Starting with Statfold

Yes, I know, I said that about the previous entry (Galatea) - but this would be the year’s first “proper” outing - to the Statfold Barn Railway. There’s always something new at Statfold. Last September, it was obvious that plans were afoot for new trackwork - would there be something new on the motive power side too? The new points we’d seen at our last visit now

connect the “new” 2’ gauge line to the mixed-gauge balloon loop - trains on both lines now run around the loop before retracing their steps (no, not the right word) to the terminus. Half-way, at Oak Tree, there’s also a new passing loop - doubling the capacity of the new line at a stroke. There’s a rather nice “new” loco too - a 2’ gauge Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 tender engine (972 of 1912). Like all Statfold products, it looks brand-new. I suspect a fair proportion of it is brand-new - when it was last used in Fiji, it was powered by a diesel engine, installed where its firebox had been... There have been other developments, perhaps a little less obvious. Fowler “Saccharine” now sports a plain chimney rather than the voluminous spark arrester it used to carry. And there are signals - several semaphores and a colour-light. The fact that I didn’t notice anything else of great significance doesn’t mean, of course, that there wasn’t anything else... I wonder what will be next? Link: Statfold Barn Railway