do 'drive the train' rather than turn the controller. Great photos too

 

[3Valve]

Oh I should have waited, cos that great sequence just got better

 

[CoggesRailway]

Spot on time, the express passed Polapiko at speed, hauled by twin ex-Austrian "Whizzycranks" 2095 class diesels:

Wow that is SO nice. Can I run my (still to be built) red DVT on the other end of that train at some point??