The Vicarage Lawn Railway

For many years had the enormous privilage of being a regular operator of one of this country's most famous model railways - Peter Denny's Buckingham Great Central. It's a model that has been well documented over the years, and one day I may well add my own recollections on this blog.. but not just yet.

On warm summer evenings we would sometimes forego the pleasure of operating Buckingham and retire to the vicarage garden to run Peter's other railway – the TVLR. At different times in its history the letters stood for The Tamar Valley Light Railway and The Trepolpen Valley Light Railway, but to us it was always The Vicarage Lawn Railway!

The TVLR made its first appearance in the Railway Modeller in 1956, when Peter's wife Sylvia graced the front cover.  I tell myself that it must have been a 'staged' photo, as Sylvia always seemed much happier sustaining us with tea and Kit-Kats than operating either railway. 

When I first saw the TVLR, it was in its second incarnation, in the back garden of Peter's Cornish vicarage.

Here are a couple of photos of that railway, taken by dear old Ron Doyle.

Shrubbriness Station

Peter eventually retired and moved to a new home in Truro, where it didn't take him long to recreate the TVLR.  A couple of days ago, whilst thumbing through an old photo album, I came upon these photos of "TVLR Mark 3", taken on a gloriously sunny afternoon in about 1986. 

 

My dad is nearest the camera, in his wheelchair, with Peter to his right. 

Peter at work, probably coupling No.4 to its train. The disc signals rotated; danger when the disc faced the train, edge-on when it was clear to proceed.

Clockword-powered No.4 waits at Lawnton Station platform.  Notice the levers behind the buffer stop - black for turnouts and red for signals. They all worked faultlessly.

Loco No.7 leaves Lawnton with a goods train.  This loco, the largest on the line, was powered by a rechargable battery, hidden in the tender. 

The great man himself, surveying his handiwork. Happy memories!

 

The Kent and East Sussex Railway

 This article was first posted in September 2014

Holman F Stephens runs round her (his?) train at Tenterden 
for the next trip to Bodiam

No holiday would be complete without at least one visit to a preserved railway. So guided by my sometimes trusty satnav, I pointed Bluebell (our Peugeot 105) in the direction of the Kent & East Sussex Railway at Tenterden, there to meet up with Julliette.

Isn't blogging wonderful?  Julliette first contacted me through the medium of this blog and now we're good friends.

For railways buffs, the K&ESR holds a special fascination as it was once one part of Colonel Stephens' group of railways - a quaint collection of moribund lines that included the aptly named Weston, Clevedon & Portishead – the WC & P! Each was run with the utmost economy, and most drew to themselves an amazing collection of motive power that other self-respecting railways were happy to see the back of.  All of which, of course, added greatly to the fascination of these lines.

The preservation society has done a wonderful job at bringing the K&ESR back to life, and they are currently pressing on with plans to extend their line to its original junction with the 'main' line at Robertsbridge. Consequently, Colonel Stephens' old railway is now busier than it has ever been. To cater for the burgeoning traffic, locomotives and coaches have been amassed, platforms extended and passing loops installed. Inevitably, some of the old line's bucolic charm has been lost in the process, but I doubt that anyone's complaining.

After a hastily devoured lunch, Julliette and I boarded a steam train for the trip to Bodiam and back, hauled (most appropriately) by tank engine No.23, Holman F Stephens.  Julliette has a special fascination for ancient goods wagons, leaping out onto the platform when she spied a particularly interesting specimen, whilst I contributed to the conversation with vaguely intelligent comments on the signalling.

Finally, Julliette snapped this up-to-date version of the classic "Big Engine / Little Person" poster. Ok, the engine's not so big and the small person is rather large, but it was a fitting end to a wonderful day.