Manda and Matt (protecting his tea) 5th Jan
'Kiruna' - the Town and Track Removed 10th Feb
'Hotel Terminus' (with REAL Snow April 6th)
With a chill in the wind, and dark evenings around the fire, the time has come to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and create this year's Christmas Newsletter 2008.
With no snow on the ground, the year started with bubbles - January saw Phil playing with the disco snow (bubble machine) in the garden, with Manda and Leah enjoying the experience, although Matt
appeared to be less certain!
February saw earth moving events (not literally) in the garden, as the Main Town of the Garden Railway underwent a 'Kiruna' experience; having to relocate completely (if temporarily) from one end of the garden to the other - not in our case due to mining extending beneath, but for an overdue major trimming of the willow tree above, ably performed by Colin, after which the ground (and Phil) was covered with wood shavings. Although the majority of the wood was removed from site on the day, it took a couple of months for the railway to be reinstated, with a couple of upgrades to track alignment and cabling.
Bruksbanan made its invited debut at the Ilfracombe Model Railway Show on a windy Easter Saturday, with storm winds causing waves to crash over the sea wall outside of the pavilion immediately behind us, and providing a contrast to the funeral of Phil's mum who had declined over the previous few months. She was always proud to have been one of the last passengers on the Lynton and Barnstaple Line (and had been on the 2nd train of its re-opening); but this time our trip to the line was without her.
The following weekend we were off with Bruksbanan again, this time to 'Narrow Gauge South' in Winchester - somewhat closer to home. Sadly the local G-scale members were less than enthusiastic participants, but younger visitors more than countered this!
Early April also saw a sprinkling of real snow in Owlsmoor, and the 'Hotel Terminus' (named after a Hotel in Montreux) stood tall in its blanket of snow. Snow also fell on 'Beechingless Barnstaple' in the roof (while Lin took pictures from 'above').
The winter break this year was a long-awaited train trip with Tom and Sylvia to Germany. The main event of a two day visit to the Intermodellbau in Dortmund, was preceded by Eurostar and Sleeper travel to Miniatur Wunderland (www.miwula.de) in Hamburg. The world's largest permanent HO model railway exhibition which this year had its new spectacular Alpine section open, spreading over two storeys of the warehouse! Intermodellbau is a large exhibition of all types of modelling, including a couple of halls of railway exhibits. Another hall contained a large pool, with some amazing boats ranging from a 48-Oar Venetian Galley powered by its miniature articulated rowers, to a fully automated Rig-Support vessel which laid and retrieved buoys.
A 'Flying' Hall had a netted-off section, where we saw helicopters, and most memorably, a couple operating a pair of model planes flying a synchronised aerobatic-display to music. The other crowd pleaser, had radio controlled lorries and forklifts, driving around stacking pallets and loads, whilst in another area earth-shifting trucks, cranes and scoops, shifted mud!
The trip continued with two days in Dresden; Firstly, on a trip toward the Czech border, in a Regional train snaking up through winding river valleys followed by narrow gauge steam on the Fichtelbergbahn from Cranzal up to Kurort Oberwiesentahl. The damp weather enhanced the steam experience, and animal spotting on the trip included a St Bernard dog, and Llamas. Our final day saw a train ride down the Elbe to Bad Schandau, then a ferry across the river, and a short stroll through the town, for a vintage tram ride on the Kurnitzschtalbahn to and from a 'famous' Waterfall, before returning home via a Sleeper from Berlin to Bruxelles, and morning Eurostar to St Pancras International.
Summer and its 'Pack up the tent and off to Scandinavia' again. This year returning to the Harwich-Esjberg route. We arrived in Sweden at the end of a heatwave, and camped up just outside Rämlosa (where we watched a railwayman shunting a loco remotely via a joystick controller - and as with most real railways, it was at a speed which would give some British Modellers a heart attack!). After a brief visit to Eurohobby, we took the SJ/DSB IC4 train across ('beneath') the Öresund Bridge to København and back (realising our passports were still in the car as we re-passed it in the station car park - but luckily, there were no land-border formalities). Then across to Ivö a favourite spot for lake swimming, from where we visited the Skånska Järnvägar, the Swedish National Railway Museum at Ängelholm, and Brio Lekoseum (Brio Toy Museum) in Osby, before heading further north to a rather wet campsite just outside Mariestad on the shores of Lake Vänern, from where we took a wonderful day cruise along the Göta Kanal on M/S Sandön from Toreböda to Karlsborg. After a very interesting millstone museum under Älerudsfjället, we continued south-west, and located the Skara-Lundberg Railway on a day it wasn't running, but the adjacent model shop was open.
Then on to Göteborg's Lilleby Havsbad campsite. From there, we re-visited the Munkedals Jernväg; now reinstated down to the harbour following completion of the new section of E6 motorway overhead. We also called in on the Anten-Gräfsnäs again, and of course, the HobbyCenter.
We were also able to visit Eva in her summer cottage (Västra Bodarna - Lake Mjörn) and Mikel and Kristina; both in the summer cottage on Tjörn and in their new house on the coast south of Göteborg, at Askim. From a very wet Göteborg we finally upped-tent and headed south to Denmark, calling in at a well-stocked model shop in Aalborg, before overnighting at Billund Kro (hotel), We spent the final day of our holiday in Legoland where the weather started very wet, encouraging participation in some
September saw Amsterdam calling again - this year, with no High Speed Ferry due to rising fuel costs (of last year), and we travelled both ways on the overnight ferry. For outward journey, we were accompanied by the Nederlands (Vintage) Jaguar car club returning from an event. New this year was a visit to 'Railz', a new permanent railway exhibition in Rotterdam. with a growing layout displaying the now familiar fantastically detailed dutch scenic modelling. ( 'Dutch Masters' ). Well worth a visit if you are passing Rotterdam. We also met up with Michel again, for a return visit to the Dutch Narrow Gauge Museum/ Narrow Gauge Model Railway Show at Valkenburgse Meer near Leiden, and an open day at a Bus Company's Model Railway Club. We even had the opportunity to see inside of Museum's massive storage shed containing a large number of future restoration projects! Returning home we also called in at 'Madurodam' in Den Hague, the well-known large model 'village'. (www.madurodam.nl)
Phil busily built 3 sections for the G-scale modular layout; inspired by swedish holidays it included a bright yellow rail ferry.
The modular layout came together for the first time at Wickam, with five members sections making a 10m x 3m layout - a very successful day. Phil's report has just been published in the G-Scale Journal. The following Saturday, Phil did a talk at MERG in London on 'Beechingless Barnstaple' - and its progress with digital train detection and control, for which he also built a portable demonstration layout on a sheet of Polycarbonate.
The Demo was repeated the following weekend at 'Small World' in Barnstaple, supplementing the Barnstaple Annual Model Railway Exhibition. A further visit to the L&B occurred the next day, following some wet and windy weather - when we arrived their Marquee had been blown down and wrapped around the telegraph poles bringing the phone lines with it.
Following on from this was 'National Model Railway Exhibition' organised by WarleyMRC at the NEC, where we spent the weekend, supporting the Scandinavian Railway Society, as we had done at the Eastleigh Eurotrack Show earlier in the year.
There was snow in the air as we set off for the Exhibition hall for the first day. Our favourite layout was showing period u.k. trams, and busses and lorries running using the Faller roadway system. There was one bus which simply would not stop for the tram!
Our short Swiss Trip started from London City Airport - adjacent to Lin's workplace, and we made the most of our 4-day Swiss Rail Passes (which are upgraded to 1st class in December): Landing at Zurich we had a double-decker to Luzern and our first base; then the Golden pass Route via the Zentral Bahn and MoB via Interlaken and Gstad to Montreux, before a nostalgic (for Phil) walk around Montreux's lake Front and Christmas Market before returning to Luzern. On Day 2, it was the Glacier Express Route once we reached Chur and the RhB - then up and over the mountains to Andermatt and along the valley(s) to Brig, from where we again returned to Luzern. On the 3rd day we left Luzern for the South: Locarno (another place Phil had visited for work) where it was raining (not uncommon). We left from an underground station of the CentoValli Line in a Panoramic Railcar for the 2.5hour trip up across the mountains to Domodossola in Italy; an incredible winding climbing journey in falling snow with innumerable tunnels and bridges - featured on the card front, before returning to Brig for the night.
An early start from Brig allowed us to get up to Zermatt on our final morning - we hadn't been there since 1979 - and although all the cable cars and runs were closed due to the weather, we were able to record the Gornergrat trains by the station, and buy a model of a Panoramic Coach for the HO railway. After a Pizza at the station, we left for the long journey to Zurich Flughaven - arriving at check-in with 3 minutes to spare for our flight back to London City (Swiss trains don't always run to time on the first days of a new timetable.. and printing errors haven't been spotted). Since Friday is Matt's wedding and is followed by the last Christmas Post, this year's card is being produced at speed on RISC OS as usual...
Best wishes Phil and Lin
(Train Travel schedules initially calculated by us and then booked via Ffestiniog Travel)