Kris Mcalpine has spent some time at Almondell videoing our activities with a view to putting together a documentary about Model Engineering. Kris has kindly made available another of the sequences which will eventually be edited into the finished programme. This time it is a birds eye view of the site & as the video Read more about Bird’s Eye View…….[…]
Sunday was forecast to be dry until late afternoon so I decided to take ‘Hyperion’ out on the recently completed Almondell circuit to stretch her wheels. Running clockwise, she was out on the track continously for nearly three hours until the fire became choked with clinker forcing a retiral. The circuit is amazing, a real Read more about Kings Cross to Peterborough……[…]
West Calder High School have been helping on the tunnel project to construct the portals. Fitting doors was the last part of the this project & their construction team was led by Jack Galloway. Made from recycled wood from our timber pile, there is still some tweaking to do and ironmongery to add plus a Read more about Tunnel Doors…..[…]
Our first open day of 2022 and the rain held off! The cloudy, cool day did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of both the members and our visitors. Kris Mcalpine was up early to record the behind the scenes work that goes into getting the railway ready for running the train service: The event was Read more about May Day Public Open Day…..[…]
The 17th April was our second drivers familiarisation day prior to our 2022 open days. The weather was warm & dry as those involved with the exercise prepared their locomotives. (click image to start slide show) Meanwhile out on the track, the rolling stock was being assembled Time Read more about Riding The Almondell Circuit[…]
A High Precision Sundial – by Peter Rigby Introduction Prior to the development of the railways, different regions of the country kept their own local time, often different from Greenwich Mean Time. Although GMT had been established as early as 1675 for astronomical and navigation purposes, there was little incentive for this to be adopted Read more about A new Design for a Heliochronometer….[…]
Young Adam joined his grandfather on a visit and gave the site the once over. It has been two years since his last inspection so there was a lot to see! Light refresments before we set off…. ‘Will Peter bring the the ‘Scamp’ back for me Grandad?’ Two ‘scamps’ together! ‘This is cool!’ Wow, a Read more about Junior Inspection…..[…]
Thursday 14th April was a day to enter in the diary as it marked the completion of the Almondell circuit by Peter’s track gang. Peter, Steve, George & Archie had been labouring away for many months in all weathers to build the track panels & then lay & ballast them in perfect formation. Our Roving Read more about Squaring the Circuit….?[…]
They really do….! Member Roger Speirs asks ‘When you’ve stopped groaning, just consider this…. On miniature railway vehicles we need brakes and while steam engines usually have pretty adequate brakes of their own and lots of weight there is something satisfying about piping up to carriages and having a fitted train that will stop dead Read more about Vacuum brakes suck….![…]
Since our last open day in 2021 a lot of maintenance and development work has been ongoing to the infrastructure, rolling stock & members locomotives. Before we embarked on 2022’s events season it was felt that familiarisation days for members would be good idea to check out locomotives, rolling stock, electronic points, signalling and the Read more about Familiarisation Day……[…]
