Wagon News & More Santa's Special preparation

The carriage and wagon department have now painted up the bright yellow car transporter wagon into a very smart black livery and now looks much more presentable. Some time in the future the wagon will receive lettering.

We have also weathered two other flat wagons.
Together these three wagons make up a very nice little train.
The railway has been making yet more preparations for the Santa's Specials by purchasing a set of coloured Christmas lights to hang up around Sprowston Station

FRENCH STEAM LOCOMOTIVE FOR S&NLR THIS CHRISTMAS!

Over Christmas the railway will take delivery of a brand new steam locomotive,

This is a 0-6-0T and is in red livery and named Cambrai. The loco is currently in storage in South Wales.

After arriving and the testing is complete on Christmas day the loco will haul a special charter for rail enthusiasts and photographers on Boxing Day. And will then haul the Mince Pie Specials from 26 December 2007 - 1 January 2008

A special thanks must go to the Wetton Gooey Light Railway for supplying us with a selection of photos of their new Cambrai.

http://www.gscalemad.co.uk/wetton_gooey_railway.htm

On Sunday 4 November the yard staff had a tidy up of the yard including moving the coal pile to behind the water tower. The picture below shows Jeff with his new van helping out.
The railway is already preparing for the Santa's Special trains that starts on 1 December. This year will be the first time the Santa trains will have seven carriages - sets A, B this means that some locos will need to double head so we have been finding out with locos will be chosen to haul the trains the locos will be Sooty + Sue (double heading) and Harry will be on standby.

The picture below shows Sooty and Sue on one of their test runs.

Autumn Running Session

On 28th October we had a Autumn Running session, owners of theFundenhall Railway and part owners of the Raglen Hall Joint Railway visited along with stock and locos, including a Union Pacific Challenger, and a London Transport 0-4-0T. We also had another Stainz cavalcade though this time with 5 Stainz's.

First train of the day
The Challenger at Weybourne after arriving on the S&NLR
The Stainz cavalcade on its way to Weybourne

London Transport 0-4-0T passing ST George's Church

New Locomotive

During the summer we found that we were much in need of a more poweful diesel locomotive.
Last week a chance to buy a powerful diesel came up on Dragon G Scale. We used the chance abd bought the locomotive. It arrived this morning and this afternoon underwent tests (well you need a excuse to run trains don't you?)
Features include: directional lighting + cab lighting, opening cab doors, six powered wheels + a traction tyre. It is also fitted with MTS so i can run it on digital raiways

We have named the locomotive Harry and is seen here just after it arrived at Sprowston Central for the first time.

Tipper restoration

For a while our single tipper built by LGB has been in storage, the body taken off the chassis and stored in open air in our Yard were the PW team used it to store spare ballast, while the chassis shunted to the end of the bay platform at Sprowston again stored in open air. Both in need of a clean and repaint. Over time the condition had deteriorated, the chassis worse hit mainly by the rain.
The shed staff recently had time to start thinking about restoring the tipper and last month started to carry our the restoration work. The body has been painted out of the faded red livery, and into a much smarter dark grey. While the chassis has been cleaned up. All that remains to do now is the clean up the axles, which had jammed the wheels when we first went to move it into the yard.

Open Day

Our open day was very successful with pleanty of visiting locomotives, the very first tram also ran on the railway. One of the hight lights of the day was the triple header of LGB Stainz's (with our own leading) and some night running.

A visit to The Fundenhall Railway

On Sunday 5th August we visited the Fundenhall Railway, which has recently been extended to run through a small section of Woodland Our Stainz (Sue), Millie, and U 43 (George Charles) visited along with our new carriages.

Other visiting locos attended including a Challanger from the Raglen Hall Joint Railway.

New Passanger Carriages

On Wednesday 1 August the railway took delivery of three new passenger carriages.

These are Pennsylvania sierra carriages, and consists of:

• Combine



• Coach



• Observation

These run superbly but are very heavy so some of our locos will have to be assisted by our small diesel shunter.

The features on these are:

• Metal Wheels



• Working lights/including marker lights on the Observation Car



• opening doors



• Fantastic (but delicate detailing)

Ballasting

On Sunday we spent most of the day laying ballast around the railway, this has made a big improvement on how the railway looks.

We also have three carriages being shipped over from America these should arrive in a couple of weeks if not next week.

And on the first Sunday of August we will be visiting the Fundenhall railway.

Station Building

Sprowston Station building now have working lights as well as railway advertising posters.

welcome to the blog of the Sprowston & Norwich Light Railway

Welcome to the blog for the Sprwoston & Norwich Light Railway. Here we will post news on the railway as it happens.

We are a G Scale Garden railway in sunny ( well its raining here at the mo like everywhere else in the UK)Norfolk (England). All our locos are American and European in the future we hope to get some British rolling stock to.