October 2019 saw the Chasewater Light Railways 'Moving the Goods' gala where demonstration freight trains were mixed in with the usual passenger services. I called in on Saturday morning on my way to the annual Z Gauge convention at Oxrail in Abingdon the following day. Built on the remnants of a former Midland Railway colliery line it passes through Cannock Chas,e a major recreational area in the Midlands. The railway has made a speciality of preserving and running industrial locomotives rather than ex mainline examples and can field an impressive variety of steam and diesel including some real rarities 0-4-0ST 'Kent no 2' was built by Bagnalls in 1946 and was in immaculate condition 'Waleswood' another 0-4-0ST has only recently returned to steam after a protracted overhaul. Built in 1906 by Hudswell Clarke in Leeds Mfanwy is an 0-4-0DH turned out from the Bagnalls factory in 1962 The Motor rail factory in Bedford churned out hundreds of narrow gauge locomotives for the British war department during the First World War in both armoured and un-armoured forms. over 900 were built to serve in the trenches and after the war some standard gauges examples were produced. The Chasewater has two of these strange looking beasts. 'Morris' was works number 2026 produced in 1920 and next....
another real rarity is Bass Gretton Radcliffe no 5 which came out of the Baguley plant in Burton on Trent to work in the giant Bass Brewery complex in the town. The brewery was noted for having very unique loco designs, both steam and diesel, The towns unique water supply taken from aquifers below the town meant many beer companies set up shop in the area. One of the other big breweries, Marston Thompson and Evershed, famous for their 'Pedigree ' bitter produced by the Burton Union system set up shop in 1834 and is still producing beer in the town to this day. Baguley 3410 of 1955 an 0-4-0DM was one of the first locomotives we acquired when we first saved Barrow Hill roundhouse and in those day was notorious for only running on 5 cylinders when we had it A Thomas Hill product of 1961 is flanked an ex British Rail 08 0-6-0DE and a small Hunslet 0-4-0DH. I still have a sister loco to the Hunslet in use at our depot to this day although it is a bit on the lightweight side compared to the rest of our fleet Along with the locos the railway is actively preserving classic freight wagons. The 16 ton mineral wagons churned out by the hundreds of thousands after the railways were nationalised in the U.K ,are a very rare find these days. These are two of the variants, 27 ton iron ore tipplers, Stonysmith designed some nice Z gauge ones for me on Shapeways.
There is something very relaxing about watching shunting locos pootling around the yard. Note that like much of the railway scene in the 1950s the wagons are 'unfitted' i.e. no air or vacuum automatic brakes hence the use of brake vans. Almost incomprehensible to followers of American railways. The video shows a lot of the prep to marshal trains for the Saturday running. 25 minutes long it is almost like watching a full size model railroad switching layout and almost hypnotic according to one of my mates! I was impressed with the friendliness of the volunteers and the large variety of Industrial steam and diesel locos on display and very impressed with the sausage and bacon sandwiches from the cafe! They were the type we call 'door stops' over here! Anyway I left just before lunchtime and headed down to Abingdon to set up the layout, I had Shasta, my Z scale Espee layout out for the second weekend running and once I was satisfied it was running O.K nipped down to Didcot station to have a look at the latest rolling stock put into service by Great Western trains. Chalk and cheese compared to Chasewater New125 mph Class 800 bi modal units work 25Kv Ac or can start up their three MTU diesels to work under non electrified lines.800 029 was on a Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington train Local stopping trains are rapidly converting over to class 387 EMUs. 387 141 has jut arrived on a London to Didcot service. With the erection of 25Kv overheads the whole appearance of Didcot station has been altered, not necessarily for the better if you are a rail photographer Kev
