Planning – Moel Rhos

New Arrival (2): Coal Fired DJB Ragleth

While live steam is already wonderful, and has its own challenges and rewards, making the steam with coal (rather than gas, as on my other locos) has always been another ambition. So when I spotted a dealer offering this second hand Accucraft Ragleth, converted by the renowned DJB Engineering, I decided I couldn’t let it pass.

New Arrival (1): Roundhouse Katie

Not just one new steamer has arrived on the Moel Rhos this year, but two, the first of which is this Roundhouse Katie. I’ve wanted a Katie for the Moel Rhos for 10 years, when I was inspired by the loco Chris Bird fitted with a slomo, as I wrote back then. I wrote back then “It’s not a contender because (with R/C and slomo) it is more than 3 time my budget”. But earlier this year, spotting one (without slomo) at an attractive price on a popular auction site, I took a punt, and it joins the fleet as No 11.

Easter on the Moel Rhos

The Easter Eggspress was in service today, despite significant engineering works (much of the line is lifted for new trackbed, and some of it is underneath a pile of timber…)

Merry Christmas from the Moel Rhos

Merry Christmas everyone – and here’s to a trainful happy new year in 2025!

Making holes…

Back in May and June 2020, lockdown restrictions gave me time to work on the extension, which at that point had only reached as far as the second bridge. The next step (for both phases 2 and 3) of the extension involved making holes including one for gaining access to the shed for stock storage.

Doctor Who and the Easter of Doom

The Doctor, being a time traveller, is not out of place on any garden railway in any period… indeed, one of the consequences of time travel is that there may be several of them. After I’d printed a John Hurt I discovered the Eaglemoss figurines are 1/21 scale and I picked up a few as they are pretty close to 1/19 scale.

Hot Cross Bun train

It’s Good Friday! But owing to engineering work, the hot cross bun train may not run this year, so… here’s a video from 2020 of this vital service.

Stock Boxes from The Works

When I got my new stock boxes out at a (late 2019) garden railway meet, and explained they were from The Works, one of the other members asked me if I’d got the idea from the current* Garden Rail. In fact I hadn’t read it, but it seemed The Works boxes were all the rage, so in case my approach adds anything to that in Garden Rail I thought I’d better blog about it…