Yesterday at Ramsey Mereside 45mm gauge track....

[tac foley]

Pal Pete Jackson made this little movie of his 0-6-0 side-tank and coaches, and my old Accucraft 3-C Shay. radio-fitted by Barley Pit Works last year. The local beak music was fantastic, and we were surrounded by all kinds of birdies, including some swoopish swifts/swallows who buzzed us while we were a'supping our tea and a'scoffing of our buns. We both managed to get good-length runs in - often hard to do because of the almost permanent east wind coming straight from Poland over the fens. Its effect can be exaggerated by our topology - we are actually over 6 feet below sea level where I am seen standing........anyhow, enjoy sharing a few steam moments with us.

 

[Gizzy]

- we are actually over 6 feet below sea level where I am seen standing........

And suffering from a bad case of trench foot no wonder....

 

[tac foley]

Not at all, Sir, thanks to the foresightedness of King Charles II, who arranged for Mijneer Vermuyden to arrange the drainage of the fens, and his successors who built the water-regulating New Bedford River and associated dams and sluices, we are able to walk around dry-shod.

 

[Paul M]

I love it up in the Fens. The bare landscape that stretches for miles is amazing. Do you have open days at Mereside?

 

[tac foley]

Yes.

 

[Paul M]

Yes.

Great, I'll try and get to one, I'm not that far away

 

[tac foley]

Last time I asked a few people over for a Tuesday 'any scale on 45mm track' running session I was almost burnt at the stake by the management for not arranging things better. Things were pretty frosty for a while after that, and, to some extent, still are. You'd be advised to contact the Club secretary from the website - fenlandlightrailway.co.uk.

 

[PhilP]

So, is it a 'local line' for 'local people'?

I guess a 32mm loco, set to 45mm, pulling 'G' stock, would get me stoned to death then?

There again.. Had you told 'the power's that be' what you intended?

 

[tac foley]

It is a society with membership, who pay into it on an annual basis. Those who DO pay in are permitted to run their 45mm scale trains on the track that a few of the members built to attract more people to visit the railway on its open days, where the fare-paying public can come and ride the 7 1/4" live steam trains for a small fee. This generally happens on the third Sunday of the month between March and October. Those members who are into Gauge 1 et al like me [I also have a 1/4 scale Harlech Castle] often run on a Tuesday, and a few of us, who are also in the G1MRA, invite members from the mid-Anglia group to come along and run. You can see some of this on YT - petes steam Fenland should catch the YT tags enough to get to them. You could come along to one such day as my guest. As for the other thing, I had thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that having helped to build the original track, and then helped, as a paying member, to build the replacement a few hundred yards away, I might just have been able go invite a couple of friends along.

I got it wrong.

 

[PhilP]

I got it wrong.

Politics!

I find, if you are gracious (as a visitor), listen to any rules you are made aware of, and offer a 'donation' towards the upkeep of the facilities, most groups are welcoming.

T'is a bit of a trek, from here in the middle, but one day perhaps?

 

[tac foley]

PhilP, if you do decide to make the trip, remember that we often have OTC running on Tuesdays. Bring biscuits or doughnuts, and wet-weather gear. No dogs, though. Give me PM, okay? And as for what to run - well, if it stays on 45mm gauge track without too much falling off, it can run. One of our members scratch-builds some VERY interesting-looking wagons, based on toilet-roll tubes, lollipop sticks, cotton buds, buttons, ring-pull tabs, plastic packaging and sundry other bits of, uh, things that are usually thrown away. An example train of this kind may well stretch thirty feet, hauled by a lash-up of six identical Playmobil locos...