Cat and Dog Fish

Click to enlarge 

Here we are and Shrewsbury engine shed’s roaming Webb ‘Coal Tank’ is back at Fountain Colliery pushing a few ballast hoppers around, these particular ones being called ‘Dogfish’. 

There’s also another similar type known as ‘Catfish’, quite how the designers and engineers came up with the names I’m not so sure. Though in those far off times all sorts of powerful opiates were readily available over the counter from the local chemist, so that might be something to do with things. 

And finally, for the photoholics, this is an analogue capture, with the smoke also taken on film being borrowed from a full sized chuffer on The Watercress Line back in the spring. Pentax Spotmatic, 50mm/2.8 Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar. 1/4 sec at f22. Ilford Delta 100.

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35mm film fund 👉 www.buymeacoffee.com/Nevardmedi3

Chicken Dinner for One

Lick to enlarge. Wipe screen after. 

On Saturdays the inch high regularly come out on mass to witness passing rail tours of which there are many, this Saturday being no exception. 

The SLS aka Slow Locomotive Society are running this trip for lonely single late middle aged men and socially challenged boys who can’t get a girlfriend. But girls have yet to be invented, so this is no surprise to be fair. 

Without these jaunts around the rail network many of them would never leave the house, with many living in attic rooms and cellars, often with only a Hornby track mat and a Fray Bentos tinned ‘chicken dinner for one’ for company. 

The locomotive today is an unremarkable 2-6-2 Class 2 tank engine, and even more so in that nobody could even be bothered to clean it, but at least the passenger carriages are slightly better that the usual mildew and urine smelling ones that normal for the branchline service. 

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Clarks Shoes

Lick to enlarge. Wipe screen after 

Here we are in the middle of the week as Templecombe’s ex GWR Collett 3206 collects an empty mineral wagon from the short siding at Catcott. The wagon would have been full of coal mostly likely being used for heating moonshine stills. 

Due to the recent change of regional boundaries, with the line now being under the control of the Western Region of British Railways, increasingly ex GWR engines have been replacing former Midland ones for some time. This turn a few years ago would having likely been powered by a Midland 3F 0-6-0 tender locomotives, or ‘Bulldog’ as the old S&DJR crews used the call them. 

As usual Waving Willy is waving at the crew as they perform their task picking up and dropping off wagons along the route between Highbridge and Evercreech Junction. 

The box vans are destined for Glastonbury where they’ll be swapped with freshly loaded ones stacked to the brim with shoes from the famous Clarks shoe factory. That will be the last stop before Evercreech, for West Pennard and the delightfully named Pylle very rarely handle any goods these days. 

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"Misty Catcott Morning: Wally Waves, Brakevan Beds, and a Parched Allotment"

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It’s an atmospheric autumn morning at Catcott as the soft sunlight penetrates the gloom, but sadly wet weather is forecast, so it’s not likely to last. Still it will be good for the crossing keeper’s trackside allotment which has suffered due to an unusually dry summer. 

Waving Wally, though it might be Willy, Weggie or Waymond (it’s hard to tell, for they’re all identical) waves at the passing pick-up goods from Evercreech Junction. The train today is going as far as Highbridge Wharf, something that doesn’t happen too often these days due to very little commercial shipping not helped by the fact that harbour hasn’t been dredged in years. 

The train has two brakevans, the one here and course one on the rear of the train. This one next to the engine has a couple of ex army fold out beds in it and is regularly used by railway staff who’ve missed the last bus or train home after a rowdy boozy night in the local Wheeltappers Shunters. 

The only problem overnighting in the brakevan to sober up, you might find that you wake up a long way from home, especially if it’s been allocated to  long distance freight. Though you’d hope that the rostered guard would turf out any drunken snoozing interlopers. 

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Fujicolor 200

Nikon FE, Nikkor 35/2 

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None for the Road

Tap to enlarge. Sanitise screen after. 

It’s always fun and frolics on a Friday at Brew Street, as Terry Tuttle-Thomas-Smythe returns from the pub to find his Triumph Roadser craned up on to some wooden ale casks as he mutters out loud “what an absolute shower!”

Terry really shouldn’t be driving after 8 large gin and tonics, even though in olden times such was thought to improve driving skills with vintage adverts for booze often having lines like ‘One for the road’ or ‘Try Mildred’s Tonic Wine, it will make you feel like you’re driving at 100 mph!’ or ‘Buy your husband Gilbey’s Special Driving Bitter, it will turn that long journey in to an absolute whirlwind!”  

But his fellow inch high colleagues, whilst they often appear to be up to all sorts of irresponsible shenanigans, do have some common sense, so for Terry and other’s safety, have made it difficult for him to drive away. 

And finally, with Terry’s well-being in mind, they’ll shortly send him back to the pub to sober up with a few halves of Watneys Red Barrel. 

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Luxury Canal Cruise - with Dining

Tap to enlarge. Sanitise after. 

Here we are down at the canal, and Rufus Hound and Bob Geeza cat have won a luxury adventure canal cruise with dining for two, though the beaten up old dinghy might not be up to the expectation of ‘luxury’, but as we know, times are hard. 

The dining experience consists of luxury hampers from Fishgut & Kibble, the much sought after posh picnic supplier aimed at pampered pets. The boat trip adventure simply relies on wherever the current takes it, there being no obvious means of propulsion. 

Rufus gets to choose a suitable aperitif from a basket of liquid goodies which can consist of anything from fish bladder milkshakes to fermented cod eyeballs in herring blood - shaken, not stirred of course. 

Next will follow a couple of hampers full of all sorts of delights like potted shrimp bladders, fishtail pâté, Icelandic haddock gallbladder tartare, and maybe even minced shark intestine slow cooked in a blowfish stomach. This will all be washed down with a bottle or three of lightly sparkling vintage fish juices collected from the fish market at the end of trading during the summer heatwaves. Mmmm, delicious, you must agree. 

And finally, a little prayer is performed wishing Rufus and Bob a good trip and safe return, for the beaten up old dinghy has a habit of taking in water, especially when fully laden like here.

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Horses Can’t Open Beer Bottles

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Hubert the conversational Latin speaking horse, looks up at Brian, and in Latin says “Thank you for the crate of beer, but being a horse, I struggle to open and hold a bottle with my hefty hooves, any chance of a long straw after you’ve opened them all for me?” But sadly Brian doesn’t speak Latin. 

Meanwhile over to the right, Neil is trying to attract the attention of Bob Geeza Cat. Bob, being a cat is obviously playing hard to get and making things tricky for Neil. Neil is a bit of a twit with very poor balance. Bob knows this 🐾

Meanwhile, Waving Wally in the distance is waving at Waving Weggie who is driving the engine today. But Weggie is looking the wrong way, so doesn’t know that Wally is trying the remind Weggie that he’s forgotten the freshly loaded wagons destined for Lydney Junction and beyond. 

Just another day of chaos in inch high little England. 

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Hush Hush

Lick, poke or click to enlarge if you can be bothered. Sanitise screen after. 

The autumnal setting sun illuminates one of Bath shed’s Stanier 8F 2-8-0 locos which has arrived at Fountain Colliery to collect a fresh load of coal.

Large engines like this probably wouldn’t be used on the private colliery lines, but in inch high little England we don’t worry about such things too much. For I’m sure that most of us model railway nuts bend the rules a little in this respect, so we can include that favourite locomotive. 

I do think that it looks very much at home here, so will put it down to management discretion, something that probably did happen from time to time, but never officially recorded. Hush hush.

Fountain Colliery Micro Layout

Fountain Colliery regularly features here. And here’s what it looks like if you stand back a bit to see its mammoth 4ft by 1ft footprint. It can be connected to Brew Street and/or fiddle/staging yard. 

It’s all fully working and has built it photography grade compact fluorescent lighting (CFL) which gives a good illumination and far nicer colour rendering and brightness than LED tape.

It earns its keep being frequently used as a background for Kernow Model Rail Centre product photography, as well of course the inch high cameos here.