September Steam at Statfold

Steam in the fields

There are usually many locomotives in steam at Statfold open days - on the railway. For the September events, there are road vehicles too - traction engines, steam rollers, steam lorries etc - great stuff! As ever, it’s difficult to count the number of locos in steam on the railway - I didn’t try. There are fourteen in total on my photos... One or two familiar faces were absent - the big blue Mallet and the two black Pakis Baru locos were cold in the museum building, and GP39 is at Apedale. There’s one newcomer - at least, in its current shape. “Howard” is a hefty Hunslet 0-4- 2 saddle tank - but last time I saw him in action, he was “Josephine”, and had side tanks... Howard runs on 2’0” gauge tracks - but was built as a 3’0” gauge saddle tank for the Fort William aluminium lines, and bore the name “Lady Morrison”. One confused locomotive! The road vehicles were on display in the field below the car park, but later in the afternoon, they broke out, sneaking one after another along the lane down to the Grain Shed. Cautiously they made their way across the railway tracks and onto the stubble field beside the line, for all the world like a herd of inquisitive cows. Some stood huddle in small groups, while others wandered about the field for a while. Eventually, they

Geoff’s Rail Diaries

13 September 2014

lost interest and began to amble back towards their own field. It’s fun at Statfold! Links: • Statfold Barn Railway • Sam’s World Sam works on the footplate at the Battlefield line and from time to time at Bala and Statfold, and keeps a great blog. I’ve snapped him, unknowingly, on previous occasions - today we were able to make face-to-face contact. Thanks for the ride, Sam, and keep up the good work.