Quote from: madchadbrad on February 09, 2026, 05:45:09 PMThe Stanier non-corridor coaches project is now 90% there, according to Dapol's Facebook account but it hasn't appeared on their website-proper yet . . .

Has anyone seen an update please?

Quote from: Southerngooner on Yesterday at 09:16:06 AMI fired this from Swanage to Norden under the careful eye of the real fireman, and only managed to drop one piece of coal. I'm not sure I'd want to do this all day every day though,

I used to fire on the Watercress Line and, although one day at a time was pretty easy most of the time, I wouldn't want to do it every day either.

The worst day I had was on 34016 Bodmin and there was a problem with the smokebox door locking dart - it kept riding up out of its correct location so the door opened slightly, eliminating most of the smokebox vacuum - usually halfway up the 1:60 up from Alton. I had no trainee to help out either so I practically fell off the footplate at the end of the day 

In contrast, another day I was on the Drummond Greyhound, T9 30120 (*), which simply wouldn't stop steaming. The driver and I had a tacit agreement - if I was going to make steam he was darned well going to use it and if he was going to use it I was darned well going to make it 

Due to the gradients (1:80 up one way and 1:60 up the other) we were double headed with 34105 Swanage but the old girl wasn't bothered in the slightest and happily pulled 5 Mk1s and Swanage around - most of the day the Swanage crew had their feet up 

(*) I heard the other day that the Swanage Railway are going to give the T9 a major overhaul, including replacing the cylinder block that was already cracked before we had her and has been patched up at least twice.
That should give the old girl a new lease of life again 

I love this thread and forum with the great variety, humour and expertise that is so freely given.
I remember seeing Eddystone at Sellinge in Kent a decade ago in lots of bits. It's amazing the effort and achievements of often a small dedicated team to bring these wonderful locos back to life for so many of us to enjoy.
Glad you had such a wonderful experience and thank you for your very entertaining and knowledgeable posts.

Now that's what I call a "Hat Trick"!

Tim

(Awful I know...)

What a SuperSpiffing post, Dave. Thank you very much.

It's good to see you are attending to the brakes as I wouldn't want your tea can to fall off the firehole shelf.

I'm glad you had a perfik day out in Purbeck.

With all good wishes.

John

Uber cool!  

I had a truly spiffing opportunity to see the wonderful topics discussed in this post in real life yesterday. I took part in a driving experience on "Manston", which @martyn kindly described as a "Spam Can", but which I prefer to think of as one of Mr Bulleid's more successful locomotives, a Battle of Britain class.

I fired this from Swanage to Norden under the careful eye of the real fireman, and only managed to drop one piece of coal. I'm not sure I'd want to do this all day every day though, and am sure there weren't too many overweight firemen. I managed to collect a token too! Driving was far easier than I expected something as complicated to be, and while I was always under direct instruction I could see how such a powerful beast could be controlled very subtly, a true art form. I was so pleased to see things that I have read about and modelled for over 60 years for real, like a banner repeater signal and pulling the whistle cord! A truly wonderful day out!

Thanks to the Southern Locomotive group for the opportunity to do this, a fine bunch of gentlemen running some wonderful locomotives, including "Eddystone" which is currently doing very well main line.





Dave - a very lucky man....!

Seems we might have to add Aussie, Aussie, Irish, oi, oi, Sláinte after the president of Ireland honoured a West Australian teenage hero for his incredible efforts and story of his family's ocean rescue. The Irish government minister is out here for St Patrick's Day festivities.

From out national broadcaster:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-13/austin-appelbee-honoured-by-irish-president/106448682

Mark

Well let's see it then