(F) Eynsford Light Railway

[More_Cats_Than_Sense]

Here's a video clip I found on YouTube, right near the end of the clip is a rooster bar that beats all the ones I've seen!!

The railway is 2' gauge, but don't let that put you off

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

[chris stockdale]

The ELR is a tiny private line in Kent. The 'excuse' for its existence is to move stable muck away from the stables.

Basic info on a variety of such lines here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_pr ... e_railways

cheers

[greengiant]

The ELR is my friends railway, a real working line.
I can confirm the rooster bar is indeed a bit if rail.
We built the end tipping wagon to help with muck tipping along the line, then as it builds up we put a track panel on top and move along. The wagon is hydraulic tipping, powered by truck battery. The reason for the extra long rooster bar is so we can push the wagon to the end of the tip line which won't take the weight of the loco, until much later when the heap has compressed.
The manure in the early part of the tip is well rotted, this is dug out and put into a skip wagon, this is then hauled up to a small platform next to the greenhouse in the vegetable garden, where it is tipped and then spread onto the ground, or some of us bag it up and take it home to our own vegetable plots.
The line zig, zags down the side of a hill through the woods. Fallen trees are chopped up, loaded onto a wagon and shunted up a steep siding to the back of the house to fuel the boiler.
We are currently relaying some track on the upper part of the railway with a new longer loop in the station area, which also entailed building a new point.
Recent additions are a southern railway semaphore signal that originally came from Barnehurst station, obtained from a private collector. The signal and me have a special bond, mainly due to when we dismantled the signal, no one realised the finial on top was not fixed, as we rocked the signal, it fell over 16 feet and hit me! I was not too well for a few weeks.
I was given the honour of topping out the signal recently after its full restoration.



The loco is a Simplex, here seen down in the woods with the works train. The watering can contains sand for when we lose grip.



And tucked away for the night.



The steam loco has just been retubed and boiler was put back on the frames last Sunday, we should have this running again in a couple of months.
The steam loco is an ex Provan gas works 1903 Barclay wing tank.
This is how we bought it in 1999:






And this is how it looked four years later in November 2003, 100 years after it was first built to the day, which was the aim of the team. The loco is regauged from 2'6" to 2', the wing tanks were not refitted, we custom built a saddle tank to make it more suitable for the gradients on the line.
This is me on the footplate



Now though it has a full cab as can be seen in bits in this photo of last Sundays working day, putting the boiler in and laying a new loop:

[greengiant]

This is the trackplan as it currently stands, I have indicated the track we are laying at the moment and the proposed track. We have 7 points, a 3 way and 2 temporary points.



Other motive power is this Barclay wing tank converted to saddle tank, now also fitted with full cab, here seen on passenger duties.



This little beast is used for mowing the line when things get a bit over grown.



The first passenger train on the latest section.



A view through the station, at the rear left is the log wagon waiting to be shunted up the log incline.



We have three coaches, four skips, a hydraulic end tipper, a box van and various flat wagons and a Rushton undergoing restoration.

Martin

[Russell C of Idaho]

Great post about a beautiful railway, Martin! Always looking for inspiration for my 18" gauge line here in Idaho:

https://unknownidaho.wordpress.com/category/big-trains/

Russell