The Tale of the Lost Railway (Part – 7)

The key was remarkably heavy but I managed to insert it securely into the lock.  With mounting trepidation, I turned it.

Despite appearing to be old and rusty, the key  turned very easily allowing  the gate to swing open which it did remarkably smoothly. To my surprise it seemed the lock and hinges had been well maintained and fairly recently oiled.

Once through I closed the gate quietly behind me.

Ahead was a somewhat  overgrown rough gravel path leading quite steeply uphill to what appeared to be a flat bank stretching away into the distance.

I walked to the top of the bank to find, as I had hardly dared to hope, railway tracks curving away to the left through trees. I had expected, if I did manage to find  evidence of a railway, that the tracks would be old and rusted but this railway was in reasonable order with the top of the track being shiny which surely indicated that a train had passed this way recently. How on earth was that possible? There were  no railway line in the area according to all of the maps and official documentation I had recently studied.
Feeling somewhat emboldened I began to walk in the direction of Baskerville. The railway was lined, on both sides, by lush vegetation surely making it virtually impossible to see from the surrounding fields.


The view that greeted me at the top of the bank

I found the remains of an old  stone wall enabling me to sit awhile, take a break and enjoy Mrs Harris' cheese and chutney sandwiches which were, by the way, delicious.

Ii was soon on my way again walking for some twenty five minutes. Eventually, in the distance, I could make out yet another set of heavy gates with a high wooden fence on either side.

On reaching the gates I discovered that I would be walking no further. This time there was no key to be found.  However I  did notice  a very small gap between the gates allowing me to get a peep beyond.

On the other side of the gates, surrounded completely by the tall wooden fence which must have been eight feet high, was a sight that I couldn't believe. What I saw was beyond my wildest imagination.

My journalistic instincts soon swung into action, this was a massive opportunity for me, the sort of story that, perhaps, only occurs once in a lifetime. I determined to return tomorrow with my camera. Perhaps with more time I might be able to find a way in.

After taking in the scene for several minutes I decided to head back to my guest house where I could write up a few notes.  Of course, on the way, I was very careful to lock the entrance gate and to secrete the key back onto its hook.

That evening I decided to take a visit to the local inn, The Baskerville Arms.

It was a typical rural country pub. As I walked in the whole place fell silent. I could sense around twenty pairs of eyes staring at me but undeterred I made my way to the bar.

"Good evening to you. A pint of your finest, foaming ale if I may landlord", I  said to the grey haired, rather portly man behind the bar.
With that the locals returned to their various conversations. The landlord said "Be you stayin' along at ol' Ma 'Arris' place?"

I replied to the affirmative, "Ya see we dunt get many strangers in 'ere. Word da soon get round if there be a foreigner in town".

I wasn't surprised by his reaction. I guessed that most of the customers had probably lived in the area all of their lives and were a little wary of a stranger walking in.Despite the reaction I now felt a little more comfortable and feeling hungry hungry I enquired if any food might be available.

"Food, we dun't do no posh food in ''ere but I ken get the wife ta knock e up sum bread n cheese if these like?".

Bread and cheese would do nicely so I took my pint and scanned around for an empty table.  The pub was only small and the only available seat was in the corner. I would have to share a table with an elderly man sitting on his own, nursing a pint and engulfed by pipe smoke.

"May I sit here?", I enquired politely.

The man looked up, nodding. "Good evening young chappie", he said in an unexpectedly refined and  cultured voice, "Please do join me. I'm Giles Forsythe, Estate Manager to His Lordship Sir Archibald Hardcastle. I don't expect you are familiar with the Hardcastle family but they are a very prominent family locally and own a lot of land around here. Sir Archibald sometimes pops in here for a couple of pints but I don't expect him this evening as he is entertaining friends up at The Manor House".

Giles must have sensed, from my dropped jaw and open mouth,  that I was somewhat taken aback. My mind was working on over drive.

Archibald Hardcastle – that cannot be right I thought.

Surely it can't be Archie from the sea wall.........can it?


The Baskerville Arms

To be continued..........

I realise that it is some time since a comment in this thread was last posted. My posting was back in February... However, perhaps I may be permitted to have a second bite of this particular cherry, after a lapse of some six months; maybe these three choices could be called my "second division"? My apologies to all those who think that I'm stretching too far the "minimal list" concept...

Locomotives - ex-GWR 2251 0-6-0 Collett goods: I know that Peco killed theirs but that was more than 15 years ago, and it's such a useful mixed-traffic loco for both mainline and branch use.

Passenger Coaches - ex-GWR pre-1935 Collett gangwayed stock, having a door to every passenger compartment. Very many of these coaches lasted well into the 1960s, well into the diesel-hydraulic era. If a range was under consideration, I'd suggest BTK/BSK, CK, TK/SK, and BCK, as a minimum to form basic passenger rakes..

Goods/non-passenger stock - ex-GWR/BR inside framed Siphon G. The (very occasionally available) Dapol example is a pre-1925 gas-lit vehicle. If anyone thinks that my inclusion of  an NPCCS example is inappropriate for the Goods category, may I instead suggest the INSIXFISH van, 80 of which were built at Swindon at the time of Nationalisation?

This has proved to be a very interesting thread, as it does reveal how very diverse are the tastes of N-Gauge modellers - one may not agree with many of these deep-felt wants, but it does show how much the manufacturers still have to do to satisfy their client base - even with our more "main-stream" wishes!

It was a lot of ballasting for sure. 24 lanes full length of two 1.2 m boards, plus the extra for the points. And a lot of dropper wires and point motors and frog wires. It's like spaghetti underneath

It is! Maybe having it out in the open could be good!

Strewth!!
That's one helluva fiddle yard 

I've over 700 items of rolling stock so dragging them all up and down depending on temperature is a no go. Had no issues with track, all laid with 0.5mm gap between lengths last summer nothing has moved despite -8 to +50.
One day I will get the wiring finished and start running stock at last

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/160/5079-120726094526-1607962474.jpeg

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/gallery/160/5079-120726094522-160795837.jpeg

I don't see anything bizarre about it at all, but we'll leave it at that.

You either experience them or you don't. I'm not sure you can say they're exaggerated, people are literally posting photos of the damage which has resulted from temperature related expansion. Bizarre comment.

I agree with post #1 above.

Here in Australia my layout in the garage experiences large temperature differences, but the effects on the layout are minimal. Keeping track clean is the biggest problem out there.

As @PLD says, I think expansion problems are exaggerated.

It is my unscientific observation that Farish diesel loco gears tend to split more if the layout room is hot. I used to have a lot of problems in NZ summers when my layout was in a shed in the garden.
A lot fewer since we moved house and the layout moved into a room in the house, double glazed and well insulated.